By It was from Robert Fleming, a gay Black man who is executive artistic director of Actors Theatre in . Some have come to see it. The stage and screen favorite stars in and directs an adaptation of T.S. Andrew Gans Abigail Bengson and Shaun Bengson Emilio Madrid-Kuser "In our new work, the idea is that loss is the mechanism by which God comes close," says Abigail Bengson. 'Is It Possible To Tell the Truth Kindly?' - WRAL.com styleElement.type = 'text/css'; The one-day-only event, starring Olivier nominees Rachel Tucker and Rachel John, played the West End October 11 following a digital production earlier this summer. Review: MY JOY IS HEAVY! by The Bengsons from Arena Stage By March 20, 2021 Shaun and Abigail Bengson met in New York City at a party and after talking, decided to start a band together. The new Broadway play cancelled its opening night December 20 due to a case of COVID-19 within the company. Use this COVID-19 protocols checklist before heading | The one-day-only event, starring Olivier nominees Rachel Tucker and Rachel John, arrives to the West End October 11 following a digital production earlier this summer. | At least at the start, they also nursed the nave wish to repair what had been broken in Ms. Bengsons adolescence to Parent Trap the family, as Mr. Bengson put it. July 8, 2021. Ryan McPhee Ms. Bengson is sure of her right to tell such a story onstage because it is a fundamental trauma of her past, overlapping though it does with other peoples pain and struggles. Hundred Days now takes place entirely in New York City (mostly in Astoria, Queens), with lots of internal detours into the twisty corridors of each partners mind. Andrew Gans A look at an Equity-approved musical, an immersive experiment, and an amateur teen show. By So it was no surprise when Arena Stage reached out to the Bengsons to take part in the theaters three part-commissioned music series, Arena Riffs. Ryan McPhee Website by, The Bengsons create new indie-folk musical for Arena Stage, A global community celebrates Passover with The Third Seder concert on Sunday, Washington Stage Guild revives Shaws Devils Disciple with simplicity and skill, Getting to know Elizabeth Dinkova: I like creating a brave space, When I like a play, I get obsessed: Karin Rosnizeck on The Body of a Woman as a Battlefield, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky remains sharply poignant, Calendar: Play Readings, Workshops, and Theater Events in the DMV, Rorschach Theatre announces free staged readings of three new plays, Keegans Boiler Room Series announces seven new play workshops, 2023 Womens Storytelling Festival to feature 27 performers, Brett Widmann, Chicago WordPress Developer. Care about whats happening in Bay Area arts? Though initially charming, Hundred Days goes off course during its second half. The musical, starring Caroline Bowman and Caroline Innerbichler, plays Sheas Buffalo Theatre through September 24. For tickets and information visit zspace.org. Ill eat those eggs. This. The Broken Ear Setlist: Songs from Ohio features performances by artists including Barrie Lobo McLain, Vuyo Sotashe, and Allan K. Washington. programming. 2020 Jonathan Larson Grant recipients Abigail and Shaun Bengson share what this grant means to them in a virtual acceptance speech. | We made the whole piece on our cell phones, filming each other and things that were going on.. That doesnt mean Broadway productions will reopen this monthbut they do have the state government go-ahead now. 'Hundred Days' - the anatomy of a rock opera - SFGATE if (styleElement.styleSheet) { Ryan McPhee Were interested in seeing if we can look at that loss as an opportunity to see the divinity in one another.. October 8, 2020. window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'AW-10891449219'); | Andrew Gans Hello friends!Here's our official Tiny Desk Contest 2020 submission!THE BENGSONSAbigail and Shaun Bengson are a married composing and performing duo who have. | | He seems gentle, diffident but steely underneath, while theres a sparkle to her, and a healthy dash of punk spicing her earth-mother serenity. July 27, 2021. OHIO, Part of the Storytelling (r)Evolution Lab At the same time, though, there's not a clunker in the whole set. The long-running favorite returns to the Orpheum Theatre. January 2, 2022. Terence Wilton and Max Hutchinson Will Star in West End Return of, Jesse Williams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, More Confirmed to Return to Broadway's, Broadway Shows Will Require COVID-19 Vaccines for Employees Under Actors Equity Agreement, Ali Stroker, Larry Owens, More Among Little Islands NYC Free Festival Headliners, Tony Awards, Sidelined by the Pandemic, Sets September Date for 4-Hour Celebration, New York to Lift Capacity Restrictions on Broadway and More Beginning May 19, SBA's Grant Program for Shuttered Venues Operators Delays Application Process. In 2017, the couples Off-Broadway theatrical concert, Hundred Days, toured across the U.S. and was a big hit. