SEX AND OTHER DISTURBANCES

DATES May 1 - 20, 2018

RUN TIME 1 hour 35 minutes with no intermission.

PRICE Previews $30-$50; Sat 8pm $34-$54; Wed, Thu, Fri $38-$58; Sat & Sun Matinee $43-$63. Discounts for Seniors, Students, Rush35 and Groups.

Join us for the world premiere of New England playwright Marisa Smith’s latest play. When your husband is too busy buying cabins in Newfoundland for the apocalypse, what’s the harm in having a little affair? Sarah finds out the hard way in this fast-paced comedy about friendship, love, sex, and other disturbances.

Sex and Other Disturbances is a recipient of the 2018 Edgerton New Play Award.

Marisa Smith (Playwright) is an award-winning American playwright. Full-length plays include: Saving Kitty (Eliot Norton award for Jennifer Coolidge Best Actress), and Mad Love (Northern Stage, New Jersey Repertory) which is also an audio drama produced by Wondery called The Defenestrator. Marisa’s 10-Minute plays have been produced in the Boston Marathon of 10- Minute Plays, Barrington Stage and in many other theaters around the country. Screenplays: Second Wind and Surprise Engagement for producer/director Andrew Silver starring English actors June Brown, Harriet Walter and Tamzin Merchant, and Tamzin Outhwaite. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Marisa is also the co-Publisher and owner of Smith and Kraus Publishers.

THE NICETIES

DATES April 3 - 22, 2018

RUN TIME Approximately 2 hours, 10 minutes, including a 15 minute intermission.

PRICE Previews $25-$45; Sat 8pm $29-$49; Wed, Thu, Fri $33-$53; Sat & Sun Matinee $38-$58. Discounts for Seniors, Students, Rush35 and Groups.

Eleanor Burgess‘ (Playwright) plays include The Niceties, Start Down, Chill, and These Dying Generations. Her work has been developed or produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Alliance Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Portland Stage Company, Centenary Stage Company, the Lark Play Development Center, the Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, Everyday Inferno, Ryder Farm and Luna Stage. She’s been the recipient of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, an EST/Sloan commission, a Keen Teens Commission, and the Susan Glaspell Award for Women Playwrights. She grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, studied history at Yale College, and recently completed the M.F.A in Dramatic Writing at NYU/Tisch.

Show Gallery

RED HERRING

DATES Feb 27 - March 25, 2018

RUN TIME 2 hours and 15 minutes. 15 minute intermission.

PRICE Previews $30-$50; Sat 8pm $34-$54; Wed, Thu, Fri $38-$58; Sat & Sun Matinee $43-$63. Discounts for Seniors, Students, Rush35 and Groups.

Maggie’s a tough, Boston cop, trying to get her finger on the one man who gave her the slip: a sly crime boss who worked his way into her heart. As she deals with murder, mystery, and intrigue in Boston Harbor, she also has to deal with Frank, an FBI gumshoe with a proposal more dangerous than commie spies, murderous mobs, and McCarthyism combined: marriage.

Michael Hollinger (Playwright) is the author of Ghost-Writer, Opus, Tooth and Claw, Red Herring, Incorruptible, An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand Boeuf, and Tiny Island, all of which premiered at Philadelphia’s Arden Theatre Company. These plays have enjoyed numerous productions around the country, in New York City, and abroad. His musical A Wonderful Noise (co-authored with Vance Lehmkuhl) has received the Frederick Loewe Award for Musical Theatre, the “In the Spirit of America” Award from the Barbara Barondess MacLean Foundation, and a developmental production at Creede Repertory Theatre. His translation/co-adaptation (with Aaron Posner) of Cyrano de Bergerac premiered in 2011 at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C. Other awards include a Harold & Mimi Steinberg New Play Citation from the American Theatre Critics Association, a Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays, a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award, an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award, the F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Theatre Artist, three Barrymore Awards for Outstanding New Play, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, nominations for Lucille Lortel and John Gassner Awards, and fellowships from the Independence Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Michael is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Villanova University, and a proud alumnus of New Dramatists.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY (2017)

DATES Nov 24 - Dec 24, 2017

RUN TIME Approximately 2 hours, including a 15 minute intermission.

