you don’t have to do anything.
Teddy hopes to find closure on the time in his life with Clark, a former classmate, and brings us into the past where it all began: 7th grade at a new school in the early 2000s. After being shunned by the rest of their classmates, Teddy and Clark have a sleepover that takes an unexpected and uncomfortable direction. They then fall out of touch when Clark is expelled until Teddy receives an AIM message from Clark late in the night.
The conversation incites an online communication over a decade that’s part friendship, part adversary, part sexual exploration. As their communication progresses, it bleeds into Teddy’s own life and sense of intimacy, identity, and sexuality. Teddy once again fails to find closure in re-telling this experience to an audience and forces us to question our own perception of what really happened.
you don’t have to do anything. is written by Ryan Drake (Roller Dynasty), directed by Ryan Dobrin (Merrily We Roll Along), and produced by Will Arbery (Pulitzer Finalist, Heroes of the Fourth Turning), Leigh Honigman (No Good Things Dwell in the Flesh), and Joey Nasta (Stupid F**cking Bird). The cast includes Yaron Lotan (“Fleishman Is in Trouble”, Dead Poets Society) as Teddy, Will Dagger (Corsicana, Uncle Vanya) as Clark, Andrea Abello (Hindsight, Passage) as Enid, and Miles Elliot (Off-Broadway debut) as Guy & Others. Further casting will be announced. The creative team includes Cat Raynor (Scenic & Props Design), Bentley Heydt and Molly Tiede (Lighting Design), Christopher Vergara (Costume Design), Carsen Joenk (Sound Design), and Zack Lobel (Projections Design). Alex Might joins as Fight & Intimacy Director (How to Defend Yourself, RENT). Caren Celine Morris (Bite Me, The Comedy of Errors) is the Production Stage Manager.
you don’t have to do anything. has received prior development with Mercury Store and Less Than Rent Theater. In October 2022, the play received a 3B Development Residency at IRT Theater.
Updated: March 8, 2023
HERE is now a mask-optional space. All patrons attending HERE performances and events will no longer be required to wear masks.
We ask all audience members to please stay home if they have a sore throat, are feeling sick in any other way, or have been recently exposed to COVID-19, and to please contact the box office for refunds or exchanges.
All of our performers, technicians, and staff members are required to be fully vaccinated. Additionally, they are participating in an active testing regimen to keep everyone as safe as possible.
HERE reserves the right to revise protocols as the rate of transmission changes and in light of new scientific data that may present itself.
Tickets:
Previews: $25
Rest of the run: $30
Performance schedule:
Tue-Sat at 7 pm
Sat, Feb 17, 2 pm and 7 pm
Sun at 2 pm
We understand the extreme challenges that our current financial climate presents. No matter your socioeconomic status, we want everyone to have access to groundbreaking art. There are ten tickets priced at $10 available for each performance on a first-come, first-served basis, for those in need of financial assistance. These tickets are available with the code ACCESS. Limit two tickets per patron. Subject to availability.
Runtime: 75 minutes, no intermission
Content warnings: Sexual content, sexual violence, sexual coercion & assault, gaslighting, harsh language, all involving adolescents
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Ryan Drake (Playwright, He/They) is a queer playwright, filmmaker, and educator in Brooklyn, NY. His work has been supported by New York Theatre Workshop, HERE Arts Center, IRT Theater, Brick Aux, The Tank, Mercury Store, Less Than Rent Theatre, The Wild Project, serials@TheFlea, Dixon Place, The Actors Company LA, Medicine Show, 999 Festival and Kenyon College. He has been a finalist for the 2022 & 2021 PWC Core Apprentice Program, and a semi-finalist for the 2022 Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, 2021 Princess Grace Award, 2022 Premiere Stages Play Festival, 2022 & 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and 2019 Eugene O’Neill National Play Conference. He won the Rita & Burton Goldberg Playwriting Prize and the James E. Michael Playwriting Prize. BA: Kenyon College, MFA: Hunter College, Playwriting.
