by Mark G. Auerbach
Eric Ort stages The Wolves at TheaterWorks.
The Wolves Opens TheaterWorks Season
Sarah DeLappe’s award-winning play The Wolves, a portrait of a highly competitive girls’ soccer team, opens Hartford’s TheaterWorks’ 32nd season, October 5-November 5. Eric Ort directs the highly-praised new play, which won rave reviews last season and was a 2017 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. The production was also nominated for Lucille Lortel and Drama League awards for Best Play, as well as for the Outer Critics’ Circle John Gassner Award for Outstanding New American Play.
According to Ort, who was assistant director of last season’s Next to Normal, “The Wolves follows the ebb and flow of power and affection within a girls’ soccer team, as they navigate the game and their lives. This is an incandescent portrait of female warriors fighting to find their place in a complicated world. It is a timely play about the fierceness of adolescence that rings brave and true with humor and profound insight.”
Ort added “The Wolves took New York by storm last season. The New York production returns again this fall to Lincoln Center but Western New England audiences can see it first in Hartford. Sarah DeLappe has written a funny and gutsy play about young fighters grappling with concerns both mundane and global. I love this play because it brings us into an intimate and unfiltered world where young women are forging with spirit and strength the way they will move through the world.”
For details: 860.527.7838 or www.theaterworkshartford.org
Mark H. Dold stars in Gaslight at Barrington Stage
Gaslight Extends Summer Season at Barrington Stage
Patrick Hamilton’s mystery thriller, Gaslight, plays the Barrington Stage’s Boyd-Quinson Mainstage in Pittsfield October 4-22. Louise Proske stages the play, sometimes known as Angel Street, with a cast that includes Mark H. Dold, Kim Stauffer, Peggy Pharr Wilson, and Kevin O’Rourke, all familiar faces at Barrington Stage. Ali Rose Dachis makes her Barrington Stage debut in the role of the maid, the part that won Angela Lansbury an Oscar nomination in her film debut in the 1944 movie.
The noun gaslight is defined as “A form of manipulation through persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying in an attempt to destabilize and delegitimize a target.”. Some psychologists credit the Patrick Hamilton play for the definition.
Gaslight premiered in London in December 1938, at the Apollo Theatre. When the play premiered on Broadway in December 1941, it was titled Angel Street and ran 1,295 performances. The Broadway cast featured Vincent Price as Mr. Manningham and Leo G. Carroll as Rough.
For details: 413-236-8888 or www.barringtonstageco.org.
WAM Theatre Presents The Last Wife
Kelly Galvin directs The Last Wife at WAM Theatre.
WAM Theatre’s fall Mainstage production of The Last Wife by Kate Hennig, directed by Kelly Galvin, will play October 13-November 5 at Shakespeare & Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, in Lenox, MA. The Last Wife premiered at the Stratford Festival in 2015 and enjoyed a completely sold-out and extended run.
A contemporary reimagining of the compelling relationship between Katherine Parr, Henry VIII’s sixth and final wife, and the King, The Last Wife is a funny, powerful examination of patriarchy, sexual politics, and women’s rights. The Last Wife stars Berkshire favorites Nehassaiu deGannes, John Hadden, and David Joseph, along with talented WAM newcomers Lily Linke, Alicia Piemme Nelson, and Raoul Silver.
“WAM Theatre opened our 2016 Fresh Takes Play Reading Series with The Last Wife to a sold out and enthusiastic crowd. Presenting this play is exciting for many reasons – one of which is that this is the first Fresh Takes play to be chosen as a WAM Mainstage Production,” said Kristen van Ginhoven, WAM Artistic Director. “This ensemble of six, led by Nehassaiu and John, is the perfect cast to bring this story to life. And we couldn’t be more excited to have Kelly Galvin, WAM’s first Fresh Takes Curator, at the helm directing The Last Wife. This is sure to be an invigorating evening of theatre that all will want to see.”
For details: www.wamtheatre.com
The UMass Theatre Announces Season
A mix of classics and contemporary works will be showcased on the UMass Theatre’s upcoming season in Amherst. The season opens with the Elizabeth Swados musical Runaways, directed by Lou Moreno, artistic director of New York City’s INTAR Theatre, at The Rand Theatre on the UMass Amherst campus November 1-11. The New Play Lab, a crucible for new works, follows November 30-December 9 at The Curtain Theatre.
Steve Henderson directs Greater Tuna at Silverthorne Theatre.
Dream Play, an immersive experience based on the classic play by August Strindberg, directed by Mary Corinne Miller, plays February 7-17 at a site to be announced. Infants of The Spring, adapted by Ifa Bayeza from the 1932 novel by Wallace Thurman, plays The Rand March 21-30 at The Rand. Bayeza directs. The season ends with Taylor Mac’s The Lily’s Revenge, at The Curtain, April 18-29. For details: http://www.umass.edu/theater/mainstage
Wynonna at The Mahaiwe in Great Barrington.
Keep in Mind…
Greater Tuna, the very funny comedy by Ed Howard, Joe Sears, and Jaston Williams, tells the tales of twenty small town Texans, as played by John Reese and Julian Findlay. Steve Henderson directs the Silverthorne Theatre production, which runs October 5-14 at the Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center (formerly The Arts Block) in downtown Greenfield. For details: www.silverthornetheater.org
Wynonna Judd is bringing her Roots and Revival Tour to The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA on October 1. The five-time Grammy winner will explore material from the past, present, and future of her 33-year career. She’ll perform with her band, The Big Noise, which is led by her husband/drummer/producer Cactus Moser. For details: 413-528-0100 or www.mahaiwe.org
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Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio. Mark produces and hosts ArtsBeat Radio on 89.5fm/WSKB.