PRICE Previews Nov. 24-26 $38-$58; all other times $45-$65. Students $20; Children $15. Discounts also available for Seniors, Groups, Rush35 & StudentRush.

Celebrate the Holiday Season with this beloved American classic. This heartwarming story of renewal is presented as a 1940’s radio broadcast with sound effects performed live on stage.  With the help of an ensemble and an angel named Clarence, George Bailey learns the million different ways that we are tied to those around us.

WHAT IS A LIVE RADIO PLAY?Before television, the largest popular form of entertainment was the
radio. Much like today, families would have their dinner and then sit around the radio waiting to hear either the news or their favorite radio program. Radio shows were usually done by just a few actors playing multiple characters and there was a person responsible for all of the sounds created during the show. “Commercial Breaks” were done by the same actors that enacted the plays! Comparisons to today might be Prairie Home Companion, the live radio show by Garrison Keillor.

Joe Landry’s (Playwright) plays have been produced across the country and internationally, and include It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Reefer Madness, Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play, Eve & Co., Beautiful, Hollywood Babylon, and Numb. Mr. Landry attended Playwright’s Horizons/NYU, founded Second Guess Theatre Company in Connecticut and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America. He is currently developing new projects for the stage and screen.

COMPLICATIONS FROM A FALL

DATES Oct 24 - Nov 12, 2017

RUN TIME Approximately 2 hours, including a 15 minute intermission.

PRICE Previews $25-$45; Sat 8pm $29-$49; Wed, Thu, Fri $33-$53; Sat & Sun Matinee $38-$58. Discounts for Seniors, Students, Rush35 and Groups.

When Helen goes to an academic conference, she reluctantly calls on her absent younger brother Teddy for help with their elderly mother. Over the weekend Teddy truly sees his mother, perhaps for the first time, and learns secrets from the past in this heartwarming drama about the memories we cherish, and those we try to forget.

Kate Hawley (Playwright, lyricist) received her theatrical training at UC Berkeley, The American Conservatory Theatre, UCLA and UCSC. Her original plays, Messages, Simply the Thing She Is, and Diva Days have all won or placed in playwriting competitions in Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia, and California and have been performed in theaters throughout California. In 1997 her adaptation of Ostrovsky’s The Forest was premiered at Shakespeare Santa Cruz. Her screenplay Who Would You Rather Sleep With? won first prize at the Austin Film Festival in 1998. In 2001, her second screenplay, Fall Back, was a finalist. In 1999 she wrote the book and lyrics for Cinderella which premiered at Shakespeare Santa Cruz and went on to be produced by Sacramento Theatre Company, Stages Theatre (Houston), The Penobscot Opera House, Peninsula Youth Theatre, as well as theatres in NY, NJ, and Maryland. Other SSC holiday plays include The Wind in the Willows, Gretel & Hansel, The Princess and the Pea, and Sleeping Beauty all in collaboration with former SSC artistic director Paul Whitworth. Her latest play, Complications from a Fall was produced by the Jewel Theatre in 2015. Coming oh Age will be produced by the Jewel Theatre in 2018.

Presented by Portland Stage and Maine State Music Theatre.

THE ALL NIGHT STRUT!

DATES August 15-September 10, 2017

RUN TIME Approximately 1 hour 30 minutes including intermission

PRICE Previews 8/16-8/17 $48-$68, All other times $55-$75. Discounts for Seniors, Groups, StudentRush and Rush35.

