Ashley Brooke Monroe Leads Cape Rep's FUN HOME

The company of Fun Home at Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster MA is heading into its run after a happy and intense rehearsal process, excited to bring this Tony Award-winning musical to Cape Cod for the first time. Leading the team is Ashley Brooke Monroe, an up and coming NY luminary, who comes to Cape Rep from Texas-- via Oklahoma and Broadway.

After studying dramaturgy as an undergrad at The University of Oklahoma Monroe was enthusiastic and ready when she arrived in New York to dive into the theater scene. She worked in casting for a spell, and got her first job as AD on a show at Soho Rep, when a casting director friend recommended her to the director as the "smartest young director he knew."

Monroe joined Fun Home as it headed to Broadway after its run at The Public Theatre. She was working as assistant director to Sam Gold on a different play when he asked her to join the Fun Home team. She laughs recalling it, "I was like, dreams come true! You're inviting me to Broadway on this amazing musical! I was ecstatic." During that year and a half, Monroe worked with understudies and new cast members as some of the kids changed out. She also served as AD on the National Tour.

Cape Rep is happy to benefit from Monroe's intimate knowledge of the play and its creators' intentions. When asked about the dynamic female duo that wrote the piece, Monroe notes Lisa Kron's knack for efficiency and depth in her book writing and Jeanine Tesori's gift for matching musical structure to dramatic shifts. She was seriously impressed by Tesori's ability to explain those musical dynamics to actors. She still marvels at the authors' ability, over five years or so of developing the piece, to never settle--entire songs, good songs, were thrown out along the way because Kron and Tesori felt they didn't serve the piece exactly as they should.

Monroe is most excited that with a New Group of artists come new revelations and interpretations of a script now very familiar to her. "The whole thing is so juicy and compelling. It has the best qualities of a play: emotionally, there are huge arcs. You have really fleshed out, complicated, nuanced characters; and your feelings about them evolve in every scene. But it happens to be a musical so you also have these incredible songs that lift off and are so emotionally satisfying."

Cape Rep offers an intimate theatrical experience and Monroe is confident that the space will provide a great opportunity for audiences to connect deeply to the story. "All of us want to know more about our parents and where we came from. This play is a great depiction of a very complicated father daughter relationship that is specific, but feels universal. And it shows what it's like to excavate your past in order to find out who you are in the present --to look at what your future will be like and whether or not you will let that past burden you. It's a beautiful exploration of that."

Cape Rep's 33rd season is made possible through the generous support of Cape Air and Zudy, our 2018 season sponsors. Fun Home is sponsored by Snowy Owl Coffee Roasters and Secure Storage. Cape Rep Theatre: professional theater in an intimate setting.

Cape Rep's 2018 Indoor Theater season opened with the George Furth/Stephen Sondheim musical, Merrily We Roll Along, May 9 - June 3, followed by the world premiere of The Tuna Goddess by Jade Schuyler, June 27 - July 21 and the beloved Broadway sensation, Mamma Mia!, based on the music of ABBA, August 1- September 2. Next up is Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori's groundbreaking musical, Fun Home, September 19 - October 14. The season will conclude with the Cape Cod premiere of Shakespeare in Love, adapted by Lee Hall from the Tom Stoppard/Marc Norman Oscar-winning movie, November 1 - December 2. Also in the Indoor Theater will be Sing Like There's No Tomorrow, a musical revue featuring Cape Rep favorites Trish LaRose and Jared Hagan November 11 - December 9. The Outdoor Theater will include the swashbuckling musical adaptation of the popular children's book, How I Became a Pirate, by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman June 26 - August 30, and Pitter Patter Puppets, Mary Wilson's delightful interactive puppet show July 11 - August 22.

Cape Cod Repertory Theatre Company, Inc. is a 501c3 organization, founded in 1986 as a company dedicated to creativity and professionalism. On seven acres of land in Nickerson State Park in Brewster, Massachusetts, Cape Rep Theatre is the steward of the beautiful land and historic buildings that are home to the company's three theaters, including the only outdoor theater on Cape Cod. We are professional theater in an intimate setting.

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