Final Play added to 2018 Season at Bridge Street Theatre

Hallelujah! Bridge Street Theatre has at last been able to nail down the remaining play in its 2018 Theatre Subscription Series. Now slated for a two-weekend run fromSeptember 6 - 16 is Chicago-area playwright Mickle Maher's joyous and unexpectedly raucous celebration of art, ardor, and inappropriately public displays of affection (written entirely in rhymed couplets) "There Is a Happiness That Morning Is".

On the crumbling campus of a small liberal arts college somewhere in rural New England, professors (and long-time lovers) Bernard and Ellen lecture on the poetry of William Blake - he on "Songs of Innocence", she on "Songs of Experience". But their lectures today are going to be particularly challenging. Last night, on the college quad, the pair got so carried away while reading Blake aloud that they threw off their clothes and made mad, passionate love in full view of their students as well as the school's puritanical president. Now, desperate to salvage both their careers and their love, they need to convince a scandalized campus community that this 'public showing' of their 'dew-dipped thighs' was the apotheosis of Blakean ecstasy or else suffer the consequences. This is one set of lectures no student in their right mind would want to miss.

"There Is a Happiness That Morning Is" joins the four previously-announced plays scheduled for BST's 2018 Theatre Subscription Season - five magnificent and deeply human stories for audiences to savor between March and November.

FRANKIE & JOHNNY IN THE CLAIRE DE LUNE by Terrence McNally (March 29-April 8)
A contemporary American classic and possibly the finest romantic comedy of the latter half of the 20th Century. What begins as a one-night-stand between a short-order cook and a waitress becomes a tug-of-war between one who sees a future of endless love and adventure between them and one who is terrified of being hurt again.

LENI by Sarah Greenman (May 17-27)
Hitler's chosen filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (director of TRIUMPH OF THE WILL and OLYMPIA) hovers between life and death. There, she encounters her younger self and is forced to confront the moral implications of what she created and how her artistry was exploited by a fascist regime. A searing examination of narcissism, denial, and artistic responsibility.

THE REVENGE OF THE SPACE PANDAS or BINKY RUDICH AND THE TWO-SPEED CLOCK by David Mamet (July 12-22)
A boy scientist, his female sidekick, and a sheep named Bob find themselves transported to the planet Crestview, patrolled by an army of Space Pandas and ruled over by a preening narcissist named George Topax who'll stop at nothing to become the only man in the Goose Nebula to possess a wool letterman's sweater. A play for children (and their adults) written by an American playwright far better known for his searing (and frequently profane) dramas.

THERE IS A HAPPINESS THAT MORNING IS by Mickle Maher (September 6-16)

CASSE NOISETTE by Michael Whistler (November 8-18)
World Premiere! CASSE NOISETTE (The Nutcracker) pairs the deeply closeted life of composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky with a contemporary story about a deeply closeted high school teacher obsessed with Tchaikovsky's glorious music. Sugar Plum fairies and phone sex workers collide in this tale of discovering the strength to be true to one's self, no matter what the cost.

Season Subscriptions are now available A. Brown Paper Tickets - bst2018.brownpapertickets.com - and Subscribers also get first dibs on seats to a special cabaret performance by consummate entertainer Charles Busch and Tom Judson on February 24, as well as discounts on many of the other events BST hosts throughout the year, plus special offers from local merchants. Visit bridgest.org for lots more details.

Events at Bridge Street Theatre are supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and by Public Funds from the Greene County Legislature through the Cultural Fund administered in Greene County by the Greene County Council on the Arts.