A distinctive format featuring three productions from one creator, the inaugural Volt Festival celebrates the work of playwright and recent Guggenheim Fellow Karen Hartman – a New York local who’s work had rarely before been seen in her own town. A spot-on program from 59E59 Theaters is displaying Hartman’s versatile body of work – from Holocaust memoir to the story of a queer single new mom to a cautionary tale of futuristic tech supremacy – Volt offers an experience that is at once intimate, powerful and heartfelt.

Curator Val Day selected a stirring collection of works to play simultaneously during the months of May and June. The Lucky Star, deftly directed by Noah Himmelstein, is an epic story spanning a half-century and three generations, tackling issues of immigration, love, destiny and family bonds through a treasure trove of real letters written by a Polish Jewish family from the late 1930’s onward. Goldie, Max & Milk, directed by Jackson Gay, is an intimate portrait of a young parent dealing with heartache, loneliness and Brooklyn fixer-upper vertigo, with an improbable connection between a Lesbian single mom and an orthodox Jewish lactation expert at the crux of its plot. Lastly, New Golden Age steals the show. Edgy, thrilling, scary realistic with a mile a minute dialogue and moments of true candor thrown in between the technological doom and gloom, this is the story of a pseudo-Zuckerberg character who aims to dominate the world in order to overcome his own personal self-doubt. Directed by Jade King Carroll, New Golden Age features razor-sharp writing, an innovative scenic and lighting design and a five thespian cast which is, in a word, impressive. Produced and developed by Primary Stages, the future looks bright for the Midtown off-Broadway venue and their exciting new resident company.

Delving deep into three separate projects from the same artist nightly is an addictive journey: the experience offers a mode of consumption that’s wholly different from just sampling one work – what we have here is a case of bingeable theater. Not unlike the opportunities open to storytellers and audiences alike in the Golden Age of Television, where a full season allows so much more of a canvas to develop story and characters, Volt unlocks a broader perspective across an artist’s style and themes. The format makes you wish more prolific theater makers could enjoy a similar palette – and that more of Hartman’s poignant work would make it to NYC theaters in years to come.

For tickets and further info visit 59E59 Theaters