Trouble in Mind

Regional Premiere
By Alice Childress

1957. Rehearsals begin on what everyone hopes will be Broadway’s next big hit. But social norms and prejudices collide, and so Wiletta Mayer, a gifted Black actress, will finally get to play the lead role in a Broadway show if she’s willing to compromise her principles. Funny, moving, and ultimately a shattering look at racism, identity, and ego in the high-stakes world of New York theatre. This 1955 comedy-drama—planned for Broadway but canceled when the playwright wouldn’t tone down its message—finally made its triumphant premiere in 2021.

“THE PLAY OF THE MOMENT.” (THE NEW YORK TIMES) “GLORIOUS TO BEHOLD.” (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL) “IT WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY.” (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Permanent Collection

By Thomas Gibbons

African-American businessman Sterling North has been named the new director of the Morris Foundation. He soon discovers that this world-famous art collection includes several significant African sculptures tucked away in storage. His proposal to add them to the public galleries is opposed by the Foundation’s long-time education director, loyal to the idiosyncratic wishes of the late Dr. Morris who left direct orders never to change the art. Spurred on by a zealous local journalist, the clash quickly escalates to public accusations of racism and a bitter struggle for control of the collection.

“Gibbons’ intellectually charged drama is a beautifully balanced dialectic that treats a complicated and emotional issue without cheap conclusions… Sophisticated and deft, it is a provocative treatment of the unanswerable.” (Los Angeles Times)

The Oldest Boy

Regional Premiere
By Sarah Ruhl

An American mother and a Tibetan father have a three-year-old son believed to be the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama, a spiritual master. When a Tibetan lama and a monk come to their home unexpectedly, asking to take their child away for a life of spiritual training in India, the parents must make a life-altering choice that will test their strength, their marriage, and their hearts. The Oldest Boy is a richly emotional journey filled with music, dance, puppetry, ritual, and laughter — it’s Sarah Ruhl at her imaginative best.

“Ms. Ruhl’s drama is among the most easily accessible from this poetic, venturesome playwright… yet it is marked by Ms. Ruhl’s inquisitive intelligence, clean-lined eloquence and spiky humor.” – The New York Times

The Best of Everything

Regional Premiere
Adapted by Julie Kramer
Based on the book by Rona Jaffe

Imagine “Madmen” meets “Sex and the City!” The Best of Everything is the new adaptation of Rona Jaffe’s 1958 bestseller about ambitious secretaries in the big city. These girls want thrilling careers and grand adventures—and husbands and children too, in due time. Today we call that “having it all.” These gals call it “the best of everything.” And wisely enough, they’re not sure it’s possible.

“It’s Stage Door in a Mad Men world, with a jigger of Peyton Place, and Kramer treats its soapiness like a bubble bath whose froth conceals some pretty dirty water.” —Time Out NY “This clever adaptation of Rona Jaffe’s novel is an absolute treat… The Best of Everything nimbly lives up to its title.” —TheaterMania.

Present Laughter

By Noël Coward

Noël Coward’s totally-irresistible and semi-autobiographical comedy follows a self-obsessed actor in the midst of a mid-life crisis. Forever indulging his considerable “appetite” for wine, women, and sleeping late, the London theatre’s favorite leading man suddenly finds himself caught amongst doting ingénues, obsessed playwrights, secret trysts, and unexpected twists. A marvelously comic exaggeration of the life that whirled around Coward in his heyday.