MAD Company is thrilled to announce our New Perspectives Festival, launching in May of 2025! New Perspectives will celebrate bold and innovative storytelling by featuring three new plays inspired by, based on, or written in response to a classic work.

ANNOUNCING OUR THREE PLAYS

The New Perspectives Festival celebrates bold and innovative storytelling by featuring three new plays inspired by a classic work. Each new work will have one staged reading over the weekend of May 8-10, presented at TheaterLab NYC (357 W 36th St. 3rd floor, New York, NY 10018). Please join us at one of the readings or buy a discounted ticket to attend all three!

May 8, 7:30pm - Catch: Or, The Gods Are Children written by Davis Alianiello and directed by Mickey Tron

Admetus is a failed athlete and little league coach whose team is composed of pint-sized Greek gods. When one of them dooms him to death, his wife Alcestis, a classical violinist, volunteers to take his place. In death she discovers a music beyond mortal ears. A freewheeling adaptation of Euripides' Alcestis.

May 9, 7:30pm - The Yellow Wallpaper written and directed by Helena Mueller

After the birth of her second child, Jane wrestles with recovery. In a house meant for rest, something begins to shift. Memory blurs. The walls whisper. And silence grows loud. A modern adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story of the same title.

May 10, 7:30pm - Osher and the Infinite Curtain written by Elise Wien and directed by William Steinberger

In the hospital, Osher became infatuated with Kabbalah. As he lost the ability to speak, he watched hours of enlightenment Youtube. And then he died. Now, months after his passing, his daughter travels through time (and web servers) to grapple with the loss of a loved one turned stranger. A modern day adaptation of S. An-sky's The Dybbuk.

GET TO KNOW OUR PLAYWRIGHTS

ELISE WIEN

Elise Wien creates works of tender absurdism – building worlds that reflect the cruel and chaotic nature of our own, with characters who must rely on each other to survive them. Dads experience enlightenment in YouTube Kabbalah seminars, Interns fall in love with robot replicas of their ex-girlfriends, and Teens write Barack Obama fan fiction.

She has developed work with The Tank, The Workshop Theater, Dixon Place, The Road Theatre Company, American Lore Theater, and the Hopkins Center for the Arts. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and a graduate of Boston University’s Playwriting MFA program.

Osher & The Infinite Curtain

HELENA MUELLER

Helena Mueller is a playwright, director, and performer originally from Wisconsin and now based in NYC. She holds a BA in English and Theatre from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and an MA in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. As Executive Director and a founding member of MAD Company, she has written and produced two original adaptations—Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol.

Helena is passionate about crafting female-centric stories that challenge tradition, reclaim narrative power, and illuminate the past.

The Yellow Wallpaper

DAVIS ALIANIELLO

Davis Alianiello writes plays that explore crises of belief and belonging. He has developed new work with the Boston Center for the Arts, The Wilbury Group, Playhouse on Park, and Theatre of the Electric Mouth. His plays are published by Playscripts and 1319 Press. His play Snake was a second place winner of the Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting and a state winner in the Clauder Competition.

He is a recent graduate of the Hunter College Playwriting MFA. davisalianiello.com

Catch: Or, The Gods Are Children