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Certainly there are heartbreaking moments in the play, but the overwhelming experience of Hundred Days is one of joy. All rights reserved, US Readies Second Attempt at Speedy Border Asylum Screenings, Man, 20s, Dies of Heat Exhaustion on El Capitan Trail in Lakeside, New Rules for Short-Term Vacation Rentals in San Diego Start May 1. Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum (5/08-5/08), Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum (5/14-5/14), Riverside Center for the Performing Arts (3/15-5/07), Review: THE BODY OF A WOMAN AS A BATTLEFIELD at ExPats Theatre. The personable and talented married singer-songwriter couple, Shaun and Abigail Bengson explore their lives in this uneven concert musical. paragraph.style.width = '0px'; Louie, their blond-ringleted toddler, is a year and a half old, and Ms. Bengson throws up her hands at the challenge of not swearing in front of him. And the sound of Ms. Bengson wailing like a banshee as she considers the mangling trap that is love will echo in your ears for days to come. The cast of Hundred Days was made up of Colette Alexander, Abigail Bengson, Shaun Bengson, Jo Lampert, Dani Markham, and Reggie D. White. I wouldn't want to forget a moment of it. Dan Meyer "So at the time, we started writing music as a way to process those feelings and get closer and move through all the fear.". A cross-country road trip that occupied the shows center 11 months ago has been jettisoned. wait for it. And Ms. Bengson, in particular, finds herself opening baggage from her past that would seem to make happiness with someone else impossible. and AARP the Magazine. But she thinks of Eden now as a place you have to outgrow, accepting the complexity of life and the presence of darkness without fixating on the darkness. La Jolla Playhouse has announced the presentation of Sovereignty Hymns, a commissioned work that features a video series of original songs exploring questions about reproductive liberty. In reality, though, the person in her clan who killed someone was not a blood relative but rather a person she had been raised to consider an older sibling someone she loved and admired, who wrote strange and beautiful music, who claimed to hear voices and did as they instructed. 100 Days created by Abigail and Shaun Bengson with collaborators Anne Kauffman and Sarah Gancher will be at The Public Theater in a limited engagement until Sunday January 15. Even days afterward, having heard the songs only once, I get a surge of visceral pleasure every time one of them runs through my head. | Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Anns created the Urban Canvas public art platform on their facade, presented a series of pop-up concerts, and streamed a number of international works. So by bringing viewers into their homewarts and allthey will see the dirty dishes in the background as the Bengsons sing and dance together, providing that real intimacy. The result is a raw and personal expression, wrapped in splendid music and honesty. Abigail said in a phone interview. Shaun said that the material they had been working on all got scrapped once the protests started they started to re-approach the entire project. Structured as a live concert, with bits of storytelling woven in (the songs are by Abigail Nessen-Bengson and Shaun Bengson, who write and perform under the name The Bengsons, and the book by the . })(); Abigail and Shaun Bengson are a married composing and performing duo based in NYC and VT who have performed across the country and around the world. Shaun Bengson, 34, cracked up at this, seated beside her in the apartment in Alphabet City where they stayed through early previews, to be close to the theater. // Get the

element with the my-paragraph class September 13, 2021. Melissa Kaitlyn Carter is a cheery presence as Sarah's best friend Caroline, and Dalene Mason is mournfully somber as Will's forbiddingly distant father. September 22, 2020. Sometimes there are wounds so deep that they never all the way heal, he said. Abigail and Shaun Bengson performing in "My Joy Is Heavy!" (Arena Stage) Gift Article It feels something like a privilege to be given access to the melodic intimacies of "My Joy Is Heavy!," a. Either way, the closest Ms. Bengson has felt to how she did before her family cracked apart is with the artistic family behind The Lucky Ones, a show that allows her to spend time again in her childhood Eden, if only in her imagination. The Off-Broadway production will now play until June 5. Such considerations are usually private matters. July 20, 2021. August 11, 2021. As we enter the second year of pandemic, theater companies have largely shifted from live performance spaces to film and video producers. | Our memoir pieces need to reflect whats going on in our own hearts and bodies as we process the world, Abigail said. A while later, this cameo struck