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. 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. "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. The one-day-only event, starring Olivier nominees Rachel Tucker and Rachel John, arrives to the West End October 11 following a digital production earlier this summer. February 3, 2022, By More upcoming/ in development: Ohio (piece by piece productions). September 8, 2021. March 12, 2022, By Three of their singles have been featured on "So You. September 1, 2021. The Daniel Craig-led production is back after cases of COVID within the company put a pause on performances. They begin awkwardly and self-consciously, as if reluctant to commit even to performing. The various safety protocols were released as both new and returning shows enter rehearsals. Dan Meyer St. Anns Warehouse will reopen its doors this spring with a pair of concerts from The Bengsons, performing their new work-in-progress The Broken Ear Setlist: Songs from Ohio. 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. 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. paragraph.style.width = '0px'; 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). The Bengsons performing in The Lucky Ones, which is the second part of a trilogy. Rocking cellist El Beh doubles as the compassionate doctor who has to break the bad news (a far cry from the creepy nurse she played in Symmetry Theatre's recent Carnival Round the Central Figure). January 10, 2022, By Their first rehearsal turned into their first date, and three weeks later, they were married! 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. Id be like, Hey, its Friday, talking about nothing, and then Id sing this heavy piece of music, talking about everything, she said, and she realized thats not so different from what shes doing with the show itself. | Their video for The Keep Going Song has been viewed over 4 million times. Andrew Gans Even the parts that never happened.. The new Broadway play cancelled its opening night December 20 due to a case of COVID-19 within the company. Three of their singles have been featured on So You Think You Can Dance (FOX). La Jolla Playhouse has announced the presentation of Sovereignty Hymns, a commissioned work that features a video series of original songs exploring questions about reproductive liberty. I love you so much!. Even days afterward, having heard the songs only once, I get a surge of visceral pleasure every time one of them runs through my head. 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. 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. The Bengsonss distinctive stage presence matches the story they tell. s.parentNode.insertBefore(sleeknoteScriptTag, s); In Hundred Days, real-life married couple Abigail and Shaun Bengson (the duo behind Ars Nova's The Lucky Ones) detail the story of how they . | wait for it. | Do Broadway and Off-Broadway Theatres Still Require Masks? There'd be much more unplugging to be done today. A couple's intimate portrait of celebrating joy during difficult times. Critical reception of The Lucky Ones has been mixed, with Jesse Green of The New York Times calling it a gawky, powerful work in progress, while Sandy MacDonald, in Time Out New York, found it harrowing.. 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. By | Marc J. Franklin From the moment Shaun and Abigail Bengson met 11 years ago, there was a third wheel in their relationship a matter for no small measure of stress and apprehension. Such music is a natural vehicle for the torturous ambivalence of falling in love as young, brooding artists steeped in mortal thoughts. Its title song captured and likely inspired 4 million viewers on YouTube, and maybe just nudged Smith to tap The Bengsons to create something for the series they're calling Arena Riffs. raises the possibility of continued commissioned filmed projects from theater companies long after theaters reopen. window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'AW-10891449219'); October 20, 2020. 2020 Jonathan Larson Grant recipients Abigail and Shaun Bengson share what this grant means to them in a virtual acceptance speech. Because of past trauma in her life, Abigail said, getting close to anyone in a short period of time brought on an enormous amount of PTSD. | By All this is supposedly taking place in the 1940s, but the period setting never becomes important or even discernible, and of course it has no bearing on the musical style. Raven Brunner The Bengsons. Thank you, Ms. Bengson said from the kitchen. | November 21, 2022, By By When not writing, Keith can be found playing with his daughters, Jordan and Cassidy. May 7, 2021. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. As we enter the second year of pandemic, theater companies have largely shifted from live performance spaces to film and video producers. Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum (5/08-5/08), Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum (5/14-5/14), Riverside Center for the Performing Arts (3/15-5/07), Review: THE BODY OF A WOMAN AS A BATTLEFIELD at ExPats Theatre. Up Close & Sweaty with Haus of Sequins, Nightbeast & Kiml, Vienna Light Orchestra Presents: A Tribute to Broadway & The Greatest Showman, The Map for Healing & Recovery Orientation & Sign Up, Darke County Food Truck Rally & Craft Show, Bridgerton Inspired Friends Chai Tea Party. The show smoothly segues from the informality of a tale told in a concert setting to more fully staged scenes. Just last night, the American Theatre Wing presented the 66th Obie Awards, celebrating and honoring Off- and Off-Off-Broadway. 