Tesseract Theatre Company dominated at The St. Louis Theater Circle Awards on Monday evening winning 10 awards, including Outstanding Production of a Musical for ANASTASIA: THE MUSICAL and Outstanding Production of a Drama for Matthew Lopez’s THE INHERITANCE Parts 1 & 2. ANASTASIA and THE INHERITANCE each picked up five awards. Directors Brittanie Gunn and Stephen Peirick were honored for Outstanding Direction of a Musical and Drama. Each production picked up two acting awards as well.
Amy Leach directs Tatty Hennessy’s adaptation of Orwell’s shockingly relevant novella, exploring greed and corruption in a sophisticated production that integrates British Sign Language. It’s essential viewing in the current political climate.
The nominees’ reactions are starting to pour in following the St. Louis Theater Circle Awards announcement last week naming the nominees. Awards will be presented in 34 categories for outstanding achievement in Musicals, Dramas, Comedies, and Opera. Leading all companies is The Muny with 30 nominations. Two of the nominated actors are Adam Heller and Jessica Vosk. Heller played Tevye in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, and Vosk starred as Jenna in The Muny premiere of WAITRESS. Both were nominated for Outstanding Performer in a Musical.
The St. Louis Theater Circle has announced their 2025 nominations for their annual awards. Each year, the Circle honors excellence in professional theater with awards in 34 categories for producing, directing, acting, and technical theatre. This year The Muny leads all companies with 30 nominations spread across their seven musicals presented in their 106th season. STAGES St. Louis, The New Jewish Theatre, and The Repertory Theater of St. Louis earned 19 nominations each. St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s production of AS YOU LIKE IT and STAGES St. Louis production of RAGTIME are the most nominated productions of the year with 10 nods each.
The Tesseract Theatre Company’s production of THE INHERITANCE was a marvelous accomplishment thanks to the genius direction of Stephen Peirick and the out-of-body performances he evoked from each member of his cast. Peirick took the more than 300 pages of Lopez’s wordy script and swiftly paced the production, making it so succinct that the time in the theater melted away as rapidly as a piece of satisfying chocolate on the tongue.
Peirick artfully blocked his well-rehearsed actors on his small set design consisting of two small risers surrounded by the three walls of the small black box theatre. Paintings of familiar New York City scenes representing The Bethesda Terrace Fountain and theatre marquees were interspersed with artwork of cherry blossoms adorning the side walls. Decorating the back wall were vines of cherry blossoms in a crisscross pattern reminiscent of a NYC subway map. He judiciously used the performance space to move his actors between NYC, the apartment interiors, and an upstate New York estate while maintaining a lively pace to his sensational storytelling.
A complete review of this work will not be published until after seeing Part 2, but after witnessing this company’s transcendent and transformative performance of Part 1 I was compelled to write a micro-review.
One of the most anticipated plays being produced in St. Louis this season is Matthew Lopez’s epic masterpiece THE INHERITANCE. Produced by Tesseract Theatre Company, THE INHERITANCE is a two-part play spanning three generations of gay men and the effect their relationships have on one another. Inspired by the novel “Howard’s End,” THE INHERITANCE debuted in London’s West End in March of 2018, before transferring to Broadway in November of 2019. THE INHERITANCE is the winner of countless awards including the Olivier Award for Best New Play, the Tony Award for Best Play, and was recognized as Best Play by London’s Evening Standard Theatre Award, Critic’s Circle Award, South Bank Sky Arts Award, Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award, New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and GLAAD Media Award. Broadway World had the opportunity to sit down with the Director Stephen Peirick, and three members of his acting troupe, Tyson Cole, Jonathan Hey, and Jacob Schmidt, who will bring the regional premiere of this important work to audiences in and around the St. Louis Area.
The Tesseract Theatre Company will present The Inheritance at The Marcelle April 26 - May 5, directed by Stephen Peirick. Learn more about the production here!
Ellie Leach – reigning champion of Strictly Come Dancing - will make her stage acting debut as Miss Scarlett in the world premiere UK tour of Cluedo 2. Find out how and where to catch Ellie in the show here!
THE KITCHEN presents Martha Friedman and Susan Marshall's 'Two Person Operating System Type 2,' a sculptural-choreographic work examining the relationship between moving bodies and objects.
Judith Amsenga, Audrey Anderson, Jack Bennett, Joanne Clifton, Wesley Griffith, Gabriel Paul star in ‘Windfall’, which arrives at London’s Southwark Playhouse following a critically acclaimed run in New York in 2022. Check out photos here!
The cast has been announced for the UK premiere of Scooter Pietsch's hilarious and chaotic comedy 'Windfall', directed by Mark Bell, best known for directing West End hits 'The Play That Goes Wrong' & 'The Comedy About a Bank Robbery'.
The Play That Goes Wrong, Mischief’s Olivier Award-winning box office hit that continues to entertain audiences on a global scale, today announces casting for its 2022 UK Tour. T
Follow the (fictional) Cornley Drama Society as they put on a 1920s murder mystery, 'The Murder at Haversham Manor'. As the title suggests, everything that can go wrong … does! As the accident prone thesps battle against all the odds to reach their final curtain call, hilarious results ensue!
Following three previously sold out tours, the production will open on Tuesday 13 July 2021 at Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury where it first premiered in 2014, before visiting Cheltenham, Bath, Salford, Nottingham, Eastbourne, Dartford, York, Woking, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Brighton and Aylesbury. Further dates soon to be announced.
