GLOUCESTER – Gloucester Stage’s 2022 season will feature five productions, including Gloria, Mr. Fullerton: Between the Sheets, Grand Horizons, Paradise Blue, and The Thin Place.
The critically acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist play, Gloria, written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, which Bryn Boice will direct, will open the Company’s season.
The 2022 lineup embodies Gloucester Stage Company’s commitment to socially relevant and intellectually stimulating works with powerful, uplifting, intriguing, and inspiring productions and performances. Featuring stories rooted in human emotions to contemporary comedies, regional premieres, and new provocative works, as well as a grand community production, this season of plays will engage and entertain audiences while expanding the boundaries of the local theater landscape.
“This summer Gloucester Stage is taking you on a rollercoaster ride through a kaleidoscope of theatrical but very human experiences. In each play the protagonist longs for a rightful place in society, for recognition, for love. We are excited to be offering these rich and insightful, at times funny – at times tragic, perspectives on the human condition.” – Paula Plum, Interim Artistic Director
“Paula has crafted a season that runs the gamut of contemporary theater and offers the Boston audience access to plays that are at the dawn of successful careers across the nation’s theaters. This top-tier list of can’t-miss playwrights are bringing the socially relevant and entertaining stories to the stage that we are all looking for right now. Building on that foundation, we have an incredible team of directors leading each production, including past-artistic director, Robert Walsh.” – Christopher Griffith, Managing Director
The critically acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist play, Gloria, written by the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Bryn Boice, will open Gloucester Stage Company’s season June 3 to 26. This funny, trenchant, and powerful play follows an ambitious group of twentysomethings at one of New York’s most esteemed cultural magazines. When a seemingly ordinary day at the office turns out to be anything but, these aspiring journalists recognize an opportunity to seize a career-defining moment.
The summer continues to heat up with the production of Mr. Fullerton, Between the Sheets, running from July 1 to 24. Directed by Judy Brahaº, it is a turn-of-the-century tale of unbridled passion by playwright Anne Undeland. Inspired by Edith Wharton’s love letters to her young handsome French lover, Morton Fullerton, unearthed in the last 25 years, the play is a celebratory awakening for Wharton to the discovery of sex and love in all its bliss, heartbreak, and madness.
Robert Walshº will be returning to Gloucester Stage to direct the Tony Award-nominated play Grand Horizons, from July 29 to August 21. The Broadway hit is a hilarious comedy of marital malaise written by award-winning playwright Bess Wohl. By turns, it is a funny, shocking, and painfully honest play that explores a family turned upside-down and takes an intimate look at the wild, unpredictable, and enduring nature of love.
Under the direction of Jackie Davis, theatergoers will be transported to the sultry, jazz-filled Paradise Club circa 1949 in Detroit in the production of Paradise Blue, running from August 26 to September 18. In Tony Award-nominated playwright Dominique Morisseau’s powerful noir-inspired drama, a makeshift family and their troubled bandleader find themselves fighting for the future of Paradise. This dynamic and musically-infused drama shines light on the challenges of building a better future on the foundation of what our predecessors have left us.
Gloucester Stage will round out the season with the haunting production of The Thin Place, beginning September 30 through October 23. Directed by Dee Dee Batteast, part ghost story, part dissection of “truth,” the play builds a never-ending loop between your head and your sixth sense and satisfies the cravings of both. With insight and relentless curiosity, the Tony Award-nominated playwright Lucas Hnath’s play transforms the theater into an intimate séance, crafting an unnerving testament to the power of the mind, which has a mind of its own.
Gloucester Stage will be returning to live indoor performances in its historic theater located on Gloucester’s waterfront following last summer’s successful schedule of outdoor performances. The theater company will continue to prioritize the health and safety of artists, staff, and patrons. More information can be found at gloucesterstage.com/keeping-you-safe/
All performances, unless noted, are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Saturday and Sunday at 3:00 pm at Gloucester Stage Company located at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester.
Tickets to the Gloucester Stage 2022 season are on sale now.
