2020 Jonathan Larson Grant recipients Abigail and Shaun Bengson share what this grant means to them in a virtual acceptance speech. 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. 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. We wrote our first song together on that first night, Abigal said. | | Review: MY JOY IS HEAVY! by The Bengsons from Arena Stage He became a music teacher in NYC. 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). The Great Performances broadcast includes interviews with Adrienne Warren, Norm Lewis, Sara Bareilles, Aaron Tveit, Chita Rivera, and more. September 5, 2021. The musical, based on the blockbuster film of the same name, reopens at a different venue: the Savoy Theatre. My Joy Is Heavy! Yet the acceptability of drawing bystanders into ones own art is one of the great ethical debates in any kind of autobiography. "The most important theme of 'HundredDays' is moving through fear in the name of love," Abigail said. "It's not easy, it's not easy, but it's the way I want to live," Abigail said. The Bengsons' "The Keep Going Song" is my favorite song of 2020 Their theater work includes. document.head.appendChild(styleElement); | 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. and AARP the Magazine. Andrew Gans | Copyright 1991-2023 Playbill Inc. All Rights Reserved. "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 story looks at embracing uncertainty, taking a leap, and loving as if you only had a hundred days to live. For their part, the Bengsons composed a new memoir musical titledMy Joy Is Heavy!, which is currently streaming on Arenas website for free. The 74th annual ceremony will air in two parts across Paramount+ and CBS. Here, it's no role at all, but real life and determinations with her husband and son, who makes a couple of key appearances. The stage and screen favorite stars in and directs an adaptation of T.S. The program, championed by the industry as the "Save Our Stages" act, was slated to begin accepting applications April 8. paragraph.style.height = '0px'; Performances are set for April 15 and 16 with indoor and virtual audiences. 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. Andrew Gans Ryan McPhee Phylicia Rashad and Brandon J. Dirden star in the Manhattan Theatre Club premiere by Tony nominee Dominique Morisseau. 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. July 6, 2021. The album is produced by The Bengsons, Ian Kagey, and Kurt . The Bengsons Pack a Lifetime of Joy into Indie Rock Opera - KQED 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. By May 7, 2021. By Review: Waltzing With Love and Death in 'Hundred Days' - New York Times The Bengsons create new indie-folk musical for Arena Stage Were interested in this great loss that weve all been moving through that has many names and is communal, but is also specific and particular to each person. Terence Wilton and Max Hutchinson Will Star in West End Return of, Jesse Williams, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, More Confirmed to Return to Broadway's, Broadway Shows Will Require COVID-19 Vaccines for Employees Under Actors Equity Agreement, Ali Stroker, Larry Owens, More Among Little Islands NYC Free Festival Headliners, Tony Awards, Sidelined by the Pandemic, Sets September Date for 4-Hour Celebration, New York to Lift Capacity Restrictions on Broadway and More Beginning May 19, SBA's Grant Program for Shuttered Venues Operators Delays Application Process. Thank you, Ms. Bengson said from the kitchen. July 20, 2021. Logan Culwell-Block Dan Meyer April 15, 2021. They have appeared at venues across the country and around the world. In a quieter, more reserved performance, Shaun Bengson is played by the talented Alec Phan, with Royen Kent alternating in the role on weekends. | Ryan McPhee Dan Meyer They have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rodgers Awards and nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille. In the 27-minute piece, the Bengsons present an intimate portrait of celebrating joy during difficult times, which for the couple included dealing with chronic pain and suffering a miscarriage during the COVID-19 lockdown. The immersive theatrical experience resumes performances at The McKittrick Hotel. October 20, 2020. Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's docu-play, with music by Steve Earle, had its 2020 Public Theater run cut short by COVID. Abigail Bengson has appeared on HBO's High Maintenance and also toured as a member of tUnE-yArDs, including an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.instagram: @thebengsonswww.bengsons.com Dan Meyer Check out Samantha Barks, Stephanie McKeon and more in costume. Blocking belongson the stage,not on websites. You have entered an incorrect email address! 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. 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). 