Friends with Amenities
Written by & Starring Ahsan Ali & Lisa Jill Anderson
Directed by Sarah Norris
September 5 - 10
Co-Produced with New Light Theater Project and running Off-Broadway Sept. 14 thru Sept. 30
Friends with amenities
Pendragon Theatre's production now playing at 59E59 Theaters in New York City thru this Saturday!
"The full house audience was totally engaged and wowed by the show!
A genuine play that is full of humor and heart!"
- Marina Kennedy, BroadwayWorld
“Beguilingly funny and thoughtfully probing play!”
- John Ziegler and Leah Richards, Thinking Theatre NYC
“A meritorious nuanced play about friendship, relationships, and different upbringings.”
- Eva Heinemann, Hi! Drama
THE CREATIVES
Co-Writers - Ahsan Ali (he/him) & Lisa Jill Anderson (she/her)
Director - Sarah Norris † (she/her)
Scenic Designer - Natalie Eslami (she/her)
Lighting Designer - Haley Garcia Parnell (she/they)
Sound Designer - Jan Bentley (they/them)
Assistant Director/Stage Manager - Kelly McCarty (she/they)
Stage Manager - Meredith Warren (she/her)
† Represents member of Stage Directors & Choreographers Society
Featuring:
Ali - Ahsan Ali* (he/him)
Natalie - Lisa Jill Anderson* (she/her)
* Represents member of Actors' Equity Association
ABOUT THE SHOW
Ali has problems. So does Natalie. Ali speaks Urdu. Natalie speaks Kardashian. Surviving in New York City is never simple. These two NYC transplants dissect the relative chaos of their lives on a single night in an empty Brooklyn apartment. Misunderstandings of language, culture, and life experience threaten to spill over as Ali and Natalie interrogate and challenge each other’s assumptions about their lives and try to stumble drunkenly toward common ground.
70 minutes
Ahsan Ali
Co-Writer & Ali
Ahsan (he/him) is a writer, actor, and filmmaker who grew up in Pakistan and immigrated to NYC where he currently resides. He is the co-founder of the indie production company, Zeal Films. He is the co-writer for the award winning pilot Legit Married, which won Best Web Pilot at DWF: LA, Best Episodic Pilot at Katra Film Series, and was an ATX TV Festival Pitch Competition Finalist in 2022. Select theater credits: Disgraced (American Stage), Mushroom by Eisa Davis (People’s Light). Select tv credits: “The Blacklist” (NBC), “Nora from Queens” (Comedy Central). Awards: Best Short Film, Best Actor, & Best Director in the Golden Short Film Festival for his film Fahim (2020); Best Performance for his film Coffee in the Astoria Film Festival (2021); Best Actor in the New Wave Short Film Festival for his film Fahim (2020); Best Performance at Women’s Comedy Film Festival in Atlanta and Chicago for Legit Married (2022); The Hilton Worldwide Award for Distinguished Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (2014). BFA, CUNY Brooklyn College. @ahsanali.32
Lisa Jill Anderson
Co-Writer & Natalie
Lisa (she/her) is an actor, writer, and producer based in NYC, originally from CA. She loves nothing more than working on a new play and has appeared in over a dozen world premieres and workshop productions downtown, uptown, on NYC rooftops, regionally, and everywhere in between. Select theater credits include: everything is super great by Stephen Brown (NLTP @ 59E59), The Woods. by Jahna Ferrón-Smith (Pendragon), Hal & Bee by Max Baker (NLTP @ 59e59), In the Event of My Death by Lindsay Joy (IRT Theater), and Live From the Surface of the Moon by Max Baker (Wild Project). TV: “Inventing Anna” (Netflix) & “Growing Up” (Disney+). Lisa co-created, produced and starred in the award-winning web pilot Legit Married. In 2022, Legit Married was an ATX TV Festival Pitch Competition Finalist and screened at 32 film festivals, with several wins and nominations for Best Pilot. Proud member of New Light Theater Project. BFA in acting, Brooklyn College. @lisajillanderson