For the first time since the pandemic shutdown, Actors' Theatre in Grand Rapids, Michigan is returning to its home stage at Spectrum Theater on the Grand Rapids Community College campus. April 9, 2021. The stage performers' union will not re-open their audition centers, but is allowing employers to host their own in-person calls. Andrew Gans October 20, 2020. 43K Followers, 2,442 Following, 548 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Abigail & Shaun Bengson (@thebengsons) Three of their singles have been featured on So You Think You Can Dance (FOX). includes seven songs, with each functioning in a different way. 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. The Bengsons | Actors Theatre Abigail Bengson says that she. 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. We made the whole piece on our cell phones, filming each other and things that were going on.. sleeknoteScriptTag.type = 'text/javascript'; A cross-country road trip that occupied the shows center 11 months ago has been jettisoned. By Ms. Bengson says that she and her husband are both profoundly introverted, but you wouldnt know it from talking with them. | By My Joy Is Heavy! June 24, 2021, By He became a music teacher in NYC. The previously announced Boy Falls from the Sky, Room, and more have new dates. Abigail & Shaun Bengson (@thebengsons) - Instagram Anyone can read what you share. Shaun is clearly a talented musician and Abigail a powerful singer, even if she does occasionally overindulge in the sort of bluesy caterwauling that even Janis Joplin would find over the top. When new work is offered, it streams online, often created by the artists themselves. This poignant 90-minute show, which opened on Monday night at the New York Theater Workshop, is a response to one ineradicable and devastating fact of life. The change in the Off-Broadway theatre's guidelines was tweeted yesterday. 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. | Dan Meyer Leah Putnam When I had a miscarriage, that shaped what we were going through, and this became a healing practice for us to make this together.. The production runs 90 minutes and has no intermission. By Im like, here I am, sending tapes to them, 20 years later.. Get a first look at photos here! Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3 will present NEXT@LCT3, a concert series of performances at the Claire Tow Theater. But those three weeks in between meeting and tying the knot, the pair told NBC 7 San Diego, was the . 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. 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. 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). Copyright 2023 DC Theater Arts. We wrote our first song together on that first night, Abigal said. And saying, 'yes the world is a terrifying place, yes we don't know how long we'll have with the ones we love, but I'm going to live anyway and I'm going to keep moving forward and let my heart be open and let my heart break as it will.'". Actors' Equity Sets Protocols For the Return of In-Person Auditions, Playwrights Horizons Drops COVID-19 Booster Requirement, Two Years After the Shutdown, Broadway is Back, Broadway Mask, Vaccination Policies to Remain in Place as New York Lifts Its Own Requirements, Broadway COVID Safety Team Celebrates 2,000 Broadway Performances, Broadway Week's 2-For-1 Ticket Deals Extend Through February 27, Audible Theater Sets Off-Broadway Return for, New York City Center Will Require Proof of COVID-19 Booster in Addition to Complete Vaccination, The Public Theater Will Require Proof of COVID-19 Vaccination and Booster, Go Inside Rehearsal for Jason Robert Browns, 2020 Tony Award Nominations Announced October 15. Know Theatre Favorite Indie-Folk Acting Duo The Bengsons Produce the Its possible that we have all been raised in a way that hurt us, Abigail says in the show. Not all the songs are like that, certainly; there's a lot of stylistic variety while maintaining a distinctive unified sound. 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. March 15, 2022, By 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. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Their video for The Keep Going Song has been viewed over 4 million times. 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. The Daniel Craig-led production is back after cases of COVID within the company put a pause on performances. Logan Culwell-Block Marc J. Franklin The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical also features Rhys Whitfield as Raoul. 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. "So at the time, we started writing music as a way to process those feelings and get closer and move through all the fear.". This is a true story, Shaun Bengson tells the audience from the stage of the Connelly Theater in the East Village. July 20, 2021. When not writing, Keith can be found playing with his daughters, Jordan and Cassidy. Wearing a black leather biker jacket over a slinky white dress, the long dark haired Ms. Bengson has an alluring presence, a powerful voice and plays drums. Dan Meyer Colette Alexander, Abigail Bengson, Shaun Bengson, Jo Lampert, Dani Markham, and Reggie D. White, By the Musical!, Tina, David Byrne's American Utopia, Stomp, Jersey Boys, and more. 