MUSIC & LYRICS Tom Fitt, Gil Lieb, and Dick Schermesser

DIRECTOR Fran Charnas

Swing’s the thing in this classy, sassy musical celebration of the 1930s and ’40s. From the funky jive of Harlem to the sophisticated elegance of El Morocco and the romance of the Stage Door Canteen,  The All Night Strut! moves through the Depression, World War II and the post-war boom in a two-act musical celebration of the 1930s and ’40s, filled with jazz, blues, bebop and American songbook standards. Weaving together the work of legendary songwriters such as Hoagy Carmichael, Frank Loesser, Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Cab Calloway and the Gershwins, the story moves through time and place to highlight a slick slice of yesteryear and capture a beloved American era. This international hit has delighted audiences old and young with its sublime music and sheer energy with songs including “Minnie The Moocher,” “In The Mood,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Hit That Jive, Jack,” I’ll Be Seeing You,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing,” and “As Time Goes By.”

Fran Charnas (Playwright) has worked as a producer, director, choreographer, writer, and teacher. Her award-winning musical, THE ALL NIGHT STRUT!, has toured extensively, performed with the Boston Pops and the Glenn Miller Orchestra and was nationally broadcast on PBS-TV. She has just recently completed a sequel, IN THE GROOVE and is co-author and director of SHEBOPPIN, a coming of age in the 60s musical about four girls who work in a beauty shop. Currently, Fran is at work on a musical based on the life of the legendary singer and actress, Ethel Waters. A professor at the Boston Conservatory, she teaches Musical Theatre Performance and leads workshops in song interpretation and popular American vocal and dance styles of the twentieth-century. Fran also works with NOMTI (New Opera and Musical Theatre Initiative) as a director and adjudicator.

THE LAST FIVE YEARS

DATES Apr 30 - May 19, 2019

RUN TIME Approximately 1 hour 20 minutes with no intermission.

PRICE Previews $36-$41 Sat & Sun Matinee $49-$64 All other performances $44-$59. Discounts for Seniors, Students, Rush35 and Groups.

PLAYWRIGHT Jason Robert Brown

This hit musical by Tony award-winning lyricist Jason Robert Brown deconstructs a love affair and marriage between an aspiring novelist and a struggling actress over five years.  Told almost entirely through song, this piece moves backward and forward through time weaving the beginning and the ending of a love affair.

Jason Robert Brown (Playwright) wrote the music and lyrics for The Last Five Years, Parade (book by Alfred Uhry, dir. Hal Prince) and Songs for a New World (dir. Daisy Prince), and contributed songs to Urban Cowboy the Musical. Winner: Tony Award for Best Score, three Drama Desk Awards, Kleban Award, and Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Award. As a conductor and arranger, Mr. Brown’s credits include Dina Was, A New Brain, john and jen, and Yoko Ono’s New York Rock. His songs, including the cabaret standard “Stars and the Moon,” have been performed and recorded by Audra McDonald, Betty Buckley, Karen Akers, Renée Fleming, Jon Hendricks, and many others. Lauren Kennedy’s album Songs of Jason Robert Brownis available on PS Classics. Mr. Brown lives with his wife and daughter in NYC. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the American Federation of Musicians Local 802 and 47. www.jasonrobertbrown.com—

SKELETON CREW

DATES Apr 2 - Apr 21, 2019

RUN TIME Approximately 2 hours 15 minutes, including a 15 minute intermission.

PRICE Previews $31-$36; Sat & Sun Matinee $48-$68, All other performances $39-$54. Discounts for Seniors, Students, Rush35 and Groups.

The future is thrown into uncertainty when rumors seep through a Detroit auto plant at the start of the Great Recession. A makeshift family of workers swap stories, share dreams and make tough choices. Dominique Morisseau, a noted new voice in the American theater, draws comparison to Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson, and Arthur Miller.

