written and performed by Rebecca Hart

directed by Chloe Treat with Jenny Leon

MAY 6 at 7PM and MAY 7 at 2PM

the cell

338 W. 23rd St. New York, NY 10011

How To Read Tarot Cards examines actor/musician/playwright Rebecca Hart’s conflicted relationship with both her long-term ‘side hustle’ and the father who taught it to her as a teenager. Part impassioned defense of a misunderstood art, part comedy confessional, part poignant memoir, HTRTC examines our capacity for magic, our desire for power, and the ways in which our willingness to look - at ourselves, the truth, each other - can make or break us. 

about the artists

Rebecca Hart (writer/performer) is a writer and performer based in NYC. She studied Theatre at Brown, trained as an actor at the Maggie Flanigan Studio, then (later) got her MFA in Book & Lyric writing at NYU's The Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Acting credits include a CT Critics Circle 2019 Award and 2017 Best Actress Nomination, the 2019 Public Theater National Tour of SWEAT, and extensive regional work. As a songwriter, she won the 2017 NY Innovative Theatre Award for Best Original Music and her work has appeared in productions at Woolly Mammoth, Target Margin, The Public Shakespeare Lab, the NY Hip-Hop Theatre festival, the Village Theatre, the National Theatre of Oslo, and the Civilians Theatre Company (Associate Artist). She performs regularly as Rebecca Hart & the Wrong Band; recent shows include the Brooklyn Americana Festival, the Porch Stomp on Governors’ Island, the Kripalu Yoga Center, the Irish Arts Center NYC, and the Rockwood Music Hall. Her 2018 album The Magician’s Daughter is available to stream. She studied Theatre at Brown University, trained as an actor for two years at the Maggie Flanigan Studio, and (later) got her MFA from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Her thesis musical IRON JOHN: an american ghost story (with composer/collaborator Jacinth Greywoode) has been produced and/or developed at NYU Tisch, Theatreworks Silicon Valley, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Temple University, the Manhattan School of Music and the 2019 National Alliance for Musical Theatre Festival. In 2020, she was one of three librettists commissioned by the Kennedy Center’s American Opera Initiative. She writes a weekly substack called From The Chrysalis. She is thrilled to be in residency at The Cell working on her first solo show (How To Read Tarot Cards) in many years. www.rebeccahart.net, Tarot readings at www.cleartarotnyc.com

Chloe Treat (director) is a New York-based director and choreographer. Born and raised in the great, if not wildly problematic state of Texas, she directs and choreographs big-ass-musicals. Chloe began her life in the arts as a dancer and has since worked as a director and choreographer of musicals, operas, and highly theatrical plays. Her training and work in various mediums influenced her direction in theater to rely heavily on movement, music, and design as storytelling tools. Chloe is the director and choreographer of a number of new musicals and operas, most recently: Taking up Serpents and Holy Ground (The Glimmerglass Festival), Dave Malloy’s Don’t Stop Me (Manhattan School of Music and The Polyphone Festival), and Iron John (Irish Arts Center (upcoming)). Chloe is an associate artist for Heartbeat Opera where she choreographed Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, Daphnis and Chloe and Don Giovanni as well as co-directed a New York Times Critics’ Pick production of Der Freischütz. Chloe choreographed (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at Santa Fe Opera, The Good Swimmer, Thomas Paine in Violence, and Words on the Street at HERE arts as well as the American premiere of the Philip Glass opera, The Perfect American. Chloe has worked as an associate on a number of large commercial productions including Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Broadway and the American Repertory Theater), Amelie (Berkeley Rep), and Heisenberg (Broadway). She has also directed and choreographed large musical productions at many educational institutions including Pace (Amelie), Manhattan School of Music (Spring Awakening, Iron John, Wild Party), The New School (Street Scene) and Wagner (Evita). Chloe has her BFA in Drama from Tisch School Of The Arts. She’s an SDC Member and a Drama League Directing Fellow. Chloe was listed as one of the Broadway Women’s Fund “Women to Watch” in 2020 and received a grant from Opera America for Women Stage Directors and Conductors in 2022. Chloe is the mother of two-year-old, Cora, and has presented her writing about the intersection of motherhood and directing in industry publications like the SDC journal. Her ultimate goal as a director is to create spaces that value equally both artistic excellence and treating people well.