Manning

DATES June 5 - June 16

PLAYWRIGHT Benjamin Benne

After the death of their mother two boys return home to find their father has lost the will to live, and a giant zucchini (that seems to have a heartbeat) sprouts overnight. The brothers try their best to coax their father out of his room. All three men begin to develop language for their individual experiences of loss through their interactions with the supernatural vegetable, but can they also develop a communal vocabulary to express their grief with each other?

2023 Clauder Competition Grand Prize Winning Play

Benjamin Benne (he/him) is a Playwrights’ Center Affiliated Writer, American Blues Theater Blue Ink Playwriting Award winner, Arizona Theatre Company National Latinx Playwriting Award winner, KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award winner, and was recently named part of “LA Vanguardia: The Latino innovators, investigators and power players breaking through barriers” by the Los Angeles Times. His plays include Alma (World Premiere ‘22: Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles & American Blues Theater in Chicago; Seattle Premiere ‘22: ArtsWest Playhouse; Regional Premiere ‘23: Curious Theatre Company in Denver; Central Square Theater in Cambridge MA), In His Hands (World Premiere ‘22: Mosaic Theater Company of DC), and What / Washed Ashore / Astray (World Premiere ‘23: Pillsbury House + Theatre in Minneapolis). He is a current member of Primary Stage’s Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group and has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory and Seattle Repertory. MFA: David Geffen/Yale School of Drama ’22. www.benjaminbenne.com

Angels in America, Part 1

DATES May 1 - May 26

PLAYWRIGHT Tony Kushner

Louis abandons his lover. Prior becomes a prophet. Harper visits Antarctica. Joe questions his Mormon. Belize offers kindness and care to an unlikely patient. Six New Yorker’s lives intertwine at the height of the AIDS crisis. Confronting politics, spirituality, and sexuality with sharp humor and a sage observational eye, this great American epic shows us how community and connection can be forged in even the darkest of times.

Born in New York City in 1956, and raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Tony Kushner is best known for his two-part epic, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. His other plays include A Bright Room Called Day, Slavs!, Hydrotaphia, Homebody/Kabul, and Caroline, Or Change, the musical for which he wrote book and lyrics, with music by composer Jeanine Tesori. Kushner has translated and adapted Pierre Corneille’s The Illusion, S.Y. Ansky’s The Dybbuk, Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and her Children, and the English-language libretto for the children’s opera Brundibár by Hans Krasa. He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols’ film of Angels in America and Steven Spielberg’s Munich. In 2012 he wrote the screenplay for Spielberg’s movie Lincoln. His books include But the Giraffe: A Curtain Raising and Brundibar: The Libretto, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present; and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. His recent work includes a collection of one-act plays entitled Tiny Kushner, and The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures. Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an Emmy Award, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, a Cultural Achievement Award from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, a Chicago Tribune Literary Prize for lifetime achievement, and the 2012 National Medal of Arts, among many others. In September 2008, Tony Kushner became the first recipient of the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, the largest theater award in the US. He is the subject of a documentary film, Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, made by the Oscar-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock. He lives in Manhattan with his husband, Mark Harris.

Clyde’s

DATES April 3 - April 21

PLAYWRIGHT Lynn Nottage

It may seem like a run-down truck stop diner, but for the formerly incarcerated staff of Clyde’s, it’s a place where they can find community, support, and a second chance at life. Their quest to create the perfect sandwich keeps them motivated to access their full potential and move on to bigger and better things, even when Clyde tries to keep them right where they are. A savory comedy that shows us what we can achieve with patience, dedication, and a little thyme.

Lynn Nottage is a playwright from Brooklyn. Her plays include Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Mud, River, Stone; Por 'Knockers; Poof! (Heideman Award); and Las Meninas, which premiered at San Jose Repertory in 2002. Her plays have been produced Off-Broadway and regionally by The Acting Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Alliance Theatre, Buffalo Studio Arena, Crossroads Theatre, Freedom Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, South Coast Repertory, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Yale Repertory, the Vineyard Theatre and many others. Ms. Nottage has received playwriting fellowships from Manhattan Theatre Club, New Dramatists, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is also the recipient of a Playwrights Horizons Amblin/Dreamworks Commission, AT&T Onstage award and a NEA/TCG (1999-2000) grant for a year-long residency at Freedom Theatre. She is a member of New Dramatists and a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama.

What the Constitution Means To Me

DATES Mar. 6 - Mar. 24

PLAYWRIGHT Heidi Schreck

In this thrilling tour-de-force Heidi Schreck grapples with the Constitution, Roe v. Wade, and what it means to be a woman in America. Told through the lens of her teenage years as a Constitutional Debater, Heidi takes us through our nation’s highs and lows and ultimately delivers a hopeful message, “We all belong in the preamble.” Funny, thought-provoking, and heartwarming, this explosive piece culminates in a live debate to be judged by the audience: should we keep our centuries-old constitution, or start fresh?

