Join 92YTribeca for a special conversation about The New Group’s production of Russian Transport, as playwright Erika Sheffer, actress Janeane Garofalo and moderator Julian Sheppard discuss the play’s backstory and its journey to the stage.
Russian Transport is a suspenseful family drama set in the Russian Jewish community of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Diana and Misha, an immigrant couple, run a struggling car service while trying to carve out the American Dream for their teenagers, Alex and Mira. When Diana's sexy and mysterious brother Boris arrives to stay with them, family loyalty is tested. For Alex and Mira, Uncle Boris is an exciting addition to their home, but soon Alex is pulled into his Uncle's dangerous world. Laced with humor and intrigue, Russian Transport captures the complex layers of one very particular immigrant experience.
Tickets $15
Brief Bio
Erika Sheffer is the writer of Russian Transport, developed at The New Group. Her other works include The Drowning Side and short pieces Engaging Dynamic Guest Experience, Likes to Scratch and Something in Your Stomach. Her work has been read at Naked Angels, Primary Stages, The Woodshed Collective and Personal Space Theatrics in association with The Actors Studio. She has performed original pieces at Upright Citizens Brigade and Dixon Place. Erika will be developing her newest play through a fellowship from SPACE on Ryder Farm this summer. She founded The Jam Band Writers Group, is a founding member of the 15th Floor Playwrights Collective and an alumna of The Movement Theatre Company's 2010 New Works/Moving Up Writers Group. Erika has been a finalist for The Estrogenius Festival as well as a Juilliard fellowship. She holds a B.F.A in drama from Syracuse University.
Julian Sheppard's plays include Buicks (Underwood Theater, 2 Drama Desk nominations, including Outstanding Play), Los Angeles (NYC , Flea Theater; L.A., Pacific Resident Theater), Skin & Bones (“Vengeance”, an evening of short plays, StageFarm, Cherry Lane Theatre). Most recently: Zero (New Work Now! at the Public Theater). Other plays have been produced in New York at Soho Rep, Miranda Theatre, Blue Heron Arts Center, Lincoln Center Directors' Lab, Juilliard, The Cherry Lane, MCC Performance Lab, New York Performance Works and Nada; and regionally throughout the U.S. His work has also been developed at numerous theaters, including Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth, Primary Stages, Epic Theater Ensemble, MCC, WPA, EST-LA, Rattlestick and the Lark.