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). | Both Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker have been fighting cases of COVID, which put the Neil Simon revival on hiatus. Three weeks later, the couple got married. "Hundred Days" runs at La Jolla Playhouse's Mandell Weiss Forum until oct. 21, 2018. July 1, 2021. Stephen Mallatratts adaptation of Susan Hill's novel will again play London's Fortune Theatre. Ryan McPhee, The change in the Off-Broadway theatre's guidelines was tweeted yesterday. And with those words, Mr. Bengson and his wife, Abigail the other half of the folk-rock duo the Bengsons, the indie-theater darlings who created the show for Ars Nova attempt to draw a cloak of privacy around themselves and the people they love. Almost exactly five years ago, Abigail and Shaun Bengson performed Hundred Days at Know Theatre. Shaun Bengson, Abigail Bengson, Jeff Augustin, Joshua Kahan Brody, Billy Eugene Jones, Chris Myers From: Photos: Go Inside Opening Night of WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE SEA at Manhattan Theatre Club My Joy is Heavy! Abigail Bengson and Shaun Bengson Emilio Madrid-Kuser "In our new work, the idea is that loss is the mechanism by which God comes close," says Abigail Bengson. 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. They've learned the best from indie music videos and are able to convey the beauty and reality of Vermont winter while eking out metaphors in its landscape. October 15, 2020. For tickets and information visit zspace.org. 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. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical also features Rhys Whitfield as Raoul. We never hear about any war going on, and Christine Crook's costumes aren't noticeably informed by that period. When new work is offered, it streams online, often created by the artists themselves. One isn't necessary. while examining the way Shaun Bengson's inherited hearing loss intertwines with his journey of losing and finding faith. | The musical, based on the blockbuster film of the same name, reopens at a different venue: the Savoy Theatre. | July 6, 2021. When I had a miscarriage, that shaped what we were going through, and this became a healing practice for us to make this together.. By The Bengsons nightmare scenario is to have family drama break out in the audience, where they would have to witness it from the stage. The storied venue will next present The Tap Dance Kid as part of its Encores! They also star in the show, with a full band and chorus who . They have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rogers Award and nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucile Lortel awards. April 12, 2022, By Logan Culwell-Block Even the notion of miscarriage is for some reason socially shrouded in silence, leaving shattered would-be parents to mourn alone. And she has a deep affection for the Bengsons. | January 6, 2022, By They were so sure that each was the one for the other that they married three weeks after they met, having summarily displaced a pre-existing boyfriend (in her case) and roommate (in his). Eleven years ago, Abigail and Shaun Bengson met. You have entered an incorrect email address! I dont know. programming. In a dynamic staging by director Anne Kauffman, the show has the look and feel of a rock concert, complete (at least on opening night) with a roaring crowd. Writing music together has been a profound way that we learn about each other, and what we think about the world, and how we think about ourselves. Abigail Bengson says that she. The stage performers' union will not re-open their audition centers, but is allowing employers to host their own in-person calls. The stage and screen favorite stars in and directs an adaptation of T.S. Ars Nova, which also co-produced Sundown, Yellow Moon, a Rachel Bonds play with music by the Bengsons, has an estimable record with nontraditional musicals that includes birthing Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. It was the company that matched Ms. Gancher with the Bengsons several years ago. June 24, 2021, By Logan Culwell-Block Some of those tapes, she said, have been to prison and back cassettes on which her budding-songwriter self set down in music the fraught emotions she couldnt speak. The Atlantic Theater Company production features Anyanwu, Daniel J. Watts, and Xavier Scott Evans. 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 Broken Ear Setlist: Songs from Ohio features performances by artists including Barrie Lobo McLain, Vuyo Sotashe, and Allan K. Washington. | Running time: Twenty-seven minutes, followed by a 15 minute discussion between The Bengsons and Molly Smith. They also star in the show, with a full band and chorus who take on roles in the story as needed, and they deliver the songs with such quirky exuberance that it's impossible to resist following wherever they want to take the narrative (with a smart book by Kate E. Ryan). Hundred Days runs through April 6, 2014 at Z Space in San Francisco. Abigail Bengson, Shaun Bengson, Chris Myers, Billy Eugene Jones, Billy Eugene Jones, Chris Myers, Shaun Bengson, Abigail Bengson, Billy Eugene Jones, Joshua Kahan Brody, Jeff Augustin, Chris Myers, Abigail Bengson, Shaun Bengson, Shaun Bengson, Abigail Bengson, Jeff Augustin, Joshua Kahan Brody, Billy Eugene Jones, Chris Myers, Billy Eugene Jones (center); Abigail Bengson and Shaun Bengson (background), Chris Myers (foreground); background: Abigail Bengson, Shaun Bengson, and Billy Eugene Jones. For a musical that's so much about creating memories to last and evoke a lifetime, Hundred Days succeeds brilliantly in etching its eloquent lines and infectious melodies indelibly on the brain. Ms. Bengson says that she and her husband are both profoundly introverted, but you wouldnt know it from talking with them. 