Heidi Schreck is a writer and performer living in Brooklyn. Her critically acclaimed, award-winning play What the Constitution Means to Me played an extended, sold-out run on Broadway in 2019, and was nominated for two Tony Awards. It had subsequent sold-out runs at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., as well as at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and will continue its national tour when safe to do so. Schreck’s other plays Grand Concourse, Creature, and There Are No More Big Secrets have been produced all over the country and she has worked as a stage actor in NYC for almost 20 years. Her screenwriting credits include I Love Dick, Billions, Nurse Jackie and shows in development with Amazon Studios, Big Beach, Imagine Television and A24. As both an actor and writer she is the recipient of three Obie Awards, a Drama Desk Award, and a Theatre World Award, as well as the Horton Foote Playwriting Award and the Hull-Warriner Award from the Dramatists Guild. She was named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business in 2019 and was featured on Variety’s 2019 Broadway Impact List. Schreck was awarded Smithsonian magazine’s 2019 American Ingenuity Award for her work in the Performing Arts.

The Play That Goes Wrong

DATES Jan. 31 - Feb. 25

PLAYWRIGHT Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields

It’s opening night for the Cornley Drama Society’s production of The Murder at Haversham Manor and the cast wants everything to go right, but with a missing dog, a set that won’t hold together, and actors going up on their lines… it seems like the play might just go wrong.

Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields

Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields met while training at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). All core members of Mischief Theatre, they had already worked in comedy together for several years before they started out as a writing team. The three’s first piece was The Play That Goes Wrong (winner – Best New Comedy – Olivier Awards and What’s On Stage Awards). The show started out on the London and Edinburgh fringe before touring the UK and internationally and then returning to the West End in September 2014, where it is still running. It's also playing on Broadway and headed out on a US tour in 2018 and has been performed in over 20 other countries around the world. Peter Pan Goes Wrong was the trio’s second piece, opening in November 2014 for a UK tour before a hugely successful West End season in Christmas 2015. Henry, Henry, and Jonathan recently adapted the script of Peter Pan Goes Wrong for the BBC, which was filmed with the original West End cast and broadcast to rave reviews on New Year’s Eve. They were invited back to wreak more havoc at the BBC in 2017 with Christmas Carol Goes Wrong on BBC1. The Comedy About A Bank Robbery marks their third writing project as a trio and earned them another Olivier Nomination. @mischiefcomedy and mischieftheatre.co.uk

A Christmas Carol

DATES Dec. 2nd – Dec. 24th

PRICE $20-$53

PLAYWRIGHT Charles Dickens'

DIRECTOR Michael Dix Thomas


GET TICKETS

A Christmas Carol

Celebrate the holidays with this timeless tale that embodies the season: love, family, and the spirit of goodwill. See it brought to life on-stage, with charming costumes, delightful music, and a few ghostly apparitions. This magical production is perfect for the entire family, guaranteed to warm the heart of every Scrooge. Start a family tradition of your own.

 

*Masking is welcome but not required.

Charles Dickens’ poignant and action-packed novels lifted him from a lower-middle-class childhood to become an international celebrity of the Victorian era, and remain popular today. Still, in book after book, from Oliver Twist to Great Expectations, he remained true to his roots: calling attention to hypocrisy, injustice, and the plight of the poorest among us.

2020 Clauder Competition Gold Prize Winner and Connecticut State Winner.

IN HIS HANDS

DATES April 9, 2021 7:00 PM

PLAYWRIGHT Benjamin Benne

DIRECTOR Maeli Goren

This is a list of things Christian believes in: logic, banana Laffy Taffy, video games, and Daniel. This is a list of things Christian doesn’t believe in: caffeine, alcohol, monogamy, and God. Daniel, a Mario Kart wizard and aspiring Lutheran pastor, is falling for Christian. But as these men explore the potential of their new relationship, voices from Christian’s past threaten to overpower the connection they share—with one another, and something bigger than themselves.

THE 32nd Annual LITTLE FESTIVAL OF THE UNEXPECTED was live-streamed on Zoom.

