Apocalypse: A Love Story
By Sunny Drake
Directed by Will Steinberger
In this darkly surreal comedy, an unconventional family absurdly navigates their big life moments in a civilization undergoing total collapse. We follow them from their wedding vows (what can you promise when the world is tanking?) all the way through to their “golden years.” The family keeps collecting surprising new members of their motley crew, since it turns out that navigating an apocalypse is kind of a lot.
Developed by The Alcove at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, produced by Caridad Svich.
Cast: Carl Holder, Annie Fang, Pooya Mohseni, Keith Randolph Smith, and Audrey Lynn Weston
Stage Manager: Caden Cristiano
Digital Reading Premiere: February 1-16, 2026
About the Playwright:
Sunny Drake‘s inventive and multi-award-winning theatre works have been presented in over 60 cities across the world and translated into 6 languages. His audiences have spanned international arts festival goers, queers in underground warehouses and seniors in regional theatres. He is based in Los Angeles and continues to be part of Canadian theatre, described by Broadway World as “one of Canada’s brightest playwrights”. www.sunnydrake.com
About the Director:
Will Steinberger is a Drama League Award nominated director and producer. He has directed and developed new plays at New York Theatre Workshop, New York Stage and Film, Clubbed Thumb, The Lortel, New Dramatists, Hartford Stage, the Drama League, Berkshire Theatre Group, Powerhouse Theater, The Brick, the Wilma, and InterAct. Will recently directed Johnny G. Lloyd’s birthday birthday birthday at The Tank and Andrea Stolowitz’s The Berlin Diaries at 59E59 featuring David Greenspan, produced in association with The New Group. Other recent productions include Joanna Castle Miller’s Inferna (Valdez Theater Conference), Han Van Sciver’s Happy Birthday, Han (JACK), and Gina Femia’s meet you at the Galaxy Diner. (The Tank and New Light Theatre Project), and Charles Gershman’s Oedipus 2.0.2.0 (f/ Eddie Cooper). WSteinberger.com
About the Cast:
Annie Fang (actor, she/her) most recently appeared in LOBSTER (The Tank). Off-Broadway: Cymbeline (NAATCO), Your Own Personal Exegesis (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater), SHHHH (Atlantic Theater Company). Also in NY: A Woman Among Women (Bushwick Starr/New Georges), Usus; Chairs (Clubbed Thumb). Select regional: Jennifer Who Is Leaving (Round House Theatre), Thrive, Or What You Will; Twelfth Night (American Shakespeare Center), SHIP (Azuka Theatre), Man of God (InterAct Theatre). fang-annie.com @thefatpecan
Carl Holder (stage directions) has written, acted and directed as Artistic Director of Glass Bandits Theater Company since 2008. Carl was a 2024-25 Fellow in Target Margin’s Theatermaker Institute. His solo play Out of Order played to sold out houses at East Village Basement. He won the 2020 Goldberg Prize for this play Until You Come Back To Me. carlholder.com
Pooya Mohseni (actor) is an Iranian American actor, writer, filmmaker and transgender activist. Her credits include Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer winning play English on Broadway (Roundabout Theater), an Obie win for English's off-Broadway run (Atlantic Theater & The Old Globe), The Laramie Project (Audible/Tectonic Theater Project), In The Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot (Playwrights Horizons). Film and TV credits include Law & Order: SVU, The Walking Dead: Dead City, Big Dogs, Falling Water, Terrifier and See You Then.
Keith Randolph Smith (actor) is an American Broadway, television, theater and film actor. Smith appeared in the films Malcolm X and Girl 6, both directed by Spike Lee, and played Will in Fallout, and Jesse Hill in Backstreet Justice. On Broadway, he was seen in Fences, King hedley II, The Piano Lesson, Salome, and Come Back, Little Sheba. Off Broadway he has been seen in Oh Happy Day!, Fabulation, Jitney, and more. He has received a Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance.
Audrey Lynn Weston (actor) is a film and theatre actor based in New York City. Theatre credits include Old Jews Telling Jokes at Westside Theatre and Alex Timber and Michael Friedman’s Love’s Labour’s Lost at Shakespeare in the Park. On Film she can be seen in Finding Julie, The Family Fang, Tribute, and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. She was nominated for a New York Innovative Theater Award for her work in Rachel Shukert’s Bloody Mary.
About the Stage Manager:
Caden Cristiano is Assistant Operations Manager at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, and is also a stage manager with a BA in Stage Management from Pace University.
Sound Design: MJ Coomber
Dramaturgy: Kathy Muller and Emma Tibaldo
Script readers & consultants: Chanelle Gallant, Chaprece Henry, Tom Malleson, Caridad Svich, and Bob White.
Thanks also to the Toronto Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Arctic Circle Residency 2024 and alumni residents onboard, and Headlands Centre for the Arts.
The Lortel Theatre’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Programs supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
The Alcove New Play Development Program is funded, in part, by a grant from the New York City Tourism Foundation.
This program was funded, in part, by the Canada Council for the Arts.