Apollinaire Announces 2018/2019 Season

Apollinaire Theatre Company is thrilled to announce our 2018/2019 Season

Two Mile Hollow by Leah Nanako Winkler, December 21, 2018-January 20, 2019

The Christians by Lucas Hnath- February 15 - March 9, 2019

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David Greig- April 5-May 4, 2019
David Reiffel, the 2018 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Musical Direction, will be in residence for this our most musical of seasons, music directing and sound designing all three shows. Artistic Director Danielle Fauteux Jacques will direct Two Mile Hollow and Prudencia Hart, and actor/director Brooks Reeves returns to direct The Christians and star, together with Apollinaire favorite Becca A. Lewis, in The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart.

Two Mile Hollow by Leah Nanako Winkler

Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques

Dec. 21, 2018-Jan. 20, 2019Fri. & Sat. at 8:00, Sun. Jan. 13 and 20 at 3:00
Press Night: Saturday Dec. 22, 8:00

"unrelentingly hilarious" -Chicago Tribune

"It has everything desired of a good parody: It's deliciously biting, wildly over-the-top and unrelentingly hilarious. Yet "Two Mile Hollow" also provides some nutritious food for thought about how people of color are portrayed in our art and media, and whose perspective we're conditioned to accept as important." -Twin Cities Pioneer Press

When the Donnellys gather to divide their belongings after the sale of their oceanfront mansion, both an internal and literal storm brew. As this brood of famous, longing-to-be-famous, and mess of a Caucasian family comes together with their POC personal assistant, Charlotte, some really really really really really complicated and totally unique secrets are revealed over white wine.

A satirical takedown coupled with moments of disorienting sincerity, TWO MILE HOLLOW explores with brutality, awe, and compassion the age old theater genre of affluent white families retreating to their big houses for a weekend of secrets and fights. Only this time, none of the white characters are played by white actors.

TWO MILE HOLLOW was produced as a simultaneous world premiere by First Floor Theater (Chicago), Mixed Blood Theatre/Theater Mu (Minneapolis), Ferocious Lotus (San Francisco) and Artists At Play (Los Angeles). It was named one of the Top 15 Plays on the 2017 Kilroys List.

Leah Nanako Winkler is a Japanese-American playwright from Kamakura, Japan and Lexington Kentucky. Her play God Said This premiered at the Humana Festival, won the Yale Drama Series Prize, and will have its NYC premiere at Primary Stages this season. Other plays: Kentucky (2015 Kilroys List, World Premiere: Ensemble Studio Theatre co-production with Page 73 and the Radio Drama Network), Two Mile Hollow (2017 Kilroys List, 2017-2018 Simultaneous World Premiere at First Floor Theater, Mixed Blood/Theater Mu, Artists At Play, and Ferocious Lotus), Linus and Murray (EST/Marathon 2017) and more. She is the 2018-2019 Jerome Fellow at the Lark, an alumna of Youngblood, a 2016-2018 Time Warner Fellow at WP Theater, a member of the Ma-Yi Lab, and a member of the Dorothy Streslin New American Writer's Group at Primary Stages. She was awarded the first-ever Mark O'Donnell Prize from The Actors Fund and Playwrights Horizons in 2017. Leah is one of the inaugural playwrights to receive a commission from Audible's emerging playwrights fund.

The Christians by Lucas Hnath

Directed by Brooks Reeves

February 15-March 9, 2019
Fri. & Sat. at 8:00, Thurs. Feb. 28 & March 7 at 7:30, Sun. February 24 and March 3 at 3:00
Press Night: Sat. Feb. 16, 8:00

"Whether or not you believe in God, you should believe in Lucas Hnath." -The Guardian

"Lucas Hnath's softly mesmerizing drama about a schism that arises in an evangelical megachurch...In this terrific play about the mystery of faith, and how religion can tear people apart just as it can bring them together, a revelation experienced by the pastor causes a potentially disastrous rupture in the congregation." -NY Times

The Christians is a play about a charismatic pastor who has had a revelation, that asks difficult questions about belief and behavior in our lives.
Twenty years ago, Pastor Paul's church was nothing more than a modest storefront. Now he presides over a congregation of thousands, with classrooms for Sunday School, a coffee shop in the lobby, and a baptismal font as big as a swimming pool. Today should be a day of celebration. But Paul is about to preach a sermon that will shake the foundations of his church's belief.

Lucas Hnath's work as a playwright includes A Doll's House, Part 2; Hillary and Clinton; Red Speedo; The Christians; A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney; Isaac's Eye; and Death Tax. His work has been produced nationally and internationally, including at Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville/Humana Festival of New Plays, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Steppenwolf Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Royal Court Theatre, and on Broadway at the John Golden Theater. He is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and a resident of New Dramatists. Hnath is a recipient of an Obie, Guggenheim Fellowship, Outer Critics Circle Award for Best New Play, Whiting Award, Kesselring Prize, two Steinberg citations from the American Theatre Critics Association, and a 2017 Tony nomination for Best Play. He holds both a B.F.A. and M.F.A. from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart by David GreigDirected by Danielle Fauteux Jacques
April 5-May 4, 2019
Fri. & Sat. at 8:00, Sun April 14 & 28 at 3:00
Press Night: Sat. April 6, 8:00
"a terrific, inventive sense of fun" -The Scotsman

"the ultimate shaggy Satan story...it shifts seamlessly from robust silliness to sensual dreaminess... this happy mindbender offers the best deal going on time travel." -NY Times

One wintry morning Prudencia Hart, an uptight academic, sets off to attend a conference in Kelso in the Scottish Borders. As the snow begins to fall, little does she know who or what awaits her there. Inspired by the border ballads, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart is delivered in a riotous romp of rhyming couplets and devilish encounters.

