United Solo Theatre Festival’s new spring festival comes to Theatre Row from March 7 through March 26, 2023. The spring season offers over three dozen shows in the genres of comedy, tragedy, performance art, dance, music, storytelling, puppetry, cabaret and multimedia. Featuring artists from all over the U.S. and other countries including Canada, Mexico, Germany, Israel, Iran, South Africa and South Korea, the spring festival will debut 18 world premieres, 11 New York City premieres and four U.S. premieres. The rich variety of stories touch on themes of addiction, family sagas, current events, historical figures and more.
The season offerings this spring include a lineup of new talents as well as well-accomplished solo performers. Mitchell Anderson, celebrity chef from Atlanta and Emmy nominee for For After Forever (Amazon Prime) appears in You Better Call Your Mother. The team of writer Gil Kofman (McDowell Fellow and Feature Award winner, Edmonton International Film Festival for his film The Memory Thief), director Richard Caliban (Obie and Outer Critics Circle Award winner), and actor Jodie Markell (Obie Award-winning actor and director) present the world premiere of Leni’s Last Lament. Poet Karen Eilbacher, GLADD Media award winner, and actor from the national tour of Fun Home, introduces the show t)re(equilt. Tom Shillue, actor, writer and comedian known for his appearances on The Daily Show, Comedy Central, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and Fox News presents Spontaneous Combustion. Dahéli Hall, best known from MADtv and a finalist in the HBO short films awards, brings her show Spadura to the festival. Dikelo Mamiala’s cabaret performance Next!!! Auditions are not for the Faint of Heart raises “questions of identity, belonging and opportunity in an industry dominated by white performers.” Tales of A Blerd Ballerina, by Valoneecia Tolbert is a choreopoem centered on the Blerd (Black Nerd) superhero that weaves concepts from the Afro-Diaspora and style of Jazz Aesthetics into stories of growing up as a Blerd child of the 90s. Maria Kemp presents The World is a Carnivorous Plant (winner of Best Play, Best Director and Best Actress at the 4th Cairo International Monodrama Days Festival, Egypt) a self-fictional solo told through body percussion, tap and Mexican sign language.
