Photo Flash: First Look at ADMISSIONS at Hampton Theatre Company

"Admissions" by Joshua Harmon will be the second play of the Hampton Theatre Company's 2019-2020 season, opening on January 16, 2020 at the Quogue Community Hall and running through February 2. Talkbacks with the cast and director will be offered following the 7 p.m. performances on Thursday, January 23, and Friday, January 24.

Because the play deals with issues related to college admissions and diversity-and a Hampton Bays High School senior has a principal role-the HTC is offering free admission for high school juniors and seniors and their parents or guardians to the dress rehearsal of "Admissions" at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 15. Parents are advised that the play contains some profanity in the mouth of a 17-year-old boy.

Playing the diversity card cuts both ways in this "hilarious and provocative drama" by Joshua Harmon. Sherri Rosen-Mason is head of the admissions department fighting to diversify the student body at Hillcrest, a New England prep school. With support from her husband Bill, the school's Headmaster, she has largely succeeded in bringing a stodgy institution into the 21st century. But when their only son Charlie, deferred by an Ivy League university, claims he is the victim of reverse discrimination because he is white, personal ambition collides with progressive values, with convulsive results.

Presented at Lincoln Center in 2018, "Admissions" was the winner of Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Play. In a review for the New York Times, Jesse Green called the play "astonishing and daring ... good satire at work, causing us to think critically about people we don't at first recognize as images of ourselves ... An extraordinarily useful and excruciating satire-of the left, by the left, for the left-for today."

New York City based playwright Joshua Harmon is also the author of "Bad Jews," "Significant Other" and "Skintight." After its success in two separate Roundabout Theatre Company productions in 2012 and 2013, "Bad Jews" went on to be the third most-produced play in America in the 2014-2015 season, and has had productions in London's West End, Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel and South Africa.

The cast of the HTC production of "Admissions" features four HTC veterans: Morgan Vaughan ("Good People," "Other Desert Cities") as Sherri; Hampton Bays High School senior Ian Hubbard ("On Golden Pond") as Charlie; Tristan Vaughan ("Deathtrap," "Venus in Fur") as Bill; and HTC Artistic Director Diana Marbury as Roberta, a staffer in the Development office at Hillcrest. Minerva Perez, a newcomer to the HTC stage, plays Sherri's best friend, Ginnie.

Hampton Theatre Company president Andrew Botsford directs. Set design is by Sean Marbury; lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski; sound by Seamus Naughton; and costumes by Teresa Lebrun.

Following the invited dress rehearsal for high school juniors and seniors on January 15, "Admissions" runs at the Quogue Community Hall from January 16 to February 2, with performances on Thursdays and Fridays at 7, Saturdays at 8 and Sundays at 2:30. An additional matinee performance will be offered during the final weekend of the production, on Saturday, February 1, prior to the regular 8 p.m. performance that evening. Talkbacks with the cast will be offered following the 7 p.m. performances on Thursday, January 23, and Friday, January 24.

The Hampton Theatre Company is offering special dinner and theater packages in collaboration with the Westhampton, Southampton, Hampton Bays and Quogue libraries. A special lunch and theater package is also available for the Saturday matinee on February 1, with lunch before the show at the Quogue Club at the Hallock House. Discount tickets are available for veterans, Native Americans, under 35, students, and groups. For reservations and information on all packages and available discounts, visit www.hamptontheatre.org or email info@hamptontheatre.org.

To reserve tickets, visit www.hamptontheatre.org, or call OvationTix at 1-866-811-4111.

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