THE SWEET LIFE Gets Industry Workshop Performance
The performance will take place at the Jerry Orbach Theater.
A true story of American entrepreneurship, family and resilience will make its New York debut when The Sweet Life: The Ruth Hunt Story comes to the Jerry Orbach Theater at The Theater Center on Saturday, August 29, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. for a one-performance-only industry workshop.
Written by Kentucky playwright Cat Rhoden Goguen, directed by Jordan Campbell, and originally commissioned and produced by Kentucky's Gateway Regional Arts Center (GRAC), The Sweet Life tells the true story of Ruth Tharp Hunt, the determined Kentucky woman who began making candy from her Mt. Sterling home in 1921 and built what would become the Ruth Hunt Candy Company.
Long before "woman entrepreneur" became an everyday phrase, Ruth Tharp Hunt was building a business in the Appalachian foothills of Kentucky.
Her story begins with candy made at home and grows across generations as the Hunt family navigates economic upheaval, changing times, family loss, faith, succession, innovation and the difficult balance between preserving a legacy and allowing it to evolve.
Presented in a theatrical live-radio-play format, the production moves through decades of American life using actors, narration, period sound, music and storytelling to recreate the people and moments surrounding Ruth Hunt and the candy company that bears her name.
The script features more than 30 characters performed by a Kentucky ensemble through extensive doubling. The work was originally commissioned by Gateway Regional Arts Center and incorporates community history and the stories surrounding a business whose identity has remained closely tied to Mt. Sterling for more than a century.
The August 29 presentation marks the next stage in the play's development following its 2026 world premiere at Gateway Regional Arts Center in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky and a subsequent presentation at Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Unlike a traditional New York theatrical performance, the Jerry Orbach Theater engagement is being presented as an industry workshop, bringing the work before an audience expected to include theatrical producers, show developers, licensing and publishing professionals, filmmakers, investors, performing arts leaders and other members of the Broadway and national theatre community.
But the room will not be reserved exclusively for industry professionals.
As an educational arts organization, Gateway Regional Arts Center has chosen to make a limited number of seats available to the general public, offering NYC theatre fans an unusual opportunity to experience the development process firsthand.
For audiences accustomed to seeing a show only after it has reached a commercial or fully produced stage, The Sweet Life offers something different: the opportunity to be present while a new theatrical work is actively determining what comes next.
"This is one of the parts of theatre that audiences don't always get to see," said director and GRAC Executive Director Jordan Campbell. "Before a play tours, gets licensed, moves into another theatre or finds another life entirely, there are rooms like this one-where artists and audiences gather with producers, developers and other professionals and ask, 'What could this become?'"
"We're an arts organization, but we're also an educational organization. We thought there was something really exciting about opening a limited number of seats and saying to theatre lovers: come into the room. See this part of the process."
The New York presentation will help introduce the work to potential partners as its creative team explores future opportunities that could include regional productions, touring, theatrical licensing, continued development and adaptation for film.
The company traveling from Kentucky to New York includes: Hannah Westrick - Emily Tighlman Peck / Young Ruth Tharp Hunt, Christina McCleanhan - Ruth Tharp Hunt, Nolan Fields - William Caldwell Peck / others, Juliana Moore - Ruth Hunt Peck Wood / others, Daryl Thompson - William Hunt / others, Kevin Wiser - Ernest Martin / others, Tyler Wells - Tobby Moore / Joe Peck / others, Madison McCay - White House Secretary / Dottie, Mary Jones - Nell / Monda Martin, Becky Bishop-Priest - Mrs. Peachtree, Raven Adams - Frankie / others, Macy Cline - Store Clerk, Yuming Hsu - Mrs. Greene, Jennifer Woods - Mrs. Thompson / Jenny, Leah Shao - Penelope / others and Robert Powell - Narrator.
Jordan Campbell directs, with Jon Lovell serving as Creative Operations Manager. The play is written by Cat Rhoden Goguen and was originally commissioned and produced by Gateway Regional Arts Center.
The Sweet Life: The Ruth Hunt Story will be presented Saturday, August 29, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. at the Jerry Orbach Theater at The Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street, New York City.
The presentation is one performance only.
A limited number of public tickets are available at: grackentucky.org/events
Select "The Sweet Life in NYC - August 29."
Because this engagement is structured primarily as an industry workshop, public availability is limited and provides a rare opportunity for general theatre audiences to attend this stage of a new work's professional development.
Producers, theatrical developers, licensing and publishing professionals, filmmakers, presenters and other performing arts industry professionals interested in receiving a complimentary industry invitation may email director@grackentucky.org.