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 . But those three weeks in between meeting and tying the knot, the pair told NBC 7 San Diego, was the start of something beautiful: a project that would later be titled "Hundred Days," a theatrical piece on the border between a live concert and musical experience. I dont know. At first, we were thinking about one thingliving with chronic pain and mental illness, and how that affects the ability to cultivate pleasure and joy. | "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. It's a show that forces both Abigail and Shaun to look at their life and what is terrifying them before they step on stage -- and then face it. The personable and talented married singer-songwriter couple, Shaun and Abigail Bengson explore their lives in this uneven concert musical. Their return also marks the launch of their 40th season in operation. At other times, particularly toward the end, the Bengsons fully embody the roles of Will and Sarah, bringing the whole emotional impact of their musical performance, presence and obvious chemistry into the bittersweet tale of this other, fictional couple. 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. Like Abigail, the character she plays in The Lucky Ones, Ms. Bengson grew up in an extended hippie family that revolved around a school. | var sleeknoteScriptTag = document.createElement('script'); 2020 Jonathan Larson Grant recipients Abigail and Shaun Bengson share what this grant means to them in a virtual acceptance speech. "Hundred Days" runs at La Jolla Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Forum until oct. 21, 2018. Mr. 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. Leah Putnam October 15, 2020. Hundred Days Z SPACE As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. January 2, 2022. The limited engagement of the Jason Robert Brown revue will begin in February 2021. Mr. Bengson, who exudes a defensive deadpan calm that hints at demons scrambling beneath, sums up their chronicle with the jaunty disclaimer, So here it is, the sound of introverts pining! That may not sound like much fun. Theres a line near the start of the new musical The Lucky Ones thats a deliberate hedge an explanation of the rules of the show that also leaves those rules a little murky. 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. Their first rehearsal turned into their first date, and three weeks later, they were married! 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. Reggie D. White (whose Beyonce parody video "Dunkin Love" is currently going viral) and Amy Lizardo act as stand-ins for the couple in the story, sometimes silently acting out a scene while the Bengsons voice the dialogue in song, and occasionally singing the parts themselves (and forcefully, at that). })(); 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. The Great Performances broadcast includes interviews with Adrienne Warren, Norm Lewis, Sara Bareilles, Aaron Tveit, Chita Rivera, and more. Ms. Bengson, 35, has a tale to tell about the autumn she was 15, when her family shattered and the seemingly safe Eden she grew up in was lost forever. Our website is made possible bydisplaying online advertisements to our visitors. Thats true even when you change names and details, and create what Mr. Bengson called the novel-myth version of the story. They have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rodgers Awards and nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille. Their theater work includes Sovereignty Hymns (La Jolla Playhouse), The Keep Going Song (Actors Theatre of Louisville), My Joy is Heavy (Arena Stage), Hundred Days (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, US Tour), The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (ATLs Humana Festival; Manhattan Theatre Club), Anything That Gives Off Light (Edinburgh Theatre Festival), Youll Still Call Me By Name (New York Live Arts, Jacob's Pillow), and Iphigenia in Aulis (Classic Stage Company). Some people in the family Ms. Bengson grew up in dont talk to one another anymore, but for the musical the Bengsons interviewed all of them including the older sibling, so-called, who committed the crime. Raven Brunner Eleven years ago, Abigail and Shaun Bengson met. January 10, 2022, By St. Anns Warehouse to Begin Indoor Performances With The Bengsons, Track-by-Track Breakdown: The Bengsons on Crafting Their, joins New Yorks flexible cultural spaces, JoAnn M. Hunter's Exclusive Playbill Photoshoot, See Natasha Lyonne, Larry Owens, Ronan Farrow, More Celebrate The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window Opening Night. 