MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB ANNOUNCES BEYOND THE STAGE PROGRAMMING FOR THE BROADWAY PREMIERE OF PUNCH!
- Deepak Sinha
- Aug 26
- 9 min read
THE PRODUCTION WILL BEGIN PERFORMANCES SEPTEMBER 9, 2025, ON BROADWAY AT MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB’S SAMUEL J. FRIEDMAN THEATRE!
(New York, NY – August 25, 2025) - Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC)—Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director, and Chris Jennings, Executive Director—is pleased to announce a robust slate of Beyond the Stage programming around their Broadway premiere of
Punch, which will offer audiences and the general public opportunities to enrich their experience with the show.
Based on a remarkable true story, Punch is two-time Olivier Award winner James Graham (INK)’s “most moving work yet” (The Times of London) and is directed by Adam Penford. As Jacob tears through Nottingham in a whirlwind of drugs, girls, and bar fights, he makes a fatal mistake that lands him in prison. But as he struggles to accept the consequences of his actions and build a new life, he finds an unusual source of salvation: the parents of the boy he killed.
“We are proud to create these meaningful conversations which deepen the impact of the story of Jacob Dunne,” said MTC Executive Director Chris Jennings. “We are deeply grateful to the participating leaders, thinkers, and community organizations who have joined us in championing this production.” Playwright James Graham said, “MTC stands for really big, bold pieces of new writing that aren’t afraid to look at the world and have some difficult conversations.”
Please join us for:
September 12: The Real People Behind Punch: Navigating Healing and Forgiveness
Purchase a ticket and join us following the 8 PM show for a one-night-only conversation with the real people who are portrayed in Punch. Our audiences will get an intimate look into how the true story of Jacob Dunne was dramatized for the Broadway stage, and how those impacted by Jacob—including the parents of his victim—have formed an unlikely bond in the name of advocacy, healing, and forgiveness. This dynamic post-show conversation will be moderated by Broadway News journalist Ruthie Fierberg and will feature Olivier Award-winning playwright James Graham and director Adam Penford, as well as the parents of James Hodgkinson, Joan Scourfield and David Hodgkinson, and their court-appointed restorative justice facilitator, Nicola Fowler.
September 25: The Healing Power of the Arts
Purchase a ticket and join us after the 7 PM performance for a conversation that amplifies how art can provide a pathway to personal and collective healing. Hear from community change-makers who activate the arts as a vehicle for advocacy and social change, and unpack how people access art as a tool for self-expression, individual transformation, and universal connection. Layman Lee (Senior Director of Neighborhood Safety Initiatives, Center for Justice Innovation), Jamie Maleszka-Tate (Director of Creative Arts, The Fortune Society), and Michael McElroy (Executive Director of Collaboration and Performance, NYU Tisch Art & Public Policy) will participate in this discussion moderated by Gabbie Ballesteros (Assistant Director of Learning and Community Engagement, MTC).
October 15: What is Restorative Justice?
Purchase a ticket and join us after the 8 PM performance for a conversation exploring the transformative power of restorative justice. What exactly is it, and how does it differ from the traditional legal process? Susan Abraham (New York Law School) and Felix B. Rosado (Cofounder, Let's Circle Up) will use the true story behind Punch, as well as real-world practices in New York and across the United States to introduce the audience to the core principles of restorative justice, and how this work can aid in healing, accountability, community well-being, and safety.
In addition to these dynamic panel discussions, Manhattan Theatre Club is proud to announce the CIRCLE UP Saturday talkback series in partnership with the Center for Justice Innovation (CJI). Inspired by the restorative justice circle practices depicted in Punch, audience members are invited to stay after select matinee performances for a talkback co-facilitated by a Manhattan Theatre Club Teaching Artist and a NYC-based restorative justice practitioner. This series launches on September 20 and continues every Saturday through October 25.
