The Gamm Theatre Announces 2016-2017 Season

Tony Estrella, artistic director of The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm), is pleased to announce the theater's 2016-2017 Season. The diverse 5-play line-up includes contemporary landmark plays, a world premiere adaptation of a classic masterpiece, and a cutting-edge sci-fi crime drama new to Gamm audiences. "In what may be our most ambitious slate of plays yet, we'll travel to the Tudor court of 16th-century England for King Elizabeth, a new version of Friedrich Schiller's political masterpiece Mary Stuart; then to a girls boarding school in New England for Lillian Hellman's groundbreaking Depression-era drama, The Children's Hour. We'll hang around a seedy junk shop in the 1970s Chicago of David Mamet's game-changing American Buffalo; and wander the halls of a sylvan English estate across two centuries of Tom Stoppard's incomparable tour de force Arcadia. Finally, we'll fast forward to a terrifying near future in the virtual world of Jennifer Haley's darkly compelling The Nether, where tangible reality all but disappears," Estrella said. "There's plenty more to come in Season 31 but I already can't wait to get started on Season 32." Subscriptions to The Gamm's 2015-16 Season are $155-$250. Information at 401-723-4266 or gammtheatre.org. THE GAMM THEATRE SEASON 32 (2016-2107)

ARCADIA by TOM STOPPARD (Sep-Oct)
Recognized as one of the greatest plays of the last 50 years, Arcadia is a captivating, comedic cocktail of literary sleuthing, romantic entanglements and scientific discoveries. In a stately home in the British countryside, poets, tutors, historians and lovers roam the halls some two hundred years apart, trying to solve their particular mystery. In the early 19th century, impetuous 13-year-old Thomasina and her tutor, Septimus, are discovering chaos theory too early. In the late 20th century, scholars Hannah and Bernard are piecing together history from the puzzling documents that remain. Along the way, there are mistaken identities, hermits, duels and sex-the irrational force that brings everyone together and splits them apart with hilarious and tragic results. I have never left a play more convinced that I had just witnessed a masterpiece.-The Daily Telegraph, UK Stoppard's richest, most ravishing comedy to date, a play of wit, intellect, language, brio and...emotion....You're instantaneously aloft, soaring, banking, doing loop-the-loops and then, when you think you're about to plummet to earth, swooping to a gentle touchdown of not easily described sweetness and sorrow.-The New York Times Perhaps the greatest play of its time.-The Independent,UK Laurence Olivier Award . New York Drama Critics' Circle Award

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR by LILLIAN HELLMAN (Nov-Dec)
Setting: 1930s New England, a girls boarding school. Mary, a disgruntled and notoriously deceitful student, thinks she's being treated unfairly. Stopping at nothing to get even, she starts a rumor that the headmistresses, Karen and Martha, are having an affair. The ensuing scandal throws the women's careers into chaos and pushes relationships to the brink, with surprising and devastating consequences for everyone. A controversial success when it opened on Broadway in 1934, Hellman's groundbreaking play about the culture of fear and the power of public shaming is startlingly relevant today.

AMERICAN BUFFALO by DAVID MAMET (Jan-Feb)
During one long day in a Chicago junk shop, three small-time, tough-talking crooks plot to rob a man of his valuable coin collection, including the rare Buffalo nickel. But when their con goes awry, it's every man for himself in a testosterone-fueled game of dead-end pipe dreams. By turns horrifying and hilarious, cynical and moving, American Buffalo is a small-scale tragedy packed with enough power to explode the American Dream. Hailed as a new American classic in 1977, Mamet's award-winning play is an engrossing experience whether you're seeing it for the first time or rediscovering this defining work. Brilliant...Mamet creates a subterranean world with its own non-literate comic beat, life-and-death struggles, pathos and even affection. -The New York Times New York Drama Critics' Circle and Obie Award Winner KING ELIZABETH a new version of Mary Stuart by FRIEDRICH SCHILLER, adapted by Tony Estrella (Mar-Apr) This thrilling new version of Schiller's classic Mary Stuart pits the ousted queen of Scotland against her cousin Elizabeth Tudor, the reigning queen of England, in a titanic battle of wills. Imprisoned by the English crown on suspicion of treason, Mary vies for her cousin's throne even as she pleads for her life. Elizabeth must navigate the male-dominated world of court politics, foreign wars and domestic intrigue to decide her cousin's fate. Will she act on her conscience? Or will she conform to patriarchal politics as usual to achieve her goals? Based on historical events, King Elizabeth is a classic for today. "Do you know the grip this female king has on everything?" Earl of Leicester, Mary Stuart THE NETHER by JENNIFER HALEY (May)
Log in. Choose an identity. Live out your private dreams. This is life in the Nether-a lush, virtual wonderland offering total sensory immersion, free of judgement and, seemingly, consequence. But when a real-world cop discovers a disturbing form of entertainment in "The Hideaway" realm, she triggers a virtual investigation with gasp-worthy revelations and an unimagined result. Part fairy tale, part sci-fi thriller, The Nether is a taut, haunting and highly original play for our times.

Deeply disturbing and provocative. -The Independent, UK As a parable for where we're headed on that big old highway in the digital sky, The Nether exerts a viselike grip, while taking you down avenues of thought you probably haven't traveled yet. -The New York Times
Plays and dates are subject to change.

Founded in 1984 as Alias Stage, the non-profit Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre creates the finest of live theater, engaging the audience intensely in current and recurrent issues of consequence. The Gamm further serves the public with educational outreach programming designed to support the theatrical experience, and help sustain and enhance the intellectual and cultural life of its community. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Tony Estrella and Managing Director Oliver Dow, The Gamm is a regionally recognized, award-winning theatre and a proud member of New England Area Theatre (NEAT), a bargaining unit of the Actors' Equity Association. GAMMTHEATRE.ORG