NY THEATRE BARN
Songs For Hands On A Thursday
September 18 2025
IN RESIDENCE: September 9 – 15, 2025
A theatrical song cycle created by Jay Alan Zimmerman (based on poems by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl).
Music by Jay Alan Zimmerman
Words from Sarah Ruhl‘s 44 Poems for You
Story and theatrical concept by Jay Alan Zimmerman
Adapted from Sarah Ruhl’s 44 Poems for You
Directed by Evan Cummings
PERFORMANCES:
September 18, 2025 @ 7:00pm
PRICE:
$25 General Admission
$15 Live Stream
RUNNING TIME: 80 Minutes
At the Five Angels Theatre: 789 10th Ave, NYC
ASL Interpretation and Live CART captioning will be provided.
Amanda D’Archangelis: sound engineer
Katy S. Tucker: projection designer
Emily Garcia: Assistant Director
Alexandria Wailes: associate choreographer
Vocals were by Claire-Frances Sullivan (Young Woman & soprano chorus)
Rick Rea (Young Man, Dad’s Voices, and male chorus)
Amanda D’Archangelis (Sister, Mom, and alto chorus)
ASL interpreters:
Ernie Alugas
Jess Ames
Liz Carlin
Jamie Rose Hays
Beth Staehle
Kevin Vogel
Jay Alan Zimmerman Best known for creating & starring in JAY ALAN ZIMMERMAN’S INCREDIBLY DEAF MUSICAL (Off-Broadway), BRAIN. STORM. (Prospect Musicals), and the NAUGHTY & NICE HOLIDAY SONGBOOK (Lincoln Center/54 Below/Amazon), Jay’s also created works for musical robots (ROBOTICUS @Spotify), disabled actors (COMFORT PET @Fault Line), music visualizers (SEEING MUSIC @Google), and holds a patent on music & hearing visualization (USPTO). Speaker credits include Moma, Berklee NYC, and the Festival of Ideas. He’s featured in the documentaries 9:11 I Was There (History Channel) and 9/11: One Day In America (BBC/National Geographic). 2022 winner of the Advanced Jerry Harrington Songwriter Award (BMI).
Evan T Cummings is a director of new plays and musicals as well as a playwright, lyricist, and teaching artist. Past directing and play development: Roundabout, Lincoln Center, NYTW, Stella Adler Studio, Luna Stage, Fault Line, Geva Theatre. Associate Director: The New Group, Dallas Theater Center, Labyrinth Theatre, The Public Theater. Evan directs frequently at Queens Theatre for their “Theatre for All” initiative which showcases work by disabled actors and playwrights. He is a member of the Roundabout Directors Group and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon. Next: “Songs for Hands on a Thursday,” music by Jay Alan Zimmerman and lyrics from poetry by Sarah Ruhl, in concert November 15-16 at Baruch College (Prospect Musicals).
Garrett Zuercher (DIRECTOR of ASL) A profoundly Deaf theatre artist and filmmaker with an MFA in playwriting, Garrett Zuercher (he/him) played the lead role of Huckleberry Finn in the international tour of Deaf West’s legendary Broadway production of BIG RIVER and has starred in multiple television shows and feature films. Currently the founding artistic director of Deaf Broadway, he spearheads their all-Deaf musicals at Lincoln Center. His award-winning plays have performed at the Kennedy Center and The Shed, among others. His latest short film, Flirting (With Possibilities) continues to rack up prizes at festivals around the globe. Member: AEA, SAG-AFTRA, Dramatists Guild. garrettzuercher.com
Sarah Ruhl is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist, and professor. Her plays include The Oldest Boy, Dear Elizabeth, Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2010); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play (Pen American Award, Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play); Melancholy Play; Demeter in the City (nine NAACP Image Award nominations); Scenes From Court Life; How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and across the country as well as internationally, and translated into fourteen languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN Center Award for mid-career playwrights, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and a Lilly award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family. (Official Headshot by Greg Constanzo)
JEFF CALHOUN (MODERATOR) BROADWAY: Disney’s Newsies (Director, Tony Award nomination Best Direction), Bonnie and Clyde (Director/Choreographer), Jekyll and Hyde (Director/Choreographer), Deaf West’s Big River (Director/Choreographer), Brooklyn (Co-Producer, Director/Choreographer), Annie Get Your Gun (Co-Choreographer),Grease! (Director/Choreographer, Tony Award nomination Best Choreography), Tommy Tune Tonite! (Director/Choreographer), The Will Roger’s Follies (Associate Choreographer), My One and Only. OFF-BROADWAY: Between the Lines (Director/Choreographer), Tappin’ Thru Life (Director) WEST END: 9 to 5 (Director), High School Musical 1 & 2 (Director). UPCOMING: Deaf West’s Elephant Shoes (Two River Theater, Director/Choreographer) A Complicated Woman (Director/Choreographer). Jeff is an associate artist at Ford’s Theatre and Covenant House International, he sits on the Latin American Board of Directors.
IRT Theater is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. Tucked away in the old Archive Building in Greenwich Village, IRT’s mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York State Legislature; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council; A.R.T./New York’s NYC Small Theatres Fund made possible with support from the Howard Gilman Foundation & support for ASL interpretation provided in part through funding from Access A.R.T./New York.
ACCESS: IRT is a fully wheelchair-accessible facility. Please reach out to Kori Rushton if you have any accessibility questions or concerns, krushton@irttheater.org