Previews: ADMISSIONS at Players Circle Theater

Players Circle Tackles Edgy Award-Winning Family Dramedy

 Players Circle Theater tackles Joshua Harmon’s award-winning play, ADMISSIONS, running Jan 7th – Jan 26th, 2025. 

Ripped from the pages of today’s headlines, ADMISSIONS is a dramedy about liberal parents desperate to get their children into an Ivy League school. A no-holds-barred look at privilege, power, and the perils of hypocrisy, ADMISSIONS features razor-sharp dialogue and hard-hitting laughs.

“This play examines what it means to be white in America today, as well as white guilt, white anxiety, and the privileges we have with being white," says Players Circle's Artistic Director Robert Cacioppo.

"The subject matter may be edgy. Yet, Harmon's dramas are often referred to by reviewers as comedies because they are incredibly funny! At its heart, ADMISSIONS is about family.” 

ADMISSIONS follows Sherri Rosen-Mason, the head of the admissions department at a New England prep school, as she fights to diversify the student body. Alongside her husband, the school’s headmaster, they’ve largely succeeded in bringing a stodgy institution into the twenty-first century. But when their only son sets his sights on an Ivy League university, personal ambition collides with progressive values, with convulsive results.

“Harmon’s work is known for being edgy, topical, and downright brilliant. But what I love most about the play is the three-dimensional characters he has created. They are not evil people, nor are they saints. Like us, they live in a gray area,” added Cacioppo.

ADMISSIONS received the 2018 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and the 2018 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. The New York Times hailed it as "Astonishing and daring. An extraordinarily useful and excruciating satire - of the left, by the left, for the left - for today.”

The production welcomes back several of Players Circle Theater's ensemble members to the stage, including Producing Director Carrie Lund Cacioppo (Greetings, Bedroom Farce, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, Butterflies Are Free), Harvey Evans (Greetings, Butterflies Are Free, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Bill Mahone (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), and Betty Nordstrom (The Lady with all the Answers, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), as well as introducing Players Circle’s Director of Volunteers to the stage, Kelly Jo Madoian.

The cast is joined by an expert team of designers, including Set Design by Steven McLean (Greetings, Bedroom Farce, My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, Godspell, Proof, Butterflies Are Free, Ho! Ho! Ho! The Christmas Show, Breaking Legs). Sound Design by Tyler Omundsen (Greetings, Proof, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I Love You/Now Change) and Costume Design by Sallyanne Bianchetta (Godspell, Proof, Butterflies Are Free, Ho! Ho! Ho! The Christmas Show). Technical Direction by Gavin White. Production Stage Management by Meaghan Daley.

The production will also feature a twenty-minute post-performance Talkback following the Saturday, Jan 18th 3:00PM performance. The Talkback will feature exclusive discussions with the entire cast and creative team behind the production, as well as field questions from the audience. 

“We love to give our audiences something hip and new that they can only see by flying to New York -- ADMISSIONS is one of the hottest plays available in America today and you can experience it right here in Fort Myers,” concludes Cacioppo. 

ADMISSIONS runs approximately 95 minutes and is performed without an intermission.

Players Circle Theater’s production is sponsored by Bruce & Janet Bunch. 

JUST THE FACTS: 

ADMISSIONS by Joshua Harmon 

Discounted Previews January 7 - 9

Opening Night January 10. The show runs through January 26

Directed by Robert Cacioppo 

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