Two World Premieres & More Announced for Wilbury Theatre Group 2022/23 Season

The season will also feature The Humans by Stephen Karam, Indecent from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel and more.

By: Jun. 09, 2022
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Two World Premieres & More Announced for Wilbury Theatre Group 2022/23 Season

Wilbury Theatre Group has announced the plays for their upcoming 2022/23 Season. They include the world premiere of Rose Weaver's Silhouette of a Silhouette; the 2016 Tony Award winner for Best Play, The Humans by Stephen Karam; Obie Award winner We're Gonna Die by Young Jean Lee; Indecent from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel; and the world premiere of a new musical by playwright and poet Darcie Dennigan, Off With Their Heads.

"Next season will be a time to realize the true potential of our new performing space at WaterFire Arts Center," says Artistic Director, Josh Short. "With the iconic, two-story set of The Humans to the intimate musicality of We're Gonna Die, these works will afford us an infinite number of ways to explore what our new space can do. But even more so, each of these plays gives us the opportunity to continue building community in our work, and celebrating our theatre as a space where the actors on stage and the audience share the room, and the experience, together."

About the Plays


Silhouette of a Silhouette

*WORLD PREMIERE*
by Rose Weaver
Silhouette of a Silhouette is a world premiere work from acclaimed and award-winning Rhode Island actress Rose Weaver. Inspired by loss, Silhouette of a Silhouette is a story of redemption and hope told through music, song, and scenes - the story of a family struck by tragedy, and how we pick the pieces up to move on again.


The Humans

*RHODE ISLAND PREMIERE*
by Stephen Karam
Irish-American Erik Blake has brought his wife and his mother for Thanksgiving at the new home of his daughter and her boyfriend. His mother (affectionately referred to as "Momo") is suffering from Alzheimer's, and his other daughter Aimee has recently been the victim of a nasty breakup. The parents are disappointed that their daughters have left home to struggle in New York City, and worried that they are abandoning their values. The Humans tells the story of the quintessential family reunion: a group of people who love each other but still wrestle with basic human fears: old age, abandonment, poverty, and death.

Winner of the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play.

"Drawn in subtle but indelible strokes, Mr. Karam's play might almost qualify as deep-delving reportage, so clearly does it illuminate the current, tremor-ridden landscape of contemporary America...The Humans is a major discovery, a play as empathetic as it is clear-minded, as entertaining as it is honest. For all the darkness at its core...a bright light shines forth from it, the blazing luminescence of collective artistic achievement." - The New York Times


We're Gonna Die

*RHODE ISLAND PREMIERE*
by Young Jean Lee
It's time to get real and rock out about the one thing we all have in common: We're Gonna Die. Playwright Young Jean Lee blends storytelling, stand-up, music, and theater into a funny, sweet, and darkly weird song cycle that lets us know we may be miserable, but at least we won't be alone.


Indecent

*RHODE ISLAND PREMIERE*
by Paula Vogel
Indecent, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, is inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch's God of Vengeance-a play seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel. Indecent charts the history of an incendiary drama and the path of the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it.

"Indecent ranks as a must-see for anyone who cares about the important legacy of Yiddish theater, or of theater in general. ...we are indebted to Vogel...for reminding us of a brave play that fearlessly told the world there's nothing indecent about love." -TheaterMania.com


Off With Their Heads

*WORLD PREMIERE*
by Darcie Dennigan

Award-winning playwright and poet Darcie Dennigan (Dolores Goes to Poetry City; RESCUE! Or, The Fish; The Pleiades) and director Josh Short re-team again for a brand new musical about the rape and revenge of painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

Darcie Dennigan has been developing Off with Their Heads with support from a Howard Foundation Fellowship. She is the author of five books, including Slater Orchard: An etymology(FC2). She does poets theatre stuff under the name Spatulate Church Emergency Shift, and her adaptation of Mónica de la Torre's The Happy End / All Welcome won the Anna Rabinowitz Award from the Poetry Society of America for "venturesome, interdisciplinary work." Since 2018 she has been a playwright-in-residence with the Wilbury Theatre Group, collaborating on Dolores Goes to Poetry City, The Pleiades and RESCUE! Or, The Fish.

Dates will be announced at a later date. For information on becoming a member, visit:
https://www.thewilburygroup.org/memberships

Photo credit: Erin X. Smithers



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