Single Ticket prices range from $25 to $59, with discounts available for seniors, military families, college students, youth under 18 years of age, EBT Cardholders, and Cape Ann residents. For detailed ticket information, visit www.gloucesterstage.com
Season Packages start at $225 for five tickets to use for any mainstage performance and include early access to seating, no fees, and free ticket exchanges. Packages can be purchased or renewed by calling the Box Office at 978.281.4433 or by visiting gloucesterstage.com/subscribe
For additional information, contact The Box Office, located at 267 East Main Street, Gloucester, or can be reached at 978.281.4433 or boxoffice@gloucesterstage.com
ºMember Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) Union
Gloucester Stage Company’s 2022 Season
June 3-June 26, 2022
GLORIA
Branden Jenkin-Jacobs, playwright
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ plays include NEIGHBORS (Public Theater), APPROPRIATE (Actors Theatre of Louisville, Victory Gardens Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Signature Theatre), AN OCTOROON (Soho Rep), and WAR. He is a Residency Five playwright at Signature Theatre and a Lila Acheson Wallace Fellow at the Juilliard School. Additionally, his work has been seen at the Vineyard Theatre, the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles, Company One in Boston, and the HighTide Festival in the United Kingdom. He has taught at New York University and Queens University of Charlotte, and his honors include the Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award. He holds an MA in Performance Studies.
July 1- July 26, 2022
MR.FULLERTON:
BETWEEN THE SHEETS
Anne Undeland, playwright
Anne Undeland is a member of Dramatists Guild, Howl Playwrights, The Writers’ Rock, and Berkshire Voices. Her work has been presented around the country with her short, The Kiss winning best play at the Ten Minute Play Festival at the West Side Y and her audio piece, Adeline’s Gambol, a finalist for the Miller Audio Award at the Missouri Review. Her full-length play, Lady Randy, was produced by WAM Theatre and performed at Shakespeare & Co in Lenox, MA in 2019, and her newest play, Mr. Fullerton was produced in 2021 by Great Barrington Public Theater and was nominated for four Berkshire Theater Critics Association Awards, including Outstanding New Play.
July 29 – August 21, 2022
GRAND HORIZONS
Bess Wohl, playwright
Bess Wohl’s plays have been produced or developed at theaters around the country, including the Williamstown Theatre Festival, People’s Light and Theatre Company, Center Theatre Group, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, the Pioneer Theatre, the Pittsburgh Public Theater, the Northlight Theater, TheaterWorks New Works Festival, the Geffen Playhouse, the Vineyard Arts Project, Ojai Playwright’s Conference, the Cape Cod Theatre Project and the New York International Fringe Festival. Her play AMERICAN HERO had its world premiere at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, directed by Leigh Silverman. She also worked on PRETTY FILTHY, an original musical about the adult entertainment industry, in collaboration with the composer/lyricist Michael Friedman and the Civilians. Her other plays include CATS TALK BACK, IN, BARCELONA, and TOUCHED. Her work has been supported by the MacDowell Fellowship, PlayPenn, and the Sewanee Writers Conference. She is a member of the Ars Nova Play Group, and has been the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club and Center Theatre Group. She also writes for film and television. She completed an adaptation of the bestselling novel “The Luxe” for Paramount Pictures and has developed original television pilots for Fox, HBO, and USA. Bess is a graduate of Harvard, magna cum laude, where she studied with Seamus Heaney and Jamaica Kincaid, and was awarded the Rona Jaffe Writing Prize and the Tennessee Williams Scholarship. She earned her MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where she was a recipient of the Rebecca West Scholarship. She is originally from Brooklyn, New York, and divides her time between New York and Los Angeles.
August 26 – September 18, 2022
PARADISE BLUE
Dominique Morisseau, playwright
Dominique Morisseau 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 Tony-nominated book writer on the new Broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations (Imperial Theatre). Dominique is an alumna of The Public Theater Emerging Writers Group, Women’s Project Lab and Lark Playwrights Workshop, and has developed work at Sundance Lab, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference. She most recently served as Co-Producer on the Showtime series Shameless (3 seasons). Additional 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 (2), Ford Foundation Art of Change Fellowship, Variety’s Women of Impact for 2017-18, and a recent MacArthur Genius Grant Fellow.
September 30 – October 23
THE THIN PLACE
Lucas Hnath, playwright
Lucas Hnath’s most recent play, Dana H., was at the Vineyard Theatre in New York. Lucas received a 2017 Tony Award nomination for Best Play with A Doll’s House, Part 2. Hnath’s other plays include Hillary and Clinton, The Thin Place, Red Speedo, The Christians, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, Isaac’s Eye and Death Tax. He has been produced on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre and Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep and Ensemble Studio Theatre. His plays have also premiered at the Humana Festival of New Plays, Victory Gardens and South Coast Repertory. He is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and an alumnus of New Dramatists. Awards: Whiting Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Kesselring Prize, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, Obie Award for Playwriting, Steinberg Playwright Award and the Windham-Campbell Literary Prize.
Gloucester Stage Company is Boston’s North Shore premier professional nonprofit theater company. Presenting professional productions of intellectually stimulating and socially relevant theater since its inception, Gloucester Stage has developed a highly engaged audience eager to experience the power of live theater. Visit: gloucesterstage.com
