Spooky Action Theater celebrates its 20th anniversary of producing inventive and boldly theatrical work, including its first musical, for the 2024/25 Season. This milestone season features two world premieres: an inventive dark comedy with mythological flair – Cracking Zeus by Christopher T. Hampton – and a revolutionary rock musical based on the banned Russian classic “The Master & Margarita” – Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show by Michael and Andrea Pemberton and Jesse Rasmussen. Cracking Zeus will be directed by Mosaic Theater Company’s Artistic Director Reginald L. Douglas (September-October 2024), and Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show by Spooky Artistic Director Elizabeth Dinkova (March-April 2025). In addition, Spooky Action’s New Works in Action program will feature developmental workshops and readings of new plays. Dates of additional special events will be announced later.
“To celebrate two decades of daring artmaking, Spooky Action is conjuring up an electrifying mix of gods, drugs, and rock and roll: a season of cutting-edge new works that put a unique spin on ancient mythologies and classic narratives,” states Artistic Director Elizabeth Dinkova. “People have always relied on myths to celebrate milestones, understand the world, and loudly proclaim the values they’re willing to live and die by. At Spooky Action, we aspire to not simply rehash old stories, but birth new myths – riotous theatrical experiences that help us make sense of the chaos, terror, and infinite beauty of the world we live in – today, tomorrow, and always.”
2024-2025 SEASON: MYTHOGENESIS
CRACKING ZEUS by Christopher T. Hampton
Directed by Reginald L. Douglas (Artistic Director, Mosaic Theater Company)
September 19-October 13, 2024
Have you ever considered what crack cocaine might do to the powers of a Greek god? This outrageous provocation takes center stage in Christopher Hampton’s ingenious contemporary epic with ancient Greek roots.
Hera, a goddess with a grudge to settle, has found her husband Zeus’ newest illegitimate child. On the outside, Baniaha is a pillar of his community: he helps his mother run her church while mentoring orphaned youth. On the inside, he is lost: the mystery of his paternity leaves him yearning for answers. When Hera arrives to exact her revenge with the help of Rufus, a homeless crack addict she thinks she can exploit, relationships are strained and faith is put to the test. This wildly inventive dark comedy is a present-day myth about religion, dependency, and redemption.
Cracking Zeus was developed through Spooky Action’s New Works in Action play development program and a Kennedy Center Social Impact Residency workshop in the Spring of 2024, directed by Reginald L. Douglas.
Christopher T. Hampton (Playwright) is an Atlanta-based writer, performer, director, educator, and arts advocate. Cracking Zeus is his first full length play. His work has been presented nationally in theaters such as The Alliance Theatre, 7 Stages (Atlanta), The Red Cat, Company of Angels, Imagine us Free (L.A.). Christopher holds a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts and is an active board Member of Working Title Playwrights. When not in the theater, Christopher owns and manages The Point of Health Wellness Center (www.Healthatthepoint.com) with his wife who he loves dearly.
PROFESSOR WOLAND’S BLACK MAGIC ROCK SHOW
Inspired by “The Master and Margarita”
Music by Michael Pemberton. Lyrics by Michael and Andrea Pemberton, Book by Jesse Rasmussen
Directed by Elizabeth Dinkova
Music Direction by Marika Countouris
March 20-April 13, 2025
Written during the darkest days of Stalin’s reign, and banned for decades, Bulgakov’s “Funny, devilish, brilliant satire” (Publisher’s Weekly) “The Master and Margarita” became a literary phenomenon with a cult following. In this new musical retelling, a band of dissident rock musicians (or perhaps the demonic retinue of Satan himself) visit 1930s Moscow to expose social climbers, bureaucrats, and profiteers. The Master—an idealistic writer working on a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate—is silenced and detained in an asylum. Margarita, his collaborator and lover, embarks on a journey through heaven and hell to save him and his manuscript.This fantastical, wildly comedic political satire celebrates love that defies all odds, the interplay of good and evil, and the freedom of the spirit in an unfree world. This rock musical channels the resistance of artists in totalitarian states across the globe. Fans of Hadestown and Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 – belly up to the stage!
Professor Woland’s Black Magic Rock Show is developed in partnership with Quinnipiac University, which will put on a workshop production in October 2024 under the direction of Elizabeth Dinkova.
Michael Pemberton (Music & Lyrics) is an award-winning actor, singer, and songwriter with a career that spans over 30 years in New York City and beyond with credits on over 50 television and film roles, and countless stage productions around the country and on Broadway. He started writing original lyrics and music in earnest when he moved to NYC in 1994. The city inspired many of his early songs, providing a rich display of humanity that compelled him to tell in song some of the stories he witnessed and experienced. The Michael Pemberton Band, formed in the late ’90s, played in many of the top indie venues in NYC, including Joe’s Pub, The Bitter End, The Bottom Line, Club El Flamingo, CBGB’s Gallery. His song “Rollercoaster/ Carousel” was recorded and released by Actor/Singer Sara Ramirez and performed on a Ted Talk filmed at New York’s storied Town Hall. This is his first full-length rock musical.
Jesse Rasmussen (Book) is a writer, director and lyricist from Australia, currently based in Brooklyn and Maine. Jesse received her MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama and has directed works by Jeremy O. Harris, Tori Sampson and Sarah Mantell at Ars Nova, PSNY, the Yale School of Drama and Yale Rep. Jesse is a founding member of LA based avant-garde opera company Four Larks and has collaborated with the company on numerous projects as writer, librettist and lyricist on operatic works staged at the Getty Villa, The Wallis Annenberg Center and The Malthouse Theatre (Australia). Current projects include: Medea In Exile, a contemporary adaptation of Medea by Australian playwright Tom Holloway and Dr. Emma Cole, with music director Lukas Papenfusscline, and a baroque pop cabaret based on the fiction of Anais Nin (Nin Descending a Staircase) with composer/co-creator Ellen Warkentine. Jesse is also a Co-Director & Co-writer for feature film project Syrena, supported by the Midnight Oil Collective/Tsai Center for Innovation at Yale.
NEW WORKS IN ACTION
Spooky Action Theater’s New Works in Action Program is an incubator for new theatrical experiences by generative artists – playwrights, composers, performers, creators. Spooky Action offers developmental workshops, staged readings, and one-night-only opportunities to take a new work to the next phase of its evolution. Sign up for their newsletter to hear first about these unique opportunities to actively participate in the creative process. Information about individual tickets and on-sale date is forthcoming.
Information at https://spookyaction.org
ABOUT SPOOKY ACTION THEATER
Spooky Action Theater is an award-winning, small professional theater perforrming at The Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th St NW, Washington, DC (located near DC’s Dupont, U Street Corridor and Logan Circle neighborhoods). Founded in 2004, the company takes its name from a quantum mechanics phenomenon “spooky action at a distance” in which two particles become entangled such that a change in one is instantly mirrored by a change in the other, no matter the distance between them. Spooky Action Theater produces work that creates this kind of deep connection between actors and audience.