World Premiere Play from David Rabe on Tap for New Group’s 2011-12 Season

The New Group has announced three world premiere plays for its 2011-12 season, from playwrights Erika Sheffer, Thomas Bradshaw and David Rabe. No exact dates or casting for the season have yet been announced by the off-Broadway company, which is headquartered at the Acorn Theatre on Teatre Row.

Kicking off the season will be the world premiere of Sheffer's Russian Transport, directed by New Group artistic director Scott Elliott. Set in the Russian-Jewish enclave of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, the play is a tale of an immigrant couple, their two assimilated teenagers and the fierce and fiery upheaval they experience when sexy, mysterious Uncle Boris from the old country comes to stay with them for his shot at the American dream.

Next up will be Bradshaw’s Burning, also helmed by Elliott. In intersecting stories spanning two eras, a contemporary black painter who hides his race goes to Germany for a show, only to find that the gallery owner has misinterpreted his work. And in the '80s a homeless teenager comes to New York to become an actor and is taken in by two gay men, who are themselves producing a new play.

Rounding out the season will be An Early History of Fire, from Tony winner Rabe (Streamers, Hurlyburly), directed by Jo Bonney. In a Midwestern town in the early 1960s, Danny's world is defined by friendship and loyalty, but the bigger world is encroaching in the form of Karen, back from college in the east, alluring and unsettling because of what she now knows. Still, Danny can't escape the grip of his immigrant father, who is mourning a vanished world of lost prestige and clinging to his only son.