New York Theater Workshop’s New Season to Feature Caryl Churchill Play

The acclaimed British writer Caryl Churchill will return to New York Theater Workshop during the 2013-14 season with a new drama, “Love and Information,” her first play there since the 2009 staged reading of her controversial work “Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza,” the theater announced on Tuesday. It will be the seventh American debut of a Churchill play at New York Theater Workshop, where her previous plays included “A Number” and “Far Away” as well as “Seven Jewish Children,” which drew complaints in both London and New York for its portrayal of some Israelis, who speak savagely about Palestinians. James MacDonald will direct “Love and Information,” as he did last year in a London production. The play, which features dozens of short scenes about characters overwhelmed by the nonstop pace of modern information, is expected to begin performances in early 2014.

The workshop’s season will include another new work, Will Power’s “Fetch Clay, Make Man,” about the improbable friendship between a young Muhammad Ali and the Hollywood actor Stepin Fetchit, to be directed by Des McAnuff. The play had its premiere in 2010 at the McCarter Theater Center in Princeton, though Mr. Power has substantially rewritten the script since then, Richard Kornberg, a spokesman for New York Theater Workshop, said. The McCarter production of “Fetch Clay” starred the Tony Award winner Ben Vereen as Stepin Fetchit and Evan Parke as Mr. Ali; asked if those actors would reprise their roles, Mr. Kornberg would only say that casting was not read! y to be announced. Performances are set to begin in late summer.

After “Fetch Clay” will come “What’s It All About Bacharach Imagined,” a production built on Burt Bacharach songs, arranged and performed by Kyle Riabko, a 25-year-old actor who was in the Broadway musical “Spring Awakening.” The “Bacharach” show will be directed by Steven Hoggett, the much-praised choreographer of the Broadway shows (and previous New York Theater Workshop productions) “Once” and “Peter and the Starcatcher.”

A fourth show will be announced for this season in the coming weeks.