THE MOUNT AUBURN PLAYS To Premiere At Mount Auburn Cemetery This June

Announcing the world premiere of the Mount Auburn Plays, two series of site-specific plays created by Mount Auburn Cemetery's first Playwright Artist-in-Residence, Patrick Gabridge. Over the past two years Gabridge, an award-winning Boston playwright, has researched the stunning landscape and history of America's first garden Cemetery and 175-acre arboretum in the heart of Cambridge, MA, culminating in 10 brand new short plays to premiere as two sets of 5 unique plays each: The Nature Plays premiere June 1-9, 2019, highlighting the rich natural environment of Mount Auburn, and The America Plays premiere September 14-22, 2019, bringing to life just a few of the historic personalities resting eternally on the grounds and whose vision still resonate strongly in our American culture today. Each series will have 8 performances over the course of two weekends. Presented in partnership with Plays in Place.

Tickets for The Nature Plays are now on sale! $35 per person ($30 for members) at mountauburn.org/the-nature-plays or by calling 617-607-1980. Tickets for The America Plays will be available at a later date. All plays will be fully staged with professional actors on the Cemetery grounds, 580 Mt Auburn St, Cambridge, MA 02138. Directed by Courtney O'Connor. Plays will run rain or shine with two performances on Saturdays and Sundays at 1:00 and 5:00 pm. Each set of plays is approximately 75 minutes and will include walking within the Cemetery on paved and unpaved surfaces; total walking distance approx. 1 mile.

Gabridge's Mount Auburn Plays were inspired by the stunning landscape and history of the 187-year old National Historic Landmark in the heart of Cambridge, MA:

• The Nature Plays - Premiering June 1-9, 2019: This series of five plays will highlight the rich natural environment of Mount Auburn with topics such as spotted salamanders in Consecration Dell, birders at Auburn Lake, and historic debates between naturalists who are buried at the Cemetery. Through comedy and drama The Nature Plays explore topics both current and whimsical from global warming to the secret world of mushroom hunting. Play titles include: Hot Love in the Moonlight; Namesakes; Cerulean Blue; Sworn to Secrecy; Love and Loss in the Glade. Audiences will experience the performances at various spots across the grounds, surrounded by the sights and sounds of the natural world. Each performance will be followed by a moderated discussion. Cast members are all members of Actors Equity Association and include: Lisa Tucker, Jacob Athyal, and Theresa Nguyen.

• The America Plays will run from September 14-22, 2019: This series brings to life the drama, philosophies, and struggles shared by Mount Auburn founders Jacob Bigelow, sculptors Edmonia Lewis and Martin Milmore, and others whose personalities lie at the heart of America's first large-scale designed landscape open to the public. From the powerful consecration speech delivered by Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story in 1831 to explorations of Armenian identity and women's rights, The America Plays touch on topics that resonate strongly in our American culture today. Play titles include: A Man of Vision; Consecration; Variations on an Unissued Apology; Rage Against the Storm; The Broken Pieces.

The Mount Auburn Plays are supported in part by a grant from the Bob Jolly Charitable Trust.

Mount Auburn's Artist-in-Residence program was created in 2014 by the Friends of Mount Auburn with a grant/support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (MA-30-13-0533-13). Mount Auburn's resident artists have included Roberto Mighty, MFA, who created earth.sky : a site-specific, multi-screen digital multimedia installation, and singer/musician/composer Mary Bichner, whose residency included pop-up concerts and composing a dozen works inspired by the pastoral setting of Mount Auburn.

Mount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831 as the United States' first designed landscape open to the public. With over 175 acres of landscaped gardens, ponds, an outdoor museum of art and architecture, and a habitat for protected urban wildlife and migrating birds, Mount Auburn Cemetery welcomes over 250,000 visitors each year. Visitors are welcome to wander the picturesque setting and to linger among the 100,000 burial sites that include historical and contemporary figures such as artist Winslow Homer, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and chef Joyce Chen. Mount Auburn provides year-round educational and art programs promoting the site as an important cultural and natural resource.

Playwright Patrick Gabridge is an award-winning writer of historical and Contemporary Stage plays, novels, audio plays, and screenplays. His short plays have been produced more 1,000 times in theaters and schools in 14 different countries around the world and appear in various anthologies. His recent site-specific works include Blood on the Snow and Cato & Dolly for The Bostonian Society/Old State House, and Both/And: A Quantum Physics Play for the MIT Museum. In 2018 Gabridge launched Plays In Place, a new company that works in partnership with museums, historic sites, and other cultural institutions to develop and produce site-specific theatrical plays and presentations to help engage, entertain, and enlighten visitors in new and vibrant ways. Gabridge's Mount Auburn plays will be presented in partnership with Plays in Place as one of the company's inaugural projects.

For more information about playwright Patrick Gabridge please see www.gabridge.com; to commission a site-specific work for a museum, historic site, or other cultural institution see www.playsinplace.com.

For tickets to The Nature Plays (June 1-9, 2019), see www.mountauburn.org or call 617-607-1980. Tickets are $35 each, $30 for members. Tickets for The America Plays will be available at a later date.

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