Benjamin Benne is a Yale School of Drama MFA Candidate in Playwriting and represented by Paradigm Talent Agency. He is American Blues Theater’s 2019 Blue Ink Playwriting Award winner, Arizona Theatre Company’s 2019 National Latinx Playwriting Award winner, a 2019 Kennedy Center/KCACTF Latinx Playwriting Award recipient, a 2017 Robert Chesley/Victor Bumbalo Playwriting Award winner, a Playwrights’ Center Affiliated Writer, and a current member of the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages. His plays, including Alma, querencia: an imagined autobiography about forbidden fruits, and at the very bottom of a body of water, have been produced/developed with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, The Playwrights Realm’s Scratchpad Series, The Lark’s Playwrights’ Week, The Public, Roundabout Theatre Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Old Globe, Two River Theater, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Boston Court Pasadena, Pillsbury House Theatre, and Teatro Milagro, among others. www.benjaminbenne.com

Daniel Gregory Saint Georges

Chris/tian John Evans Reese

The Therapist Devin White

The Father Walton Wilson

Director Maeli Goren

Dramaturg Rebecca Adelsheim

Assistant Director, Assistant Dramaturg, Stage Directions Macey Downs

SEARCHING FOR MR. MOON

DATES Nov. 3 - Nov. 21, 2021

RUN TIME tbd

PRICE In-Theater $20-$68 • Digital on Demand $25

PLAYWRIGHT Richard Topol & WIlly Holtzman

Featuring Broadway Star Richard Topol

At the moment of his daughter’s birth, Rich Topol searches for a father to replace the one he lost and finds two – his famous father-in-law Lukas Foss and himself.  Foss’ eclectic music underscores Rich’s funny and poignant journey to fatherhood. Searching for Mr. Moon is a play for anyone who has contemplated the mysteries of parenthood and mortality and curious about the lives of contemporary classical music icons and Broadway stars.


WARNING • Strobe effects and other intense lighting will be used during this show. It will not be safe for those with epilepsy and other conditions with sensitivity to light.


EFFECTIVE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

For all public performances – To enter the theater all patrons, front of house staff, and volunteer ushers must present either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test with your ID and wear a mask regardless of vaccination status.
More info

Richard Topol - He is making his playwriting debut with Searching For Mr. Moon, and he thanks his co-writer Willy for the idea in the first place, and his patience and sense of humor along the way. As an actor he has previously appeared at Portland Stage in Loot and Scapin. He has performed on Broadway numerous times including  as Lemml in the Tony Award winning production of Indecent, for which he was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award; with Larry David in Fish in the Dark; with Al Pacino in The Merchant of Venice; with Denzel Washington in Julius Caesar; with Mark Ruffalo in the Tony Award winning revival of Awake and Sing; with Joe Mantello in the Tony Award winning revival of The Normal Heart, and with Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand in The Country Girl, directed by Mike Nichols. His off-Broadway appearances include productions at the Atlantic, Classic Stage Company, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, The Public, The Vineyard and Primary Stages.  His film and TV credits include LincolnIndignation, Mickey Blue Eyes, Party Girl, Curb your Enthusiasm, The Blacklist, all the Law & Order series and recurring roles on BillionsGodfather of HarlemManifestGenius: EinsteinThe Practice, Perception, and many others. Richard has received two Drama Desk Awards, a Cullman award from Lincoln Center, and an Audelco Award. He holds an MFA in Acting from NYU and a BA in Political Science from Brown University.

Willy Holtzman - His The Morini Strad, Inside Out, and The Real McGonagall received full productions at Portland Stage Company. Sabina and The First Mrs. Rochester were developed at The Little Festival of the Unexpected. New York productions include The Morini Strad, Sabina, Something You Did, Bovver Boys (Primary Stages), Inside Out (Theater for a New Audience), San Antonio Sunset, The Last Temptation of Joe Hill, The Closer (The Working Theatre).  His plays have been produced regionally at City Theatre, The Long Wharf Theater, Geva Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, People’s Light, and Theater, Theatre J, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Cleveland Playhouse, The Colony Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, The Goodspeed Opera House, The Alliance Theatre, Northlight Theatre, and New York Stage and Film.  He wrote and produced the Independent Film Edge of America for which he received the Peabody Award, the WGA Award, and The Humanitas Prize. He is a board member at New Dramatists and PlayPenn.

Julia Gibson (directorr) directed Greater Tuna at Portland Stage several years ago and is very happy to return! She has directed with Rattlestick, Barrow Street, Origin Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Source, and Epic Theatre Ensemble in New York City; and at Chautauqua Theater Company, Gulfshore Playhouse, New London Barn, Juilliard, NYU Graduate Acting, SMU in Dallas, The Actors Center Conservatory, A.C.T. Conservatory in San Francisco, Stony Brook University, and Stella Adler Conservatory.  She was Associate Director of the revival of Angels in America at the Signature Theatre. As an actor, she has performed on and off Broadway and at major theaters across the US, as well as on TV and film. She is currently Co-Head of the Graduate Acting Program at UNC Chapel Hill where she also serves as a company member of PlayMakers Repertory Company. She received her MFA in Acting from New York University (alongside Richard Topol), is a founding member of The Actors Center in New York City and of the National Alliance for Acting Teachers; she is a Fox Fellowship recipient and has narrated over 160 audio books. Julia recently received a Carolina Women’s Center Faculty Scholarship grant to create a theater piece about women and aging.