David Greig is an acclaimed and award-winning playwright, whose plays include THE EVENTS (Traverse, Scotland and Young Vic), THE STRANGE UNDOING OF PRUDENCIA HART (Tron, National Theatre of Scotland), MIDSUMMER (Traverse, Soho and Tricycle), DUNSINANE (RSC at Hampstead and National Theatre of Scotland), DAMASCUS (Traverse, Scotland and Tricycle), OUTLYING ISLANDS (Traverse and Royal Court), THE AMERICAN PILOT (RSC), PYRENEES (Paines Plough), THE COSMONAUT'S LAST MESSAGE TO THE WOMAN HE WONCE LOVED IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION (Donmar Warehouse and Paines Plough) and THE ARCHITECT AND EUROPE (Traverse). Adaptations include TOUCHING THE VOID (Bristol Old Vic, Royal & Derngate Northampton, Royal Lyceum), CREDITORS (Donmar Warehouse), THE BACCHAE (Edinburgh International Festival), TINTIN IN TIBET (Barbican, Playhouse and UK tour), WHEN THE BULBUL STOPPED SINGING (Traverse Theatre, - Amnesty International Award; TapWater Award and Herald Angel), CALIGULA (Donmar Warehouse) and PETER PAN (National Theatre of Scotland, Traverse and Barbican). David wrote the book for CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, which opened in the West End in 2013. Most recently his stage adaptation of TOUCHING THE VOID opened at the Bristol Old Vic in Autumn 2018 before going to Royal & Derngate, Northampton and the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

David is currently under commission to write new plays for The Royal Court Theatre and the National Theatre of Scotland and is developing an original television series with co-creators David Harrower and John Crowley for Sister Pictures. He became Artistic Director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh in 2016.

The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart stars actors Brooks Reeves and Becca A. Lewis, with Music Direction by David Reiffel.

Brooks Reeves recently played Bottom in our Midsummer Night's Dream, his ninth show with Apollinaire, having previously appeared in Three Sisters, The Visit, Hamlet, Brilliant Adventures, Midsummer, From White Plains, Blood Wedding, and the Norton winning Stupid f-ing Bird. Winner of the 2015 IRNE Award for best supporting actor (small company), Brooks has worked with the Golddust Orphans (Legally Blind: The Hellen Keller musical), with Bridge Rep (Julius Caesar, The Libertine), Stoneham Theater (Neville's Island), Company One (An Octaroon, Shockheaded Peter), Central Square Theater (Arabian Nights), Zeitgeist Stage (Love! Valour! Compassion!, Bent, Boys in the Band), Hub Theatre of Boston, Brown Box, Happy Medium, and Bad Habit Productions. Last spring he made his Boston area directing debut at Apollinaire with Winter Solstice.

Becca A. Lewis has appeared in numerous Apollinaire productions including Three Sisters, Informed Consent, The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise, and Detroit. Other recent roles include The Women Who Mapped the Stars (Central Square Theater with the Nora), Revolt. She said. Revolt again (CompanyOne- Dig Boston's Best Performance), Splendor (CompanyOne), GRIMM (CompanyOne- IRNE Supporting Actress), Voyeurs de Venus (CompanyOne), The Big Meal (Zeitgeist Stage- Elliot Norton nomination Outstanding Actress, Ensemble), Tigers Be Still (Zeitgeist Stage- Elliot Norton nomination Outstanding Actress, Production), My Wonderful Day (Zeitgeist Stage), A Behanding in Spokane (Theatre on Fire), Far Away, Vinegar Tom, Fen (Whistler in the Dark). Becca co-created and performs in The Pineapple Project with Queer Soup, an original piece for kids celebrating gender diversity.

David Reiffel recently created the sound scape for salt piano for our summer production of Midsummer Night's Dream, David's 17th show with Apollinaire. Recent national credits include Shakespeare in Love (US premiere) Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet (Oregon Shakespeare Festival) and Cymbeline (Shakespeare & Co.). Most recently he musical directed The Cradle Will Rock at BoCo@Berklee and Man of La Mancha at New Rep, for which he received the 2018 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Musical Direction. David designs sound and creates original music regularly at New Rep, SpeakEasy, Actors Shakespeare Project, Gloucester Stage, Stoneham/Greater Boston, Israeli Stage, and many others. He teaches Musical Theatre Songwriting at Berklee, and his musical Glory is in development at NOMTI.

Performances are at the Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea, MA 02150. Performances will be followed by a Reception with the actors.
Season subscriptions can be purchased by calling (617) 887-2336 or on-line at www.apollinairetheatre.com

Apollinaire Theatre Company stages passionate plays at their elegantly restored theater in the Chelsea Theatre Works, as well as free summer theater in the park. Recently Apollinaire opened two new theaters at the Chelsea Theatre Works, the Riseman Family Theatre that houses their Apollinaire Play Lab program for children and youth, and the new BlackBox Theatre, a rental house for Greater Boston's performing arts community.Apollinaire productions include A Midsummer Night's Dream, Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, Stupid F**king Bird by Aaron Posner, A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes by Kate Benson, Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven by Young Jean Lee, and First Love is the Revolution by Rita Kalnejais.

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