2011-2012 season
THE LARAMIE PROJECT DATES Oct 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 (mat), 19, 20, 21, 22
By Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project 8pm show
In October 1998, Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming, was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming. In the aftermath of the beating and during the trial of the two young men accused of killing Shepard, Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project conducted more than 200 interviews with townspeople, some directly connected to the case, and others observers. The breadth of their reactions to the crime is fascinating. From these interviews and their own personal journals and major network news reports, the playwrights have constructed a breathtaking theatrical collage that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable.
"There emerges a mosaic as moving and important as any you will see on the walls of the churches of the world…nothing short of stunning…." —New York Magazine. "Astonishing”—Associated Press
THE INTERVIEW DATES Nov 4, 5, 10, 11, 12
By Peter Swet
In his quiet tailor shop in New York City, Abraham Moscowitz is visited by an insurance investigator who believes the old man is hiding information about his financial resources. Determined to learn the tailor’s secret, and to extract every penny owed the company, the investigator presses Moscowitz until the old man unleashes truths which have haunted him for a lifetime. This riveting drama has had over 40 productions in the United States and has been produced on every continent.
“It catches fire and touches the heart…” New York Times “This is great theater!” Sydney Australia Daily Telegraph
A CHRISTMAS CAROL DATES Dec 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 (mat)
By Charles Dickens
“I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it. Their friend, C.D.”
This new staging by Annette Trossbach and Louise Wigglesworth presents the beloved classic as the ghost story Dickens meant it to be. May it haunt your house pleasantly as well!!!
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST DATES Jan 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 (mat), 25, 26, 27, 28
By Ken Kesey, adapted for stage by Dale Wasserman
A charming rogue contrives to serve a short sentence in an airy mental institution rather than in a prison. He learns his mistake when he immediately clashes with the fierce head nurse. Quickly, he takes over the yard and accomplishes what the medical profession has been unable to do for twelve years- make a deaf and dumb Indian talk! He leads others out of introversion, stages a revolt so that they can see the World Series on TV and arranges a midnight party with liquor and loose girls. For his offenses, the head nurse submits him to shock treatment and then tries to force him to undergo the final correction, a frontal lobotomy. Winner of a Tony Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award.
"Brilliant. The stuff of great theatre." WQR Radio. "Transforms the audience into one wild cheering section." WNYC Radio.
ROMEO AND JULIET DATES Feb 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 (mat), 22, 23, 24, 25
By William Shakespeare
This is the quintessential and beloved story of young love in the wrong time and place. Expect all the youthful romanticism, the colorful characters, the poetry and humor that make it one of the most popular of Shakespeare’s plays. Be surprised at the timeliness of these lovers’ doomed attempt to come together from two bitterly different worlds. Enjoy this classic all over again.
IN THE NEXT ROOM, or the Vibrator Play DATES March 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 (mat), 21, 22, 23, 24
By Sarah Ruhl
Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used vibrators to treat 'hysterical' women (and some men). This comedy about marriage, intimacy, and electricity centers on a doctor and his wife and how his new therapy affects their entire household. In a seemingly perfect, well-to-do Victorian home, proper gentleman and scientist Dr. Givings has innocently invented an extraordinary new device for treating hysteria: the vibrator. Adjacent to the doctor’s laboratory, his young and energetic wife tries to tend to their newborn daughter—and wonders about what is going on in the next room. When a new “hysterical” patient and her husband bring a wet nurse and their own complicated relationship into the doctor’s home, Dr. and Mrs. Givings must examine the nature of their own marriage, and what it truly means to love someone.
“Insightful, fresh and funny, the play is as rich in thought as it is in feeling. In the Next Room is a true novelty: a sex comedy designed not for sniggering teenage boys — or grown men who wish they were still sniggering teenage boys — but for adults with open hearts and minds.” –The New York Times
POLISH JOKE DATES Apr 13, 14, 16, 20, 21, 22 (mat), 26, 27, 28
By David Ives
A comedy about ethnic identity and the eternal American search for "roots." Young Jasiu is a Polish-American who has been taught not to value his own roots, so he decides to make his own roots, reinventing himself first as a non-ethnic everyman, then sampling several different ethnicities. Jasiu's adventures—alternately zany and heartbreaking—take him through a job interview with an Ur-Wasp; to an attempt to become a Catholic priest; to a flower shop where he can't get service because he is weirdly invisible; to a doomed love affair with a Jewish woman; to an Irish travel agency where he has to prove that his Irishness before he can buy a ticket; and to a doctor more interested in ethnic pain than in healing. Jasiu is also bedeviled by a reappearing Polish relative and has to face off with the ghost of a dead Polish patriot. In the end, by trying to get away from his ethnic background, Jasiu finds out who he is and about the ethnic richness in all of us.
"…furiously funny… endearingly foolish." —NY Magazine. "…a thoughtful examination of the Polishness and Jewishness and Irishness that makes us at once alike and different." —CurtainUp.
THE PLAGUE DATES May 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20 (mat), 24, 25, 26
By Albert Camus, adapted for the stage by Louise Wigglesworth
A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' story about a mysterious plague ravaging the people of a small city in the 1940’s, is a classic of twentieth-century literature which remains strikingly current. Set in Algeria, The Plague is a powerful study of human life and its meaning in the face of irrational and uncontrollable events. Each citizen responds in his own way to the lethal condition: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr. Bernard Rieux, abandon personal comfort to dedicate themselves to the common good. It’s a story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence that leaves us with hope in the innate goodness of humanity.
