Watch Me Walk to Open at Yale Rep in November

Yale Repertory Theatre will present the Soho Rep production of Anne Gridley's Watch Me Walk, directed by Eric Ting, November 14-December 5 (at Yale Rep, 1120 Chapel Street, New Haven). 'One of downtown theater's tartest, wryest performers' (Helen Shaw, The New York Times), Gridley takes audiences on a wild walk through her experiences since being diagnosed with Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), a rare degenerative neurological disease which her mother and grandmother also had. Direct from a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run, Watch Me Walk is a hilarious and biting new play about disability, pity, and family mythologies that will stay with you long after the curtain-or Anne-falls.

Here, the Nature Theater of Oklahoma founding member and two-time OBIE Award winner Gridley builds on her decades-long legacy of bold experimental theater-making for her first-ever piece as a solo playwright. In her play that's part observational comedy, part bonkers family history, part critique of our trainwreck of a healthcare system, Gridley points to a personal irony: 'HSP is also known as an orphan disease. Such rare diseases that afflict fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. means there aren't enough people with the disease for pharmaceutical companies to be interested in funding research for medications or cures, so they become 'orphaned.' When I found out about the concept of orphan diseases having lost both of my parents, I found it hilarious - I guess I'm just an orphan with an orphan disease; how perfect is that?'

Watch Me Walk is performed by Gridley with Fernando Contreras (Off-Broadway: Bruise & Thorn, The Wedding March) and Keith Johnson (Regional: Austen's Pride, Lippa's Wild Party). The creative team is Asli Bulbul (Choreographer), Noah Lethbridge (Music Coach and Original Songs), Alex Gibson (Original Songs), Jian Jung (Scenic Designer), Lux Haac (Costume Designer), Kate McGee (Lighting Designer), Tei Blow (Sound and Video Designer), Grace Zandarski (Vocal Coach), Judith C. Villalva (Technical Director), Stephanie Yankwitt & Company Casting (Casting Director), and Lisa McGinn (Stage Manager).

Gridley's play was commissioned by Soho Rep, which shared a long history with the artist: they also commissioned and presented the Nature Theater of Oklahoma's No Dice in 2007, and co-produced their multi-part opera Life and Times in 2013 for the Under the Radar festival.

In addition to serving as one of the Directors of Soho Rep, Eric Ting's (Yale Rep: Between Two Knees; Off-Broadway: The Comeuppance) recent work has celebrated iconic downtown artists in Soho Rep's Give Me Carmelita Tropicana! and Charles Ludlum's Galas with Anthony Roth Costanzo; his staging of Sarah Jones's solo performance America, Who Hurt You, is currently running at Theatre for a New Audience. He says of Watch Me Walk, 'It's not hard to imagine how something like HSP might isolate someone from the world, and certainly how the world might isolate someone with HSP. But with Watch Me Walk, Anne challenges us to not simply watch her walk, but to walk with her, as she confronts a changing body with humor, rage, curiosity, and candor.'

Watch Me Walk continues Yale Rep's 2026-27 season, the first to be overseen by Artistic Director Evan Yionoulis who assumed that role, as well as Elizabeth Parker Ware Dean of David Geffen School of Drama, on July 1. She says, 'Watch Me Walk exemplifies everything people have come to love about Anne Gridley as a performer, now also as a writer. I'm thrilled Yale Rep is the second theater to present this work before audiences around the world encounter the piece, and that we have the honor of introducing this artist at the height of her powers to New Haven audiences.'

'By investing in the commissioning and long-term development of new works, our hope is that the impact of those works will continue beyond their premieres. Watch Me Walk is a prime example of this pursuit, and we are thrilled that Yale Rep is the partner to help make that happen,' says Soho Rep co-director Caleb Hammons. 'Anne Gridley is a writer and performer whose momentum cannot be halted. As her walk continues across the country and the globe, audiences are in for quite a ride!'

Development and production support for Watch Me Walk is provided by Yale's Binger Center for New Theatre.

Watch Me Walk Tickets & Performance Schedule

Tickets for Watch Me Walk are available here, and are $20 and $40 for all previews, $20 and $50 on weeknights after opening, and $20 and $65 on weekends and matinees after opening. Student tickets are $20 for all performances.

Performances take place November 14-December 5 at Yale Rep (1120 Chapel Street, New Haven):

• Saturday, November 14 at 8pm (Preview)
• Monday, November 16 at 8pm (Preview)
• Tuesday, November 17 at 8pm (Preview)
• Wednesday, November 18 at 8pm (Preview)
• Thursday, November 19 at 8pm (Opening Night)
• Friday, November 20 at 8pm
• Saturday, November 21 at 2pm
• Saturday, November 21 at 8pm
• Monday, November 23 at 8pm
• Tuesday, November 24 at 8pm
• Friday, November 27 at 2pm (Relaxed Performance)
• Friday, November 27 at 8pm
• Saturday, November 28 at 2pm (Touch Tour, Audio Description, Talk Back)
• Saturday, November 28 at 8pm (ASL)
• Tuesday, December 1 at 8pm
• Wednesday, December 2 at 2pm (Pre-Performance Discussion)
• Wednesday, December 2 at 8pm
• Thursday, December 3 at 8pm
• Friday, December 4 at 8pm (Spanish Captioning)
• Saturday, December 5 at 2pm (Open Captioning)
• Saturday, December 5 at 8pm (Closing Night)

More on Yale Repertory Theatre

Upcoming Shows

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

10/2 - 10/24/2026

August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

10/2 - 10/24/2026

Recent Articles

MACHINAL to be Presented at David Geffen School Of Drama At Yale

9/21/2026