Directed by Claudia Bach
In the mid-twentieth century, King Lear and his family are in a close but crumbling family structure. What seemed stable, grounded in family expectations, slowly collapses around them, along with their abilities, perceptions of the world, and even their identities. This American gothic tale will take these characters from privilege to tragedy through their failure to see each other clearly until it is too late.
Directed by Seth Ghitelman
Lanford Wilson’s The Hot L Baltimore introduces us to a memorable cast of characters residing in a crumbling Baltimore hotel, their lives as frayed as the lobby’s worn carpet. A young prostitute named “the Girl” plies her trade, while Mr. Morse, a bewildered old man, yearns for a visit from his estranged daughter. With the hotel’s demolition looming, they and the other residents grapple with an uncertain future. Wilson masterfully blends humor and pathos, as seen in the scene where the residents, facing eviction, share a makeshift meal, finding solace and fleeting joy in their shared predicament. This play feels especially relevant today, as America seems increasingly unwilling to address the needs of its most vulnerable citizens. The struggles of the residents of the Hot L Baltimore serve as a mirror to contemporary issues like homelessness, poverty, and the growing gap between the haves and have-nots.
Directed by Daniel Maseda
ENTER PAULETTE is a rollicking solo performance about what lives and what dies in the name of civility. Equal parts joyous and ominous, this semi-improvised show follows Paulette, a mysterious man of manners in a brown sweater and a recent recipient of a blow to the eye. Tonight, Paulette finds himself in a theater, hoping to restore his confidence with a normal evening of pleasantries. The challenge: he must dare to approach the stage without cracking under the pressure to make every interaction perfect.
Musical Director: Peter Reppert
A performance of instrumental music by local musicians that will include audience interaction using the theater as an immersive experience. Components will vary over the course of the performance and may include roving actors who ad-lib and help orient visitors. The organizing principle of the show is to help envision an optimistic future through music, visual and tactile art. Participants can add comments to a vision board, dance, talk, or just sit and enjoy the concert.
Directed by Diana Raynes
After summiting one of the world’s highest mountains, a lone climber tries to survive the journey back down. As exhaustion and oxygen deprivation set in, she imagines her usual climbing companions joining her in songs to keep her mind focused, and she grapples with the impacts of her choice to climb. Guiding her decisions and doubts are the stories of the real-life mountaineers who came before. Come experience a new musical about life and death at the highest places on Earth.
Directed by Liana Olear
Contemporary with Shakespeare’s famous work and based on the same older story, Lope de Vega’s hilarious twist on the star-crossed lovers offers plenty of laughs to anyone who might have ever wished Romeo and Juliet a happier ending.
Directed by Abhisek Bhattacharya
“Wifey Unknown” revolves around love, estrangement, and redemption. Under the thin veil of humor, it shows the story of a lonely, disabled wife, Rita, roaming like a wraith in the vast mansion her husband, Yardley, built for her. It tells how Rita slowly fades away from the busy life of Yardley without Yardley even consciously realizing what is happening. Then there is Alice, Yardley’s old friend and Rita’s supposed primary care physician, who appears in the beautiful vacation rental with lousy phone and internet connections when Rita suddenly starts “sleep acting.” Alice and Yardley try to determine what is happening to Rita and, in the process, discover much more about themselves than anticipated. As Yardley encounters events Rita and he went through together, he realizes that love needs to be nurtured, shown, and maintained- not just professed. “Wifey Unknown” tells about how a business tycoon dreaming of connecting the whole world loses and re-establishes a connection with his wife.
Directed by Stephen Cox
The tragedy of a good, simple man ( a Brooklyn longshoreman) whose subconscious sexual attraction to the seventeen year old niece that he has raised as a daughter, collides with her attraction to one of his wife’s illegal immigrant cousins whom he has taken into his home out of his own generosity and love of his wife. Extremely moving tragedy with scattered humorous moments displaying both the air of 1950’s Brooklyn and a timeless, universal sense of the human condition. Contains subthemes relevant to current topics of controvery: such as the treatment of illegal aliens and anyone who seems “different” from the norm. Script published by Dramatists Play Service.
Directed by Bob Kleinberg
Taking place in two time periods – Spring through Fall of 2000 and Fall of 2008 – the story revolves around a bar where a small group of factory workers in a small town in Pennsylvania spend time together discussing their lives, sharing secrets and laughs and of course, drinks. In response to the owners of a manufacturing factory deciding to pressure the workforce into concessions on wages and benefits, the workforce has decided to strike. Consequently, the owners have decided to bring in “scabs” to break the strike, thus setting the stage for conflicts involving economic strain and race relations, working-class disillusionment and personal shame, regret, and the difficulty in forgiving others, all playing out through the group of friends who meet regularly at the bar.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama is a masterful depiction of the forces that divide and conquer us. Yet along with the rage, despair and violence, there’s humor and abundant humanity. It is a cautionary tale of what happens when you don’t know how to resist, and provides a cautionary tale to all of us in the changing political, social and economic climate.
Directed by AJ Fontaine
The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals is a comedy musical that follows Paul, an average guy who “doesn’t like musicals,” as the citizens of his town are gradually overcome by an alien hive mind that makes them sing and dance as if they are in a musical.