SANCTUARY CITY

ABOUT

By Martyna Majok
Directed by Rebecca Frecknall

2021/22 Season

September 8, 2021—October 17, 2021

Sanctuary City ran approximately 100 minutes with no intermission.

Read Synopsis

DREAMers. Love(r)s. Life-long friends. Negotiating the promise of safety and the weight of responsibility, they’ll fight like hell to establish a place for themselves and each other in America. 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner, NYTW Usual Suspect and former 2050 Fellow Martyna Majok brought us an unforgettable story that asked what we were willing to sacrifice for someone we love. Rebecca Frecknall, director of the 2019 Olivier Award-winning Summer and Smoke, helmed the highly anticipated production which returned to the stage after performances were halted in March 2020.

Sanctuary City was the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and a Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Theater Development Grant. This project was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. Sanctuary City was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts.

Sanctuary City was performed at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, NY, NY 10014) from September 8–October 17, 2021. Presented by Special Arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Theatre Foundation. The production was also available to stream online from October 25–November 21, 2021.

Remount Director Caitlin Sullivan
Scenic & Costume Design Tom Scutt
Lighting Design Isabella Byrd
Sound Design Mikaal Sulaiman
Stage Manager Merrick A.B. Williams

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To support a reduced capacity for audiences who were not yet ready to sit shoulder to shoulder in the theatre, at all Sunday performances of Sanctuary City except October 17, we offered “seating bubbles” with an empty seat on either side of your party. Seating was available in singles or pairs and we asked you to book the entire “bubble” of seats. To view the Sunday seating chart, click here.


In compliance with New York City guidelines, all attendees were required to show proof of vaccination. Masks were required at all times inside the building and theatre. 
For up-to-date information about our COVID policies & reopening plan, please visit nytw.org/covid.

  • B

    NYTW debut. Theatre credits include: The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Public); Native Son (Yale Repertory Theatre). Television credits include: HBO’s “The Deuce,” and he is currently a series regular on Amazon Prime’s “The Expanse.” B.F.A. in Acting from the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at SUNY Purchase College.

  • G

    NYTW debut. Off-Broadway: Erica Schmidt’s Mac Beth (Red Bull Theater/Hunter Theater Project), C.A. Johnson’s The Climb (Cherry Lane Theater/under mentorship of Martyna Majok), Den of Thieves (Harlem Repertory Theater) and BLU (Aaron Davis Hall). Recent graduate of the City College of New York.

  • Henry

    NYTW Debut. Broadway credit Network. Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway credits Anatomy of A Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company); Mud (Boundless Theater Company); and Alligator (New Georges). Selected Television credits include “Wu-tang: An American Saga;” “That Damn Michael Che Show;” “Law & Order: SVU;” and “Prodigal Son.” MFA David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.

Martyna Majok / Playwright

MARTYNA MAJOK was born in Bytom, Poland and aged in Jersey and Chicago. Martyna was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Cost of Living (Williamstown, MTC, Hampstead). Other plays include Queens (LCT3, La Jolla) and Ironbound (Steppenwolf, Round House, WP/Rattlestick, Geffen, National Theatre of Poland). Awards include a Lortel Award, ATCA Francesca Primus Prize, Lanford Wilson Award, Stacey Mindich Prize, Greenfield Prize, Champions of Change Award, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Charles MacArthur Award, Ashland New Plays Festival Women’s Invitational Prize, Jean Kennedy Smith Award, David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, Global Age Project Prize, Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, two Jane Chambers Feminist Playwriting Prizes, and Merage Foundation Fellowship for the American Dream. Commissions from The Public, Lincoln Center, The Bush, Almeida, Geffen, La Jolla, South Coast Rep, and MTC. Residencies at Sundance, The O’Neill, Vineyard Arts Project with The Public, Ground Floor, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Fuller Road, Marble House Project, and Ragdale. BA: University of Chicago; MFA: Yale School of Drama, The Juilliard School. Alumna of Youngblood, WP Lab and NYTW’s 2050 Fellowship. Martyna is a Core Writer at Playwrights Center and a member of The Dramatists Guild, The Writers Guild of America East, and an NYTW Usual Suspect. Martyna was a 2012-13 NNPN playwright-in-residence and the 2015-16 PoNY Fellow at the Lark. She is a 2018-19 Hodder Fellow at Princeton.

