Gloucester Stage Artistic Director Eric C. Engel recently announced Gloucester Stage’s 2010 Summer Playpass season to begin on Thursday, June 17. The Gloucester Stage professional summer season includes a powerful new work by an emerging playwright; a new take on a classic comedy written in 1895; an all star cast of award winning actors in an Alan Ayckbourn comedy of marriage and family, an evening of two plays dealing with love and loss and an inspiring story based on the playwright’s own experience. According to Engel, “In selecting plays for our 31st season, we’ve focused on themes of love, laughter and redemption—the antidotes to political conflict, war and economic strife. I’m thrilled with the roster of artists we are gathering for our season—some returning to GSC, some joining us for their first season.” Award winning actress and director Karen MacDonald returns to Gloucester for her third consecutive summer and will direct this summer while Carmel O’Reilly, Artistic Director of Boston’s Súgán Theatre makes her GSC directing debut in August. During the 2010 playpass season actresses Lindsay Crouse, Paula Plum and Nancy E. Carroll and actors Richard Mawe, Richard Snee, Steve Barkhimer, Lewis D. Wheeler and Craig Mathers will appear on the GSC stage. Single tickets and playpasses for the 2010 Season will be available for purchase on Monday, April 19 by calling the Gloucester Stage Box Office at 978-281-4433 or visiting www.gloucesterstage.org.

2010 Summer Playpass Season

Table Manners
by Alan Ayckbourn
June 17 – July 3
directed by Eric C. Engel

Gloucester Stage’s 2010 season kicks off with Table Manners, a heartbreakingly hilarious reunion of adult siblings and their spouses and the first play of Alan Ayckbourn’s infamous The Norman Conquests trilogy. Directed by Gloucester Stage Artistic Director Eric C. Engel, the production features the return of Academy Award nominee and Gloucester resident Lindsay Crouse to Gloucester Stage as she joins an all star cast of Boston actors featuring Paula Plum, Richard Snee and Steven Barkhimer.

Tender
by Kelly Younger
July 8 – July 25
directed by Eric C. Engel

The family home, wallpapered with a lifetime of I.O.U’s, is about to go into foreclosure and Christopher, the Patron Saint of Travelers, is on standby. All that is tender is not green in this humorous and heartbreaking family drama by Kelly Younger, one of America’s emerging playwrights. Gloucester Stage Artistic Director Eric C. Engel directs this new work. Tender was developed with support from the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, MA.

Trying
by Joanna McClelland Glass
July 29 – August 8
directed by Eric C. Engel
Limited Run: Two Weeks Only

A cross-generational tour de force ensues when Sarah, a determined young secretary from the Canadian prairie, finds herself working for the aging Francis Biddle, Attorney General during World War II and the primary American Judge on the postwar Nuremberg Trials. This intimate and inspiring story, based on the playwright’s own experience, has been acclaimed by audiences and critics throughout the United States and Canada. Directed by Gloucester Stage Artistic Director Eric C. Engel, the production features the return of Gloucester Stage favorite Richard Mawe as Judge Frances Biddle in a limited run of two weeks.

Lost & Found
August 12 – August 22
Riders To The Sea
by John Millington Synge
with
Brilliant Traces
by Cindy Lou Johnson
directed by Carmel O’Reilly
featuring Elliot Norton Award Winner Nancy E. Carroll
Limited Run: Two Weeks Only

Lost & Found features two plays – one old and one new, but they both deal with love, loss, and ultimately, the triumph of the human soul. Carmel O’Reilly, Artistic Director of Boston’s Súgán Theatre makes her GSC directing debut with this evening of dynamic and uplifting theatre at Gloucester Stage for only a limited two week engagement. Rockport resident Nancy E. Carroll returns from her Broadway debut to perform the legendary role of Maurya in Riders To The Sea, John Millington Synge’s short but powerful and poetic classic about one woman’s sacrifice to the sea. In Brilliant Traces by Cindy Lou Johnson a man in a cabin in Alaska, in the middle of nowhere, a howling blizzard and the sudden arrival of a mysterious guest set the stage for an enchanting and transformative adventure.

An Ideal Husband
by Oscar Wilde
adapted by Daniel Morris
August 26 – September 12
directed by Karen MacDonald

Four actors portray nine characters, adding a gender bending layer to Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy about friendship, political corruption, blackmail, and redemption—as timely today as when first presented in 1895. Acclaimed actress and director, Karen MacDonald returns to direct this novel adaptation and Lewis D. Wheeler and Craig Mathers will play various roles in this ensemble comedy.

Compiled from the press release courtesy of the Gloucester Stage (website | profile | tag archive).

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