For additional information about these events, visit the Punch Beyond the Stage website at https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/who-we-are/about-mtc/bts-broadway/
ABOUT MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB
Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) is a not-for-profit theatre that has been under the leadership of Artistic Director Lynne Meadow since 1972. In 2023, Chris Jennings became her partner, joining MTC as Executive Director. Meadow, Jennings and their first-rate staff produce seasons of innovative, entertaining and thought-provoking new plays and musicals at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway and off-Broadway stages at New York City Center. For over 50 years, MTC has served as a nurturing home for artists and theatre professionals at all stages of their careers. In that time, MTC has produced more than 600 premieres, which include nearly 20% of all of the new plays on Broadway since they opened the Friedman opened in 2003. To date, MTC productions have garnered 31 Tony Awards; 52 Drama Desk Awards; 49 Obie Awards; and seven Pulitzer Prizes for Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living, Lynn Nottage’s Ruined, David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, David Auburn’s Proof, August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, and Beth Henley’s Crimes Of The Heart. MTC has been acclaimed for identifying, fostering and supporting talented artists in the creation of new work, and the hallmark of Meadow’s long tenure has been the quality, range and originality of the theatre’s repertoire. Artistic Development at MTC includes readings, workshops, fellowships, dramaturgical support and other resources for playwrights and other artists. MTC’s playwriting commission program is one of the largest in the country. MTC is committed to ticket access initiatives to make its productions broadly accessible, engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds. MTC strives to help them build deep connections with its work through Beyond the Stage programming and its Learning and Community Engagement program, which serves over 2,500 students of all ages annually throughout the NYC area, nationwide and abroad. For more information, please visit www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.
ABOUT MTC LEARNING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
MTC created the first education department in a major theatre company in New York City in 1989. Over 36 years, that initial endeavor has grown into a world class, acclaimed program that has engaged well over 100,000 learners of all ages locally, nationally, and on five continents.
Now known as MTC Learning and Community Engagement (LaCE), the department creates experiences that empower learners to engage joyfully and authentically with live theatre as authors, audience, and administrators. This work centers equity, diversity, and inclusion, and is driven further by core values of community and connection, inquiry and reflection, authenticity in storytelling, and joy. Each year, MTC LaCE achieves its mission by working with approximately 3,000 learners in three major spaces: classroom, community, and career.
Through LaCE’s Community Engagement programs, MTC staff and Teaching Artists partner with community-based organizations supporting individuals who have experienced systemic inequities that may deny or limit access to live professional theatre and NYC cultural institutions. Collaborations include preparatory workshops and theatre-going experiences, playwriting residencies with culminating readings, theatre skills workshops, and professional development opportunities. Since 2021, over 1,200 community artists, individuals, and collaborators across ten partner organizations created or attended theatre through these partnerships.
For more information visit: www.manhattantheatreclub.com/learning/
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR JUSTICE INNOVATION
The Center for Justice Innovation is a community justice organization that centers safety and racial justice. Since our founding in 1996, the Center has partnered with community members, courts, and the people most impacted to create stronger, healthier, more just communities. Across the New York City region, we create and operate innovative programs to address challenges identified by community members and work to ensure everyone can live in a truly safe neighborhood, reaching over 100,000 people every year. Across the country, we use field-leading research to learn from our on-the-ground work and inform how we spread those lessons through our technical assistance work in all fifty states.
The Center uses restorative practices in the courts, diverting criminal cases from the legal system; in schools, to build a positive culture and reduce incidents of harm; and in communities, to strengthen relationships, make decisions, or respond to harm. Regardless of the setting, restorative justice offers a response to harm that acknowledges our interdependence and connection to each other.
For more information on how and where we work, please visit: innovatingjustice.org.
ABOUT THE FORTUNE SOCIETY
The Fortune Society’s mission is to support successful reentry from incarceration and promote alternatives to incarceration, thus strengthening the fabric of our communities. Founded in 1967, Fortune’s vision is to foster a world where those who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated will thrive as positive, contributing members of society. They do this through a holistic, one-stop model of service provision. Their continuum of care is informed and implemented by professionals with cultural backgrounds and life experiences similar to those of our participants. They serve thousands of individuals annually via their expanding New York locations: their service centers in Long Island City, Queens and Morrisania, the Bronx, as well as several housing residences throughout the city. Their program models are recognized both nationally and internationally for their quality and innovation.
