GableStage’s 23rd season under its new producing artistic director Bari Newport will have more productions and additional performances in what is currently planned to be offered in full houses.
The schedule is planned as:
—- SPLASH! a season opening fundraiser at the Biltmore Hotel pool with a one-night only synchronized swimming extravaganza reminiscent of 1940’s movie mermaid Esther Williams at 7p.m. Oct. 28.
—-Arthur Miller’s The Price (November 12 – December 12). One son abandoned his dreams to support his father. The other didn’t. Thirty years later, they reunite to sell their late father’s belongings and are forced to examine their decisions – and the price they had to pay. Adler was directing the piece in rehearsal when the pandemic shut it down. Newport will use Adler’s notes, the same set and production team and three of the actors originally cast by Adler: Patti Gardner, George Schiavone and Gregg Weiner, along with Michael McKenzie.
—-Joe Papp at the Ballroom (December 17 – 31), adapted by Susan Papp-Lippman and Florida-based actor, Avi Hoffman who also stars. This is the world premiere of the full piece that had some limited readings in 2019 and earlier this year. Joseph Papp, the greatest American Theatre icon of the 20th century gave only one public concert in his entire career. In it, he recounted his Brooklyn Yiddish upbringing, his political struggles and his reconceiving of the creative process. Hoffman adapts and recreates the event in Soho in 1978. This production is produced by GableStage in alliance with YI Love Jewish. This limited engagement production is directed by Tony nominee Eleanor Reissa.
—- The Florida premiere of award-winning poet Claudia Rankine’s The White Card (January 14 – February 13, 2022). The White Card, Rankine’s first published play, poses the essential question: Can American society progress if whiteness remains invisible? Composed of two scenes, The White Card is described as “a moving and revelatory distillation of racial divisions as experienced in the white spaces of the living room, the art gallery, the theater, and the imagination itself.” The director is Lydia Fort, is an assistant professor at Emory University where she teaches directing, acting, African American theatre, and eco-theatre.
—- The world premiere of a two-person musical, Me Before You (February 25 – March 27, 2022). With a book by Atlanta-based playwright Janece Shaffer and music by Grammy Award winner, Kristian Bush of the country-rock band Sugarland, Me Before You presents Roz and Raye, a couple who have survived 20 years of marriage and can’t believe they still like each other. But the inescapable shock waves of the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh hearing have hit them hard and suddenly the two are asking questions of each other they never have before. This new musical explores how the politics of a nation can impact the politics of a marriage.
—-Familiar territory as seen through the eyes of a Massachusetts theater artist, the Florida premiere of Jessica Provenz’s Boca (April 22 – May 22, 2022). This comedy follows a group of retirees who – between golf, bridge and Botox – can be found bickering, gossiping and living it up like they’re teenagers again. Straight from a sold-out run in the Berkshires at Barrington Stage Company whose artistic director Julie Boyd leads this edition as well.
—-The subscription season concludes with Fade (June 3 – July 3, 2022), written by Tanya Saracho and directed by Teo Castellanos, the local actor/writer/director, who works in theater, film and television. In the play, Lucia is understandably nervous. It’s day one at her first TV writing job. As a Hispanic novelist, she may actually be the “diversity hire” she’s heard whispers about. Uncertain whether she can make a place for herself in cutthroat Hollywood, she feels less alone when she meets Abel, the Latino janitor. They form a bond and share stories, but it turns out that their friendship is not what Abel expects in this dramatic comedy about class, integrity, and culture.
—-As a special season add-on production outside the subscription, the world-premiere of Rubenology, The Making of an American Legend (July 14-31, 2022), written by local playwright Vanessa Garcia and Florida-based performer Ruben Rabasa. The one-person show is described as “Rabasa (who Andy Garcia called “La Gloria de Cuba”) telling us about the wild ride of his life—all 83 years of it and counting. Rabasa takes us from Cuba to the United States; from santeros to his saving grace, his mom. It’s funny, silly and full of heart, just like Rabasa himself, who has a thing or two to teach us—his Rubenology—about being an actor, a lover, a friend, a son, a Cuban-American, and an American.”
Ticket purchasers for the productions that were cancelled by COVID can either get a refund, get credit for the coming season or consider the purchase a donation.
To learn more including new performances and ticket packages, visit gablestage.org or contact the box office at (305) 445-1119.