Ms. Bengson as curious. would be just as splendid live, but the ability to capture its creation in real time where it happened amid moving music that seems to pour forth simultaneously adds a much deeper impact. Ryan McPhee By Ms. Bengson says that she and her husband are both profoundly introverted, but you wouldnt know it from talking with them. This is a true story, Shaun Bengson tells the audience from the stage of the Connelly Theater in the East Village. A few performances deeper into previews, after they had moved back home to Queens, Ms. Bengson sat at their blond-wood kitchen table, a plastic bag of old cassette tapes in front of her. November 9, 2020. We and our partners share information on your use of this website to help improve your experience. sleeknoteScriptTag.src = ('//sleeknotecustomerscripts.sleeknote.com/47716.js'); Working in the first few months of the pandemic at Shaun's parent's home in Dayton, Ohio, they mustered as much uplift as they could for "The Keep Going Song," a show presented (virtually, of course) through the Actors Theater of Louisville. // Add the style element to the head of the document Shaun Bengson, left, and Abigail Bengson in Hundred Days at the New York Theater Workshop, a musical that charts the couples up-down-and-up-again relationship. What Are Theatremakers Doing to Present Safe Productions? In her own family, opinion about the existence of the show is divided some of those depicted vehemently in favor, some opposed. Yet she is terrified of compounding. Leah Putnam // Create a new style element Logan Culwell-Block | | Other "Arena Riffs" are "The Freewheeling Insurgents" by Psalmayene 'Psalm" 24, which begins March 31 at 7 p.m. and "A More Perfect Union" by Rona Siddiqui April 14 at 7 p.m. Information can be found here. March 16, 2022, By By The Daniel Craig-led production is back after cases of COVID within the company put a pause on performances. The front-line team has provided COVID compliance safety for 1.8 million audience members seeing more than 30 shows on Broadway and beyond. In the new show, an extended family runs a school together, raising their children Abigail, her sisters and their cousins in a kind of hippie idyll. And I can't imagine wanting it any other way. Running time: Twenty-seven minutes, followed by a 15 minute discussion between The Bengsons and Molly Smith. Just last night, the American Theatre Wing presented the 66th Obie Awards, celebrating and honoring Off- and Off-Off-Broadway. This is the person, no longer institutionalized, whose life Ms. Bengson is most fearful of harming with The Lucky Ones, an ensemble piece in which a cascade of events results in the dissolution of her family, including her parents marriage. Their theater work includes Hundred Days (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Know Theater, Z Space, US Tour), The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Sundown, Yellow Moon (Ars Nova/WP), Anything That Gives Off Light (Edinburgh Theatre Festival, US Tour), Youll Still Call Me By Name (New York Live Arts, Jacob's Pillow). Natan Zamansky Hello friends!Here's our official Tiny Desk Contest 2020 submission!THE BENGSONSAbigail and Shaun Bengson are a married composing and performing duo who have performed across the country and around the world. Copyright 2023 DC Theater Arts. So Will and Sarah decide to shut themselves away from the world and live their last 100 days together as if they were 60 years, celebrating all the birthdays and anniversaries and other cherished memories they would have if they grew old together. Michael R. Jackson, John Gallagher, Jr. & More to be Featured in Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 Concert Series, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tina Fey & More to Celebrate Ars Nova 20th Anniversary at NOVA BALL, Photos: On the Red Carpet for the 66th Annual Obie Awards, Photos: Go Inside Opening Night of WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE SEA at Manhattan Theatre Club, Photos: First Look at WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE SEA at Manhattan Theatre Club, Photo Coverage: The Public Theater Celebrates Launch of 13th Annual UNDER THE RADAR. Kauffman's staging makes full use of Z Space's cavernous performance space at Project Artaud, with the band and the world retreating behind a slowly lowering warehouse door. To their amusingly and typically chaotic pandemic era home - with instruments, toys, food, books and art strewn all about - they quietly deal with chronic pain (hers) and depression (his). We never hear about any war going on, and Christine Crook's costumes aren't noticeably informed by that period. to the theatre so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. document.head.appendChild(styleElement); As you may gather from the fact that they are now married and performing together, the Bengsons got over their crisis of faith long enough to commit to a relationship that, life being