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. And Ms. Bengson, in particular, finds herself opening baggage from her past that would seem to make happiness with someone else impossible. We and our partners share information on your use of this website to help improve your experience. He became a music teacher in NYC. 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 . By the time of its making, the two and their young son have made their way to her childhood home in snowy Vermont with the likely intent of chronicling their time there in song during an already strange time. May 26, 2021. Abigail and Shaun Bengson performing in "My Joy Is Heavy!" (Arena Stage) Gift Article It feels something like a privilege to be given access to the melodic intimacies of "My Joy Is Heavy!," a. 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. styleElement.styleSheet.cssText = cssRule; Talaura Harms Colette Alexander, Abigail Bengson, Shaun Bengson, Jo Lampert, Dani Markham, and Reggie D. White, By The one possible relevance that the period has (besides possible medical advances since then) is how easy it is for Sarah and Will to seclude themselves in their home and remove themselves from any indication of what day or decade it really is. // Get the

element with the my-paragraph class | Logan Culwell-Block So, youre welcome, Louie., The Bengsons married 10 years ago, three weeks after their first date. Our website is made possible bydisplaying online advertisements to our visitors. A while later, this cameo struck Ms. Bengson as curious. July 8, 2021. Its been incredible that weve gotten to work through the year, and how this song has gone viral, Shaun said. 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 songs are so catchy, propulsive and soul-soaringly jubilant that at some point I realized that I'd spent a large portion of the show with a silly grin on my face. The production opened on Wednesday, November 2, and will conclude as scheduled this Sunday, November 27. January 18, 2022, By Sovereignty Hymns features a series of original songs exploring questions about reproductive liberty. Anyone can read what you share. // Create a new style element Their video for, has been viewed over 4 million times. The Harold Pinter classic opens October 21 as part of the theatre companys Welcome Back season. Hayley Levitt, Eliots work. The concept of 'Hundred Days,' however, has stayed the same, The Bengsons said. Mr. and Ms. Bengson, known for their eloquent musical contributions to downtown New York theater pieces, are one of those rare couples who really did fall in love at first sight (at a massive anti-folk folk-punk old-timey neo soul band rehearsal). Before the pandemic hit, the couple were working on the music for a play at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, and after one performance, the country shut down. Website by, The Bengsons create new indie-folk musical for Arena Stage, A global community celebrates Passover with The Third Seder concert on Sunday, Washington Stage Guild revives Shaws Devils Disciple with simplicity and skill, Getting to know Elizabeth Dinkova: I like creating a brave space, When I like a play, I get obsessed: Karin Rosnizeck on The Body of a Woman as a Battlefield, I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky remains sharply poignant, Calendar: Play Readings, Workshops, and Theater Events in the DMV, Rorschach Theatre announces free staged readings of three new plays, Keegans Boiler Room Series announces seven new play workshops, 2023 Womens Storytelling Festival to feature 27 performers, Brett Widmann, Chicago WordPress Developer. The long-running favorite returns to the Orpheum Theatre. var sleeknoteScriptTag = document.createElement('script'); "To do the show, honestly, I really have to look squarely at what is terrifying me right now, and there's plenty to be afraid of, and say, 'okay, let's keep moving, let's love each other anyway, let's love the world anyway and see what happens,'" Abigail said. October 8, 2020. Abigail Bengson and Shaun Bengson Emilio Madrid-Kuser. The Bengsons. Would just being grateful and happy during the same period be a better approach? is streaming free on YouTube. A young couple meets, falls in love and gets married right away, only to find out that one of them has a terminal illness and not long left to live. The first two months of performances take place with social distancing. 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. So Will and Sarah decide to shut themselves away from the world and live their last 100 days together as if they were 60 years, celebrating all the birthdays and anniversaries and other cherished memories they would have if they grew old together. Photo by Paul de Luna. 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. Kauffman's staging makes full use of Z Space's cavernous performance space at Project Artaud, with the band and the world retreating behind a slowly lowering warehouse door. 