Fortune’s Arts Community activates the restorative and transformative capacities of art, art-making, and radical joy to build community and imagine and advocate for future freedoms. In 2024, they hosted more than 400 workshops and events, including an annual Arts Festival and studio residency at MoMA PS1. Since 2021, Fortune Creative Arts and MTC Learning and Community Engagement have partnered to engage over 250 community members through 300+ free theatre tickets, 20+ dynamic workshops, and an annual community playwriting residency.
Learn more about The Fortune Society at: https://fortunesociety.org/
Learn more about Fortune Creative Arts at: https://www.fortuneartportal.org/
ABOUT NEW YORK LAW SCHOOL
Founded in 1891, New York Law School (NYLS) is an independent law school located in Tribeca, the heart of New York City’s legal, government, financial, and emerging tech centers. Known as “New York’s law school,” NYLS embraces the city as its classroom by complementing a rigorous legal education with an innovative and diverse set of “uniquely New York” experiential learning opportunities. Since opening its doors, NYLS has produced graduates who have gone on to hold high elected and appointed office in the city, lead large and small firms, and gain broad recognition as captains of business and industry. Its renowned faculty of prolific scholars has built the School’s strength in key areas of the law, including business and financial services, intellectual property and privacy, and government and public interest law. NYLS has more than 18,000 graduates and currently enrolls nearly 1,100 students in its full-time and part-time J.D. and LL.M. programs. Learn more at: https://www.nyls.edu/
Susan Abraham (New York Law School)
Susan J. Abraham is a Professor of Law at New York Law School where she has taught Restorative Justice, Evidence, Appellate Practice, and trial skills classes, and is the Director of the Restorative Justice Project. Prior to teaching, she has worked as a trial and appellate criminal defense attorney at the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender and the Office of the Appellate Defender in New York. She is a trained Restorative Circle Facilitator and Peacemaker, has presented on Restorative Justice at conferences and symposia in the US and abroad, and has a reflection on teaching Restorative Justice to law students forthcoming in the Journal of Legal Education. She is also a poet with poems published in The Paris Review, Poetry, Rattle, Tikkun, and Penn Review, as well as Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry, an anthology of lawyer/poets published by the University of West Virginia College of Law.
ABOUT NYU TISCH ART & PUBLIC POLICY
Art & Public Policy is a department within the Center for Research and Study in Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. In the department of Art & Public Policy, innovators and intellectuals from around the world converge to push the possibilities of cultural production. Art & Public Policy offers an intensive one-year MA in Arts Politics and an undergraduate minor taught by internationally recognized leaders in their fields.
Art & Public Policy is a meeting place for arts activists whose work cannot be contained by a single discipline or motivation. They rigorously explore the interplay between critical theory and creative practice. The flexible curriculum allows students to develop highly individualized paths of research and professional development. Graduates are connected to the pulse of social justice on six continents. They work as artists and scholars, curators and activists, arts administrators, educators and cultural Innovators.
Art & Public Policy provides a space for action and reflection. They push their students to think about their role in a transnational world that must contend with issues around race, class, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, and religion. Courses examine histories of political frameworks in the arts, as well as contemporary advocacy strategies and tactics for change. Together they ask, “How do we make the world anew?”
Learn more at: https://tisch.nyu.edu/art-public-policy
PRODUCTION INFORMATION American Premiere Punch Written by James Graham Based on the book Right from Wrong by Jacob Dunne Featuring Camila Canó-Flaviá, Victoria Clark, Will Harrison, Cody Kostro, Piter Marek, Sam Robards, Lucy Taylor. Directed by Adam Penford Presented in association with Nottingham Playhouse Previews begin September 9, 2025 Opening Night September 29, 2025 Samuel J. Friedman Theatre 261 West 47th Street |
WEBSITE & SOCIAL MEDIA Website: manhattantheatreclub.comInstagram: instagram.com/MTC_NYCFacebook: facebook.com/ManhattanTheatreClubYouTube: youtube.com/user/mtcbroadwayBluesky: bsky.app/profile/mtc-nyc.bsky.social |
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