Ryan Dobrin (Director, He/Him) is one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of The Movement Theatre Company, the resident director of Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway, and the director of Those Guilty Creatures. Fellowships/affiliations include The Drama League, Playwrights Horizons, MTC, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Roundabout Directors Group, Fault Line Theatre, and Ars Nova. Associate/assistant credits on and off-Broadway with directors including Maria Friedman, Sam Gold, Billy Porter, Christopher Ashley, Trip Cullman, Zi Alikhan, Whitney White, Tyne Rafaeli, and Margot Bordelon. Productions and development include 24 Hour Plays Broadway, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Joe’s Pub, Victory Gardens Theater, The Brick, IRT Theatre, University of Michigan, Fordham University, Atlantic Acting School, Clubbed Thumb, EST, NYU’s Experimental Theatre Wing, Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, A4, Playdate Theatre, Ars Nova, and Waterwell. Ryan graduated from Wesleyan University, where he received the Rachel Henderson Theater Prize and the Outreach & Community Service Prize. ryandobrin.com
Will Arbery (Producer, He/Him) is a playwright and screenwriter. His play Heroes of the Fourth Turning premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 2019 and was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist, OBIE winner, Lortel winner, and New York Drama Critics Circle Award winner. It was named one of the best plays of the year by The New York Times, Vulture, Time Out, and more. Corsicana premiered at Playwrights Horizons in 2022 and was a New York Times Critics Pick. Evanston Salt Costs Climbing premiered at The New Group and was the subject of a feature in The New York Times Magazine. His plays are available from TCG Books and Concord Theatricals. Other plays include Plano (Clubbed Thumb), You Hateful Things (NYTW Dartmouth Residency), and Wheelchair (3 Hole Press). He was the recipient of a Whiting Award in 2020. TV: Succession and Irma Vep. His work has been featured in The Paris Review. He’s currently under commission from the Manhattan Theatre Club, Audible, and The Met Opera. willarbery.com
Leigh Honigman (Producer, She/Her) is an arts administrator and producer working in theater, film, and live events. I enjoy producing new works by underrepresented artists that interrogate the ways in which society impacts the individual. Recent theatre credits include would you set the table if I asked you to? (Line Producer – Brick Theater, 2023); No Good Thing Dwell In The Flesh (Line Producer – ART/NY Gural Theatre, 2023); you don’t have to do anything. (IRT Theater 3B Development Series, 2022), Of the woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die (Normal Ave, 2019); and The Ugly Kids (Fresh Fruit Festival at The Wild Project, 2018). Recent film-producing credits include Zoetrope (Dir. Michelle Rosen, 2021), SLUT (Dir. Madi Van Dam, 2019), Love/Hate Monologues (Dir. Tina Makharadze, 2018), and Furuncles (Dir. Tina Makharadze, 2018). Events include Mask4Mask (Purgatory, 2021), SLUT Spring Fling (The Paper Box, 2019), and the sold-out Missed Connections and Support Your Local Sex Worker (Museum of Sex, 2018).
Joey Nasta (Producer, He/They) is an actor, director, and producer. Currently, Joey works in general management for ADH Theatricals, with select upcoming projects including a nationwide tour of AMOC’s Broken Theater and an off-off-Broadway run of Transformation: The Christie Jorgensen Show at 59E59. They also work as a development consultant for AD Hamingson & Associates. Recently, Joey appeared as Monty Navarro in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder with the Light Opera of New Jersey. He produced socially distanced theatre with the Rogue Ensemble, directing Titus Andronicus at Grant’s Tomb (NYTimes, Daily Beast feature) and Much Ado About Nothing. Upcoming: developing and directing the pilot production of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Jr. for MTI with Aspire PAC. Previously, he worked in development at Ensemble Studio Theatre and PlayCo, and general management at Clubbed Thumb. Executive Producer at Spokehouse Productions. B.A. Acting/Directing, Fordham.
Caren Celine Morris (Production Stage Manager) (she/her/hers) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist from The Bronx. She aims to promote inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in all of her projects. Caren has worked on projects with The Tank, The Shed, Ping Chong & Company, HERE Arts Center, Audible @ Minetta Lane Theatre, NYC Civic Engagement Commission, The Public, and The Bushwick Starr.