Dominique Morisseau (Playwright) is the author of The Detroit Project (A 3-Play Cycle) which includes the following plays: Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company), Paradise Blue (Signature Theatre), and Detroit ’67 (Public Theater, Classical Theatre of Harlem and NBT). Additional plays include: Pipeline (Lincoln Center Theatre), Sunset Baby (LAByrinth Theatre); Blood at the Root (National Black Theatre) and Follow Me To Nellie’s (Premiere Stages). She is also the book writer on the new musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations (Berkeley Repertory Theatre). Dominique is an alumna of The Public Theater Emerging Writer’s Group, Women’s Project Lab, and Lark Playwrights Workshop and has developed work at Sundance Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Eugene O’Neil Playwrights Conference. Her work has been commissioned by Steppenwolf Theater, Women’s Project, South Coast Rep, People’s Light and Theatre, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival/Penumbra Theatre. She most recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series “Shameless”. Awards include: Spirit of Detroit Award, PoNY Fellowship, Sky-Cooper Prize, TEER Trailblazer Award, Steinberg Playwright Award, Audelco Awards, NBFT August Wilson Playwriting Award, Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama, OBIE Award, Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, and being named one of Variety’s Women of Impact for 2017-18.

THE HALF-LIGHT

DATES Feb 26 - Mar 24, 2019

RUN TIME Approximately 2 hours including a 15 minute intermission

PRICE Previews $31-$36; Sat & Sun Matinee $44-$59, All other performances $39-$54. Discounts for Seniors, Students, Rush35 and Groups.

A chance encounter presents a tantalizing question for a college secretary: Can anyone be trained to see the dead? Her dogged pursuit of an answer leads to a far more earthbound challenge when a colleague is felled by grief. A heartwarming drama about love and purpose that examines the ghosts that live within us all. Affiliate Artist Monica Wood is the author of PapermakerThe One-in-a-Million Boy, and When We Were the Kennedys.

The Half-Light was developed in the 2018 Little Festival of the Unexpected.

MONICA WOOD (Playwright) is a novelist, memoirist, and playwright. Her most recent novel, The One-in-a-Million Boy, has been published in 22 languages in 30 countries and won a 2017 Nautilus Award (Gold) and the New England Society Book Award. She is also the author of When We Were the Kennedys, a New England bestseller, Oprah magazine summer-reading pick, and winner of the May Sarton Memoir Award and the 2016 Maine Literary Award. Her novel Any Bitter Thing was an ABA bestseller and Book Sense Top Ten pick. Her other fiction includes Ernie’s Ark, which has been excerpted on NPR’s “Selected Shorts” and selected by several towns and cities as their “One Book, One Community” read; My Only Story, a finalist for the Kate Chopin Award; and Secret Language, her first novel. Her widely anthologized short stories have won a Pushcart Prize and been featured on public radio. She also writes books for writers and teachers. Her nonfiction has appeared in Oprah, New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Parade, and many other publications. Her first play, Papermaker, debuted at Portland Stage in an extended run, its bestselling play ever. Her second play, The Half-Light, will debut at Portland Stage in 2019.

Show Gallery

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (2019)

DATES Jan 22 - Feb 17, 2019

RUN TIME Approximately 2 hours 30 minutes, including 2 intermissions.

PRICE Previews $36-$41; Sat & Sun Matinee $49-$64, All other performances $44-$59. Discounts for Seniors, Students, Rush35 and Groups.

“The truth is rarely pure, and never simple.” — Oscar Wilde

What’s in a name? Wilde’s masterful comedy follows a young man and his friend on a journey that leads to an unexpected discovery.  Part comedy, part mystery, this story of love, manners and mistaken identity is a classic that never grows old. 

Oscar Wilde (Playwright) was an Anglo-Irish poet, author, and playwright. He contributed to publications such as Pall Mall Gazette and he wrote the novel The Portrait of Dorian Gray. Perhaps most recognized for his work as a playwright, Wilde wrote plays such as Lady Windermere’s Fan, An Ideal Husband, Salome, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Shortly after The Importance of Being Earnest premiered, Wilde was imprisoned for two years. He was arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry. Wilde had had an ongoing affair with Marquess’ son and was charged with gross indecency. While in prison, he wrote a well-known 55,000-word letter to his love called De Profundis. After his release from prison, he published portions of the letter, including The Ballad of Reading Gaol. He died shortly after he was freed at the age of 46. He lived his life extravagantly, but he suffered greatly.