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. Ryan McPhee Allen Willner's shifting lights accentuate that live-gig atmosphere, bathing the stage in one color or another when it's time to really rock out. Dan Meyer 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. Our memoir pieces need to reflect whats going on in our own hearts and bodies as we process the world, Abigail said. Their remarkable submission - just 27 minutes, streaming free through the Arena website - shows the couple sharing their lives through the cruel winter of our pandemic, but also willing and very able to sing about it in real time. Im like, here I am, sending tapes to them, 20 years later.. | But on top of this there is hope in the form of a pregnancy. Most of the cast will return to the roles they were playing when previews began prior to the pandemic. Sometimes there are wounds so deep that they never all the way heal, he said. 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. September 5, 2021. This is the person, no longer institutionalized, whose life Ms. Bengson is most fearful of harming with The Lucky Ones, an ensemble piece in which a cascade of events results in the dissolution of her family, including her parents marriage. Andrew Gans This is a true story, Shaun Bengson tells the audience from the stage of the Connelly Theater in the East Village. Ryan McPhee Manhattan Theatre Club has announced full casting and performance dates for Where the Mountain Meets the Sea, written by AUDELCO Award nominee Jeff Augustin (The New Englanders, The Morning Show) and directed by Princess Grace Award winner Joshua Kahan Brody, with music by The Bengsons (Hundred Days, The Lucky Ones). by The Bengsons arenastage1 2.96K subscribers Subscribe 1.2K 50K views 1 year ago Arena Stage is excited to present a newly commissioned filmed music series, Arena Riffs, featuring. Yet she is terrified of compounding anyones anguish. The front-line team has provided COVID compliance safety for 1.8 million audience members seeing more than 30 shows on Broadway and beyond. Arriving at this realization has been the seed for all sorts of lyric reflections, be it from ancient Greek odists, Renaissance sonneteers or pop balladeers. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Created by Abigail and Shaun Bengson (Hundred Days), the series is inspired by interviews with people whose lives have been impacted by abortion.In this work, the Bengsons queried, can we have an empathetic conversation about . The personable and talented married singer-songwriter couple, Shaun and Abigail Bengson explore their lives in this uneven concert musical. I love you, too, Ms. Gancher said, and exited. Logan Culwell-Block Then, the pair started to strip the concept back and they arrived at theirpresent concept: "using the theatricality that we gathered and learned along the way, but in service to a humbler story that is hopefully more honest as well," Abigail said. The Bengsons drove to Dayton, Ohio, to stay with Shauns parents, and they put together an hour-long concert for the Louisville theater. Stay informed with one email every other weekright to your inbox. Hes going to be a pirate by 5, she said, and her husband laughed again. The first, "My Joy is Heavy!" Visually, the piece is as bright as The Bengsons' surroundings (and outlook). January 7, 2022, By | | The production runs 90 minutes and has no intermission. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Anns created the Urban Canvas public art platform on their facade, presented a series of pop-up concerts, and streamed a number of international works. November 9, 2020. The limited engagement of the Jason Robert Brown revue will begin in February 2021. 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. | He ha (read more about this author). Meg Masseron Care about whats happening in Bay Area arts? | Set to Music? Leah Putnam First he attended college at Indiana University (studied Ethnomusicology & Traditional Indiana Fiddling), then after graduation Shaun moved to New York City as a part of the city's teaching fellows program. Dan Meyer So The Lucky Ones is wounded autobiography veiled in fiction. March 3, 2022, By Like Abigail, the character she plays in The Lucky Ones, Ms. Bengson grew up in an extended hippie family that revolved around a school. Leah Putnam What did our critic think of OPEN at Nu Sass? Sonya Tayeh, currently Tony-nominated for Moulin Rouge!, serves as movement director. But seemingly off-the-cuff stage patter in the beginning later becomes needed background for plot points in the play. By They have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rodgers Awards and nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards. Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812.. 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. A few performances deeper into previews, after they had moved back home to Queens, Ms. Bengson sat at their blond-wood kitchen table, a plastic bag of old cassette tapes in front of her. By 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. Roger Catlin, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association,is a Washington D.C.-based arts writer whose work appears regularly in SmithsonianMagazine.com. 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.'". It was from Robert Fleming, a gay Black man who is executive artistic director of Actors Theatre in . styleElement.appendChild(document.createTextNode(cssRule)); By A Childhood Eden Seared by Violence. | The theatre company expects to resume performances, on Broadway and off, this fall. Blocking belongson the stage,not on websites. September 10, 2021. The task, I think, of storytelling, she said, is the reintegration of the dark and the light going back and saying, Yes, this darkness is here and its true. And, There was light on us once, and there will be again.. By March 16, 2022, By It wouldn't affect what would happen one way or another, and it may be healthier in the long run.