Timothy McDevitt and Carlyn Connolly Lead DEAR EDVARD at The Martha's Vineyard Playhouse This Summer

The Martha's Vineyard Playhouse, MJ Bruder Munafo, Artistic & Executive Director, will present the production premiere of "Dear Edvard" with music by Steven Schoenberg and lyrics by Richard Michelson. Kevin Newbury directs with David Sytkowski as pianist and music director. Timothy McDevitt (Metropolitan Opera, NY City Center Encores, PBS Great Performances) portrays Norwegian painter Edvard Munch opposite Carlyn Connolly (Ivoryton Playhouse, North Shore MT, Virginia Opera) as the Nurse. Performances begin Friday June 20, 2025 and run through Sunday July 5, 2025 on the Patricia Neal Stage at the Martha's Vineyard Playhouse in Vineyard Haven, Mass.

An intimate, 80-minute music theatre piece, Dear Edvard is part art history biopic, love story, psychological exploration, and family drama. Set in the hospital room at Dr. Jacobsen's Clinic for Nervous Disorders and Alcoholism where Edvard Munch committed himself in 1908, Munch's young nurse, now elderly, confesses her long ago passion for her famous patient, and transports us back to the beginnings of psychoanalysis, sexual liberation, and the birth of modern art. Through her eyes we meet the various women in Munch's life, and a picture emerges of the social and emotional upheavals that would affect and form the iconic artist, as well as reflecting the anxiety, self-awareness and pursuit of meaning and inner-peace that have come to define our own lives today.