what it is, will never be a sure thing. The 74th annual ceremony will air in two parts across Paramount+ and CBS. | He ha (read more about this author). This special evening with the award-winning singer/songwriter couple begins at 6 pm on Saturday, July 30 (rain date July 31 at 6 pm), and features a live ASL interpreter. Eleven years ago, Abigail and Shaun Bengson met. The stage managers are Amanda Spooner and Christopher Kee Anaya-Gorman. We wanted to make it really intimate and trying not to replicate the experience of being in a theater with us, but figuring out what would be most enjoyable over this medium.. Over the past few weeks, the folk-rock/theatre-making duo and a team of collaborators have been experimenting at the Brooklyn venue on the development of their new work. La Jolla Playhouse announces the cast and creative team for Hundred Days, book by The Bengsons and Sarah Gancher, music and lyrics by The Bengsons, directed by Anne Kauffman, with movement direction by Sonya Tayeh. By The musical, starring Katrina Lenk and Patti LuPone, was originally slated to open March 22, 2020composer Stephen Sondheims 90th birthday. The Bengsons. You join them in an absolutely stunning ride that careens into life themes at every turn. Review: Waltzing With Love and Death in 'Hundred Days' - New York Times So, youre welcome, Louie., The Bengsons married 10 years ago, three weeks after their first date. Theyre people with a lot of pain and a lot of damage, she said, but also a lot of strength and a lot of magic., They are also so intertwined, personally and professionally, that they share a bio in the program for The Lucky Ones., Is that gross? Ms. Bengson asked recently, in the tone of someone checking to make sure she doesnt have lipstick on her teeth. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! | By Andrew Gans Sonya Tayeh, currently Tony-nominated for Moulin Rouge!, serves as movement director. March 3, 2022, By The story, which is reminiscent of the more fully-realized Broadway musical, "Once," unfolds through short dialogues that are alternately pithy, poignant and playful. | By | Manhattan Theatre Club has announced full casting and performance dates for Where the Mountain Meets the Sea, written by AUDELCO Award nominee Jeff Augustin (The New Englanders, The Morning Show) and directed by Princess Grace Award winner Joshua Kahan Brody, with music by The Bengsons (Hundred Days, The Lucky Ones). They have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rogers Award and nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucile Lortel awards. That changed a few times as our lives changed, as she ran with us as things kept evolving.. Hundred Days, the luminous musical memoir by the Bengsons and Sarah Gancher, is an everyday horror story with a very provisional happy ending like so many chapters of human existence. This year has really been about connection, and we have connected to people all over the world in a very real and humbling way.. And with those words, Mr. Bengson and his wife, Abigail the other half of the folk-rock duo the Bengsons, the indie-theater darlings who created the show for Ars Nova attempt to draw a cloak of privacy around themselves and the people they love. By // Define the CSS rule for the .my-paragraph class Im like, here I am, sending tapes to them, 20 years later.. Shaun's contributions include a deft melodic touch, technological prowess and musical ear that allows the inclusion of drums, guitar, accordion, and all manner of other instruments as well as. By Abigail Bengson has appeared on HBO's High Maintenance and also toured as a member of tUnE-yArDs, including an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.instagram: @thebengsonswww.bengsons.com We filmed it at my moms, in the house I grew up in, which is where we have been staying for the past six months, Abigail said. Writing music together has been a profound way that we learn about each other, and what we think about the world, and how we think about ourselves. const styleElement = document.createElement('style'); Anyone can read what you share. Her older sibling, so-called, would respond with feedback on her craftsmanship that helped to shape her as an artist. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/theater/bengsons-the-lucky-ones-ars-nova.html, Abigail and Shaun Bengson, a married pair of singer-songwriters whove turned their personal stories into theater, most recently in The Lucky Ones.. Logan Culwell-Block The Bengsons display the pleasures, joys and the emotional tolls of the events of the past year and how they managed to cultivate and hold onto happiness even during these dark, difficult times. | Abigail & Shaun Bengson (@thebengsons) - Instagram Primarily for ethical reasons, Ms. Bengson said, they did not contact relatives of the person who was killed. When I had a miscarriage, that shaped what we were going through, and this became a healing practice for us to make this together..