Your Own Personal Exegesis, a new play by Playwriting alumna Julia May Jonas ’12, will have its world premiere at Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater. Performances for the production’s limited run begin November 19, 2022; the show officially opens December 5 and closes December 31.
The world premiere is supported by Lincoln Center Theatre’s LCT3 program, which showcases the work of new playwrights, designers, and directors in Lincoln Center’s newest theater space. Annie Tippe will direct the production, which also features original music by Brian Cavanagh-Strong.
Your Own Personal Exegesis follows the members of a liberal church youth group as they attend services, host danceathons, and begin preparations for their annual passion play. The idea of passion takes on a new meaning as crushes between members rise to the surface, while other members angle for power. Your Own Personal Exegesis is “a bracingly funny, slyly devastating” coming-of-age tale of religious ecstasy and eroticism.
Julia May Jonas is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Her debut novel, Vladimir, came out in February of this year. Jonas is the founder of Nellie Tinder, a theatre company, and the creator of All Long True American Stories, a play-cycle of five new works inspired by five canonical male-experience plays. Other plays include: Time & Motivation for Fitness, Michigan Murders, Evelyn, Emily Climbs (Machine Méchant), Take Heart, and For Artists Only. Her work has been developed with and presented by The Bushwick Starr, New Georges, Ars Nova, Target Margin, PRELUDE, Playwrights Horizons, Incubator Arts Center, BRIC, HERE Arts Center, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, Montclair State New Works Initiative, North American Culture Laboratory, JKB Theater at Skidmore College, The Brick Theater, Dixon Place, TerraNova, and others. Jonas also teaches theatre at Skidmore College.