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). | 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 blessed news comes with some worry; they've suffered a miscarriage once before and had complications with the birth of their son. Its possible that we have all been raised in a way that hurt us, Abigail says in the show. Their music has been featured several times on So You Think You Can Dance (FOX). A while later, this cameo struck Ms. Bengson as curious. var s = document.getElementById('sleeknoteScript'); You can buy tickets here. A Childhood Eden Seared by Violence. Set to Music? The result is a raw and personal expression, wrapped in splendid music and honesty. The storied venue will next present The Tap Dance Kid as part of its Encores! January 2, 2022. Just by being so real and powerful, and serving as kind of an emotional catharsis for our own time of global trauma, "My Joy is Heavy!" The subsequent revisions suggest that autobiography is a highly mutable art form. Set to Music? The show smoothly segues from the informality of a tale told in a concert setting to more fully staged scenes. Get a first look at photos here! The letters pile up outside, but if they unplug the radio and the phone, they're disconnected. March 15, 2022, By Talaura Harms The long-running favorite returns to the Orpheum Theatre. The Bengsons nightmare scenario is to have family drama break out in the audience, where they would have to witness it from the stage. 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. Hundred Days now takes place entirely in New York City (mostly in Astoria, Queens), with lots of internal detours into the twisty corridors of each partners mind. Ryan McPhee 43K Followers, 2,442 Following, 548 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Abigail & Shaun Bengson (@thebengsons) | | 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. St. Ann's Warehouse to Begin Indoor Performances With The Bengsons Dan Meyer Theyre people with a lot of pain and a lot of damage, she said, but also a lot of strength and a lot of magic., They are also so intertwined, personally and professionally, that they share a bio in the program for The Lucky Ones., Is that gross? Ms. Bengson asked recently, in the tone of someone checking to make sure she doesnt have lipstick on her teeth. Anyone can read what you share. the Musical!, Tina, David Byrne's American Utopia, Stomp, Jersey Boys, and more. | 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. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Stay informed with one email every other weekright to your inbox. Thats true even when you change names and details, and create what Mr. Bengson called the novel-myth version of the story. Silhouettes appear through the windows of the rear wall as shadows of the world that carries on outside at a markedly different pace from the life lived behind closed doors. | The theatre company expects to resume performances, on Broadway and off, this fall. A half-hour into an emotionally delicate interview, there was a soft knock on the front door: Ms. Gancher, bringing over some eggs in the shell. Its conversational, sometimes it seems like a music video or a dance party, sometimes it seems like youre going for a walk with us, Shaun said. The personable and talented married singer-songwriter couple, Shaun and Abigail Bengson explore their lives in this uneven concert musical. (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, US Tour). To whatever degree The Lucky Ones is fictionalized, she finds it really lovely to be working on a true story., I spend so much of my life making up characters or brainstorming situations or coming up with scenarios, Ms. Gancher said. 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. That was 13 years ago, and today, the dynamic duo composes and performs together around the world. The bearded Shaun, with his sweet smile, was home- schooled in Dayton, Ohio, and grew up in a family of pastors and church organists. The more the piece evolved and the more collaborators got involved, the more the couple moved toward an honest and real portrayal of their feelings, fears and everything in between. | 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. const paragraph = document.querySelector('.my-paragraph'); sleeknoteScriptTag.charset = 'utf-8'; So by bringing viewers into their homewarts and allthey will see the dirty dishes in the background as the Bengsons sing and dance together, providing that real intimacy. 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. The album, which features the cast of the NYTW production, will be released September 21. November 9, 2020. // Get the

element with the my-paragraph class He majored in musicology at Indiana University and moved to. Abigail and Shaun Bengson in Hundred Days; photo: Mark Leialoha. 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. You can read more of his theater writing. Melissa Kaitlyn Carter is a cheery presence as Sarah's best friend Caroline, and Dalene Mason is mournfully somber as Will's forbiddingly distant father.

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