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. Blocking belongson the stage,not on websites. By Three of their singles have been featured on "So You Think You Can Dance" (FOX). With a full rock band, a choir of singers, dazzling sets, and breathtaking music, Hundred Days is the Bay Area's hottest world premiere of the year. | I recognize its a little codependent.. | Is it possible to tell the truth kindly? Ms. Bengson said. Shaun's fast and folky acoustic-guitar strumming and Abigail's delightful alt-rock vocals establish a beautifully resonant intimacy and then swell into a magnificent full-ensemble sound with the drums thundering and the ensemble singing in transcendent unison. Review Roundup: Sean Hayes Stars In GOOD NIGHT, OSCAR On Broadway! And Ms. Bengson, in particular, finds herself opening baggage from her past that would seem to make happiness with someone else impossible. | "It's not easy, it's not easy, but it's the way I want to live," Abigail said. Just last night, the American Theatre Wing presented the 66th Obie Awards, celebrating and honoring Off- and Off-Off-Broadway. Dan Meyer | So The Lucky Ones is wounded autobiography veiled in fiction. Which turns out to be all thats needed for a show that celebrates and laments the elusive radiance of a shared life. The Atlantic Theater Company production features Anyanwu, Daniel J. Watts, and Xavier Scott Evans. The stage and screen favorite stars in and directs an adaptation of T.S. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Keith Loria is a freelance writer and theater lover who has written about everything from business to sports to real estate with a lot of entertainment writing thrown into the mix. By Our memoir pieces need to reflect whats going on in our own hearts and bodies as we process the world, Abigail said. New York's vaccine and mask dates have expired, but both are still required for Broadway audiences. The production, directed by Anne Kauffman, premieres December 4 after beginning previews November 15. At first, the Bengsons thought it would just turn out to be a concert or a collection of songs. With creator Sara Bareilles back in the lead role, the musical grossed more in single-day ticket sales than any other show in the history of the Barrymore. while examining the way Shaun Bengson's inherited hearing loss intertwines with his journey of losing and finding faith. 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. Manhattan Theatre Clubs New York premiere ofWhere the Mountain Meets the Sea, written by AUDELCO Award nomineeJeff Augustinis in its final week of performances atNew York City Center Stage I. 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. 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 harmony vocals often on backing tapes to give the duo an added grandeur. Then, in one cataclysmic season, it all falls apart, beginning with a killing that might have been prevented if only the parents hadnt been so committed to a you-choose-your-feelings worldview that they dismissed the signs of mental illness in one of the kids. Can they make it through the term without the worry? | A while later, this cameo struck Ms. Bengson as curious. Use this COVID-19 protocols checklist before heading In 2001 he began to explore beyond the Miami Valley. Both Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker have been fighting cases of COVID, which put the Neil Simon revival on hiatus. And each of the songs are terrific; one an apology for how a bad pandemic era had gotten worse, another about light in the darkness, and one that recalls heartbreak but commits to happiness. | | Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's docu-play, with music by Steve Earle, had its 2020 Public Theater run cut short by COVID. September 8, 2021. Please consider supporting us bywhitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.Thank you! May 7, 2021. Otherwise manning a DJ set that includes an old-fashioned gramophone, Jo Lampert gives an achingly resonant performance as Will's best friend Max, a boisterous and bawdy dude whose devotion to his friend is absolute and tinged with (seemingly platonic) yearning. 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. By Three weeks later, the couple got married. They begin awkwardly and self-consciously, as if reluctant to commit even to performing. Andrew Gans I wouldn't want to forget a moment of it. Often, they jump and dance in their own kitchen, an intimacy that can't quite be replicated on stage. September 1, 2021. 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. February 3, 2022, By July 1, 2021. Abigail Bengson is such a compelling, empathetic figure, with a voice grounded in a folk, shape note singing and gospel as she expresses herself further with upraised hands. Part co-authored memoir and part touching voyage into an emotional soundscape, this new work in development is a beautiful testament to the sort of inquires made in tandem by the human mind and spirit. Their music has been featured several times on So You Think You Can Dance (FOX). By Stay informed with one email every other weekright to your inbox. It was from Robert Fleming, a gay Black man who is executive artistic director of Actors Theatre in . The Harold Pinter classic opens October 21 as part of the theatre companys Welcome Back season. "The most important theme of 'HundredDays' is moving through fear in the name of love," Abigail said. And she has a deep affection for the Bengsons. Dan Meyer More upcoming/ in development: Ohio (piece by piece productions). s.parentNode.insertBefore(sleeknoteScriptTag, s); | March 16, 2022, By // Define the CSS rule for the .my-paragraph class wait for it. The stage managers are Amanda Spooner and Christopher Kee Anaya-Gorman. Yet the acceptability of drawing bystanders into ones own art is one of the great ethical debates in any kind of autobiography. From left, Jo Lampert, Ms. Bengson and Mr. Bengson in this poignant 90-minute show at New York Theater Workshop.