Opening night on Monday will mean the end of Mr. Friedman’s mad dashes to the C train to juggle rehearsals; 11 days later, “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play” begins previews at Playwrights Horizons. It is Mr. Friedman’s eighth collaboration with the Civilians, each of them directed (and in many cases created) by Steve Cosson. This piece, written by Anne Washburn, brings a macabre twist to the real-world interviews that have been a crucial component of Civilians pieces like “Gone Missing” and “In the Footprint.”Here, people’s hazy post-apocalyptic memories of one episode of “The Simpsons” yield the last surviving piece of culture, which morphs by the late-21st century into a surreal, pop-music-infused pageant."

3. THE ABOMINABLES (8M, 5W,
YOUTH ENSEMBLE)
Set in the high-stakes world of Minnesota suburban
youth hockey, the Munson family revolves around their
hockey-playing oldest son Mitch, now 12 (even though
there are two other siblings, Tracy who also plays
hockey, and youngest Lily). Mitch has always played in
the top tier and he must keep his place on the A Team
in this ever-so-critical last year of youth hockey if he’s
to have any chance of advancing in high school and
beyond. Mitch’s life is ruined,

4. the A Team in this ever-so-critical last year of youth hockey if he’s to have any chance of
advancing in high school and beyond. Mitch’s life is ruined, however, when a new kid, who
happens to be an exceptional player, beats him in tryouts. The new kid, Harry, also happens to
be a yeti, adopted by his exceptionally adventurous and high-achieving mountain climber
parents, Hank and Judy. Over the course of hockey season, Harry leads the Prairie Lakes
Blizzards to greatness, possibly even to a victory against the undefeatable youth hockey team
of Thunder Bay in Canada. Mitch, meanwhile, embarks on a mission to expel Harry from Prairie
Lakes, leading to increasingly desperate measures that ultimately drag both families into a
storm of emotional chaos. Music and lyrics by Michael Friedman.

5. THE UNDERTAKING (1M, 1W)
In this meta-theatrical work of investigative theater, writer/director Steve Cosson
(played by an actor) is interviewing subjects for a new piece about the big question—
how do we live with the uncomfortable fact that we already know the end of our story:
we die. The play begins with Steve interviewing his friend Lydia, a Colombian/New
Yorker artist. He wants Lydia to talk about how she successfully transcended all her
death anxieties after a particularly intense ayahuasca ritual (aka ‘the vine of death’ a
powerful South American hallucinogen used in traditional shamanic practices). Lydia,
however, refuses to let Steve be a passive interviewer. As the night progresses and the
alcohol flows, their dialogue evolves into a goofy, improvised “journey to the
underworld.” As Lydia takes on the job of being Steve’s “psychopomp,” meaning a
guide to the other side, they both play many of Steve’s interviews—a philosopher, a
hospice nurse, an Iraq war vet, a cancer patient undergoing psilocybin therapy—
eventually getting to the point where together they touch down into an intense
undercurrent of existential terror.
For script and licensing here:

6. RIMBAUD IN
NEW YORK (3-
4M, 3W)
He smoked a clay pipe, stole books, wrote hymns to
bodily orifices, and, by the age of 21, had changed the
face of literature forever. But then Arthur Rimbaud
disappeared. In this prismatic collage of song and
story, a company of actors use music-theater to
consider the life and lasting influence of modernism’s
most elusive enfant terrible on the New York scenes
of art, music and rock and roll. Staged musical
renditions of original texts—John

9. THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY (3M, 3W)
THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY was created from the
company’s immersion in the Evangelical Christian
world of Colorado Springs, the de facto capital of
the conservative Christian movement in the U.S.
As the story begins, two competing same-sex
union campaigns are heating up in Colorado. The
battle over gay marriage leads to some explosive
and unexpected consequences, the most
significant being the outing of New Life Church
pastor Ted Haggard as a

10. long-time client of a male prostitute in Denver. Already working within New
Life, the company has exceptional access to the staff and congregation of this
mega-church at the center of a national scandal. From this insider’s vantage
point, the company tracks a seismic period in the Evangelical capital from the
moment of revelation to the literal banishment of Ted Haggard from the state
of Colorado. Co-written with Jim Lewis from interviews by Emily Ackerman,
Marsha Stephanie Blake, Brad Heberlee, Stephen Plunkett and Alison Weller.
Music and lyrics by Michael Friedman.
For script and licensing here

11. IN
THE
FOO
TPRI
NT (3
M,
3W)
IN THE FOOTPRINT tells the story of the community battles surrounding
Brooklyn's largest and most controversial development project in its history.
The Atlantic Yards is a massive project of high rises and the Barclays Arena
built by a private developer with generous tax subsidies, minimal government

12. Script and Licensing
Information can be
found here

13. and the use of eminent domain to eliminate a long-
standing neighborhood. Made from verbatim interviews,
IN THE FOOTPRINT is an epic tale
captures all the passion, struggles and pitfalls of what
happens when ordinary people band together to fight
massive power and money. Music and lyrics by
Michael Friedman, written with dramaturg Jocelyn Clarke
and interviews from the company.

14. In 1871, working class
Parisians overthrew the
French government,
declared Paris
autonomous and
launched an attempt to
radically reinvent
society.

15. musical play,The
Civilians brings this
explosive event to life.
PARIS COMMUNE
employs a bold theatrical
form to tell the story of
this first socialist
revolution in Europe

17. The play uses found texts
and original songs from the
time-period to tell the story
of this extraordinary event
in which the Parisian
community radically
reimagined its entire
society.
The Commune lasts only a
short period until it is
violently crushed by the
French army, but these
brief days of the
Commune set the mold
for the radical, popular
uprising, and
foreshadowed the many
social upheavals of the
modern age.

19. many of them written by Jean-Baptiste
Clément and Eugene Pottier, both of
whom were members of the elected
Council of the Commune.

21. (I AM) NOBODY’S
LUNCH (3M, 3W OR
MORE)

22. (I AM) NOBODY’S
LUNCH is a dark ride
through the post-Iraq
invasion/Bush junior
era of American
public culture, a time
of when consensus
reality frayed and the
time of “truthiness”
began. In the form of
a paranoid cabaret,
this company-devised
show asks the thorny
question — how do
we know what we
know when everyone
in power seems to be
lying?
Is it possible to
know what's
really going on
in the world
when all
information is
manipulated to
serve particular
interests?
To make the
show, the
company
conducted
extensive
interviews with
subjects ranging
from a
policymaker at
Homeland
Security on the
verge of a
nervous
breakdown to a
plucky
extraterrestria

24. https://www.stevecosson.com/plays
Website Link