Rebecca Frecknall / Director

REBECCA FRECKNALL is Associate Director at the Almeida Theatre, where she will direct The Duchess of Malfi this winter. In April of 2019, she opened a new version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters to critical and popular acclaim. She also recently directed the critically acclaimed Summer and Smoke, which opened at the Almeida before transferring to the West End in November 2018. The production won the 2019 Olivier Award for Best Revival, and Rebecca was also nominated for the Peter Hall Olivier for Best Director. Future projects include directing Violet, a new opera written by Alice Birch and composed by Tom Coult.

After graduating from Goldsmiths in 2009 with a First Class BA/Hons in Drama and Theatre Arts Rebecca went on to train on the Directors Courses at LAMDA. She was the 2012/13 recipient of the National Theatre Studio’s Emerging Director Bursary and was the 2015/16 recipient of the acclaimed RTYDS Bursary at Northern Stage.

Caitlin Sullivan / Remount Director

CAITLIN SULLIVAN is a director and theater maker based in New York City. Recent work includes Ole White Sugah Daddy (Obehi Janice), Panopticon (Gracie Gardner), Cherie Dre (Sacha Yanow) and Madonna col Bambino (Sarah Einspanier and Deepali Gupta). Caitlin’s previous work with New York Theatre Workshop includes serving as the Associate Director on Hundred Days. She is currently developing United States v. Gupta with Deepali Gupta and Ohio with The Bengsons (co-director Anne Kauffman). Caitlin was a co-founder and Artistic Director of Seattle’s critically acclaimed Satori Group. She is an alum of The Drama League Directors Project and the Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellowship and a New Georges Affiliate Artist.

Tom Scutt / Scenic & Costume Design

NYTW debut. Broadway: King Charles III (Tony, OCC nominations), Constellations (Friedman), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Booth). Designer US: MTV Video Music Awards 2015 (Microsoft Centre) & 2016 (Madison Square Garden), Jesus Christ Superstar (current US tour). RECENT UK: A Very Expensive Poison (Old Vic, Critics Circle Best Design, Evening Standard nomination), Fairview (Young Vic). OTHER UK: National Theatre, Old Vic, Almeida, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, RSC, English National Opera, Royal Opera House, Akram Khan Co, Hofesh Shechter Co. Creative Director: Christine & The Queens, Pet Shop Boys, Sam Smith, Ben Platt. Director: Berberian Sound Studio (Donmar).

Isabella Byrd / Lighting Design

NYTW: Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Obie Award). Off-Broadway: Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons), Daddy (Vineyard/New Group), Continuity (MTC), Plano (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: Hartford Stage, Westport, The Old Globe, A.C.T. San Francisco, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville. Upcoming: Almeida (London), Alley Theatre, Signature Theatre.

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Mikaal Sulaiman / Sound Design

NYTW: Light Shining in Buckinghamshire. Off-Broadway: Fires in the Mirror, Meet Vera Stark (Signature Theatre); Continuity (Manhattan Theatre Club); Passage, Fairview (Soho Rep); Blue Ridge (Atlantic Theatre); Rags Parkland, Underground Railroad Game (Ars Nova); Skittles: The Broadway Musical; Black Artists Retreat by Theaster Gates (Park Avenue Armory). 2019 Henry Hewes Design Award.

Merrick A.B. Williams / Stage Manager

NYTW: Othello, An Ordinary Muslim. Broadway: The Book of Mormon, Frankie and Johnny…. New York City Center: Call Me Madam (Encores). Off-Broadway: Sweat – Mobile Unit National, Measure for Measure – Mobile Unit, Gently Down The Stream (The Public); Somebody’s Daughter, The Layover, Invisible Thread (Second Stage); Daphne’s Dive (Signature). Regional: Seder (Hartford Stage).

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