Rich Richard Topol

[*member Actors' Equity Association]

[**member United Scenic Artists]

[***member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society]

Director Julia Gibson

Scenic Designer Anita Stewart**

Costume Designer Anita Stewart**

Light Designer Mari Yokoyama**

Sound Designer David Van Tieghem**

Projections Designer Michael Commendatore

Stage Manager Meg Lydon*

Show Gallery

SENIOR LIVING

DATES Jan 26 - Feb 13, 2022

RUN TIME tbd

PRICE In-Theater $20-$68 • Digital on Demand $25

PLAYWRIGHT Tor Hyams & Lisa St. Lou

WORLD PREMIERE

A play with music about people dying to live. At Riverdale Manor, a retirement community in the Bronx, seniors contemplate the possibility of dying from a broken heart, if divorce is even worth it at a certain age, and when is the right time to have sex again. A talent show, with the promise of cake for dessert, sets the scene for a series of life-changing vignettes that debate what to do with the time we have left.

 


 

Tor Hyams and Lisa St. Lou (Playwrights) Grammy nominated songwriter, Tor Hyams, and Broadway performer, Lisa St. Lou (The Producers) offer a unique blend of comedy and heart through musicals, plays and screenwriting. Original theater works include Stealing Time, where a woman struggles to reconcile her place in a failing marriage (premiered NYMF/2012); The Skylight Room, a collection of stories about lonely people searching for connection, with actor/writer, John Cariani; Howie D: Back in the Day, a family musical about belonging and race, based on the real-life experience of Backstreet Boy, Howie D (world premiere at The Rose Theatre – Omaha, NE January 2020); and Collateral Beauty, an adaptation of the film starring Will Smith (with screenwriter, Allan Loeb). Commissions include a musical adaptation of the legendary television show, Green Acres; Ensemble, a collection of previously unpublished letters by Tennessee Williams; Untitled, a “Golden Age” musical for middle and high school age students; and aTypical Family, a story about a family coping with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Tor & Lisa have adapted Senior Living into a 1/2 hour television show. Additional TV pilots include The Lou, the story of a singer/songwriter forced to return home and face her dysfunctional family in St. Louis; Animal Control, about an elite squad in Beaver County, OK who keep us safe from the animals and the animals safe from us; Clusterf*ck, the story of two forty-something’s who stop at nothing to “write” all the wrongs of life’s banalities; and The Whites, the story of a black family living in a wealthy, white suburb during the Obama years.

Lynn / Alice / Mary / Ellen Cynthia Barnett*

Angelina / Edith / Susan Grace Bauer*

Lily / Carol / Denise Beth Glover*

Morty / Richard / Paddy / Brobson / Lou Steve Vinovich*

Frank / Robert / Joe / Dr. Miller David Wohl*

[*member Actors' Equity Association]

Director Judith Ivy***

Scenic Designer David Goldstein**

Costume Designer Vanessa Leuck**

Lighting Designer SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobol

Sound Designer John Morrison

Stage Manager Meg Lydon*

[*member Actors Equity Association]

[**member United Scenic Artists]

[***member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society]

Show Gallery

LAST SHIP TO PROXIMA CENTAURI (2022)

DATES Mar 2 - 20, 2022

RUN TIME tbd

PRICE In-Theater $20-$68 • Digital on Demand $25

PLAYWRIGHT Greg Lam

2021 Clauder Competition Winner
World Premiere

In futuristic sci-fi, planet Earth has become uninhabitable. The last escape ship from Earth arrives at its new home centuries after all the others. The pilots are not prepared for what they find there.


Greg Lam is a playwright, screenwriter, and board game designer who is a transplanted Bostonian now living in the Bay Area. He is the co-creator of the "Boston Podcast Players" podcast (bostonpodcastplayers.com) Boston's virtual podcast stage for new works by local playwrights. He is the co-founder of the Asian-American Playwright Collective and a member of The Pulp Stage Writer's Room.

Morris Emerson Tom Ford*

Adelaide "Addie" Russell Marcy McGuigan*

Henry Hirano Kennedy Kanagawa*

Tunde/Control 2 Jamal James*

Paz/Control 1 Octavia Chavez-Richmond*

[*member Actors' Equity Association]

Director Kevin R. Free

Scenic Design Germán Cárdenas-Alaminos

Costume Design Haydee Zelideth

Light Design Jamie Grant

Sound Design Seth Asa Sengel

Stage Manager Myles C. Hatch*

[*member Actors Equity Association]

Director, Kevin R. Free

Tom Ford (AEA)

Marcy McGuigan (AEA)

Kennedy Kanagawa (AEA)

Jamal James (AEA)

Octavia Chavez-Richmond (AEA)