Director

A young couple is trying to have a baby. Ice caps are melting. Forests are burning. In the face of environmental collapse, one woman wonders if the best way to protect a future child is not to have one at all. It all goes according to plan until she discovers she has little choice in the matter. In this dark comedy, a woman’s body becomes a battleground of political anguish, conflicting desire, and existential dread.

EPSG:4326

Spring Festival 2024 The Extinctionist

Baruch College

“English Only” is the mantra that rules one Iranian classroom where four adults are learning English in preparation for the TOEFL — the Test of English as a Foreign Language. Passing the test might be the key to better opportunities — a green card, medical school admission, or family reunification. Playing out in awkward lessons of word games and mistranslations, English is both a comedy of miscommunication and a look at the ways speaking a new language can expand your world and limit your identity. A hit in its 2021 New York premiere, English was described as, “a rich new play, both contemplative and comic” by The New York Times and was awarded the 2023 Obie Award for Best New Play staged Off-Broadway over the last two years.  New York Theatre Guide called it, “a buoyant comedy and probing exploration of what it means to speak and feel understood.” 

English

Alliance Theatre

Our next chapter begins with two brand new radical adaptations and reorchestrations of major classics led by two fabulous new directors: Shadi Ghaheri directs a brand new adaptation of Puccini’s Tosca, set in a modern-day religious authoritarian dictatorship, and Emma Jaster directs Lady M, our twist on Verdi’s Scottish opera.
Lady M, based on Verdi’s Macbeth, is the culmination of our “brilliant” (New York Magazine) and “riveting” (Opera News) early pandemic venture, Lady M: An Online Fantasia, for which we sold out 32 online soirees, reaching over 1000 homes across 5 continents. Emma, who has been Heartbeat’s Movement Director on countless projects, including Lady M online, takes the reins to direct Ethan Heard and Jacob Ashworth’s co-adaptation, conjuring a bracingly contemporary couple as the Macbeths, along with a complete sonic and dramatic reimagining of the three witches.
Running on back-to-back nights in rep will be our newest adaptation of Tosca, a piece we've been dreaming about for years, led by Iranian-American director Shadi Ghaheri. Our version translates Puccini’s iconic story of love and revolution to an unnamed religious regime, where an uncensored version of Tosca — in which corrupt officials are murdered, revolutionaries are executed, and, most importantly, a female heroine interrupts the cycle of violence — would never be allowed to happen. Things become daringly real when a troop of actors decide to risk their lives to perform it.

Shadi Ghaheri

Director

Events

3 - 14 Apr, 2024

Spring Festival 2024 The Extinctionist · Heart Beat Opera

Aug 16 - Sep 17, 2023

English · Alliance Theatre

11 - 23 Apr, 2023

Tosca & Lady M · Heartbeat Opera

About

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