POTUS, a World Premiere & More Set for Trinity Rep 2024-25 Season

Trinity Repertory Company has unveiled its 61st season. The season, which includes a five-show subscription series and the theater's iconic retelling of A Christmas Carol, opens in September 2024 and concludes in June 2025. 

“This season's plays are about coming together and overcoming past conflict to find a way forward,” the Laura H. Harris Artistic Director Curt Columbus said. “It is about creating unexpected alliances and home away from home. These plays are filled with humor, pathos, and great drama. It is a stellar collection of theatrical work that will bring people together in profound and surprising ways.” 

ABOUT THE SHOWS 

The season opens with two female-centric comedies playing in rotating repertory: POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive by Selina Fillinger, and Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson – Apt. 2B by Kate Hamill. POTUS is a political farce about seven women in the president's inner circle, tasked with wrangling an ever-spiraling PR disaster. Trinity Rep Artistic Director Curt Columbus will direct. Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson is a modern murder-mystery-comedy adapted by the playwright behind Trinity Rep's 2018 production of Pride & Prejudice. Former Cleveland Play House Artistic Director Laura Kepley will return to Trinity Rep for the first time in 15 years to direct. These productions play in the Dowling Theater September 5 – November 17, 2024. 

This holiday season, Trinity Rep will present its 48th iteration of A Christmas Carol, this time directed by resident company member Tatyana-Marie Carlo. Having helmed some of Trinity Rep's most popular recent productions, including La Broa' (Broad Street) and The Inferior Sex, she will bring a joyous, festive, and fun perspective to the timeless story. Due to planned renovations of Trinity Rep's Chace Theater, the production will be held offsite. The specific dates and location will be announced soon. 

In the new year, Trinity Rep will present the world premiere of Someone Will Remember Us, a collaboration between resident playwright Deborah Salem Smith, resident company member Charlie Thurston, and former Director of Community Engagement Dr. Michelle Cruz. A follow-up to Smith's 2006 play Boots on the Ground, Someone Will Remember Us explores the struggles and opportunities faced by U.S. military veterans, a Gold-Star family, Iraqi civilians, and refugees living in Rhode Island. Directed by Christopher Windom (August Wilson's Fences), this production will run in the Dowling Theater January 23 – February 23, 2025. 

In the spring comes La Tempestad — The Tempest by William Shakespeare, translated and adapted by Tatyana-Marie Carlo, Leandro “Kufa” Castro, and Orlando Hernández. Originally produced with Rhode Island Latino Arts for Teatro en El Verano, the organization's bilingual summer theater program, this will be the first time a play from the program is performed in Trinity Rep's subscription season. La Tempestad — The Tempest runs March 27 – April 27, 2025, in the Dowling Theater. Christie Vela, who last helmed 2018's Native Gardens, will direct. 

The season concludes with Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearl Cleage, directed by resident company member Jackie Davis. This powerful drama is set during the Harlem Renaissance, but its themes of finding direction and its conflict between the personal and political resonates just as strongly nearly 100 years after the time period it is set. Blues for an Alabama Sky plays in the Dowling Theater May 29 – June 29, 2025. 

SUBSCRIPTIONS 

2024-25 Season subscriptions go on sale to the general public on May 15, while current subscribers can renew their subscription package beginning May 1. Five-show packages – which include all productions except A Christmas Carol – begin at $115. Subscribers also receive other benefits, including discounted prices for A Christmas Carol, free exchanges, and savings on parking and dining. Prior season subscribers have two weeks to renew their subscription to save their seats.  

Later this year, Flex Pass subscriptions will go on sale. With a Flex Pass, guests receive either six, eight, or 10 ticket vouchers that can be redeemed for any Trinity Rep production, excluding A Christmas Carol. Mix and match your favorite shows, seats, and times for ultimate flexibility. 

 For more information, visit Trinity Rep's website at www.trinityrep.com. 

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive 

By Selina Fillinger 

Directed by Curt Columbus 

September 5 – 22/October 10 – 27, 2024 

Running in rotating repertory with Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson — Apt. 2B 

A farcical break from the inevitable political chaos 

Many of us are dreading the 2024 election, regardless of political beliefs. Why not look your fears dead in the eye and laugh at them with POTUS? When a presidential PR nightmare evolves into a global catastrophe, it's up to seven women in the commander-in-chief's inner circle to do damage control. That is, if they don't drive each other off the rails first through a chaotic cocktail of increasingly absurd antics. Delightfully raunchy and uproariously funny, POTUS is a naughty political farce that'll have you rolling in the aisles! 

Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson — Apt. 2B   

By Kate Hamill 

Inspired by the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

Directed by Laura Kepley 

October 3 – November 17, 2024 

Running in rotating repertory with POTUS 

A delightful murder-mystery-comedy 

The Hound of the Baskervilles meets Thelma & Louise in this contemporary retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic mystery novels. Join brilliant, eccentric "deductive consultant” Sherlock Holmes and her American roommate Joan Watson as they crack cases in post-pandemic London. This quirky, clever buddy comedy from the playwright behind 2018's Pride & Prejudice is sure to delight hardcore Holmes fans and novice sleuths alike. 

A Christmas Carol 

Adapted from the original novella by Charles Dickens 

Original music by Richard Cumming 

Directed and adapted by Tatyana-Marie Carlo 

Dates to be announced 

Celebrating the holidays together 

Everyone's favorite curmudgeon, Ebenezer Scrooge, is back! The humbug's wrenching, covetous, and cares more for money than all else. When the clock strikes midnight one fateful Christmas Eve, the ghost of Scrooge's old pal Marley pays a much overdue visit. Through a supernatural journey, Scrooge must confront the past, acknowledge the present, and define the future for the good of the community –and Scrooge's very soul. A timeless holiday tale of redemption and joy, Trinity Rep's reimagined production of A Christmas Carol has been a beloved New England family tradition for over 45 years. 

Someone Will Remember Us 

By Deborah Salem Smith and Charlie Thurston 

Created by Dr. Michelle Cruz, Charlie Thurston, and Deborah Salem Smith 

Directed by Christopher Windom 

January 23 – February 23, 2025 

Reflecting on the ripples of conflict 

 In 2006, Trinity Rep told the true, poignant stories of Rhode Islanders deployed in Iraq with the play Boots on the Ground. Nearly 20 years later, how does this legacy live on ... and what have we forgotten? Someone Will Remember Us interlaces the real-life testimonies of U.S. military veterans, a Gold Star family, Iraqi civilians, and refugees living in Rhode Island. As military conflict wages on multiple fronts across the world, this production paints a moving portrait of the innumerable tolls of war and imperialism, and how we find connection through it all. 

La Tempestad — The Tempest 

By William Shakespeare 

Translated and adapted by Orlando Hernández with Tatyana-Marie Carlo and Leandro “Kufa” Castro 

Directed by Christie Vela 

March 27 – April 27, 2025 

Decolonizing Shakespeare's brave new world 

Shakespeare's familiar story of magic, betrayal, comedy, and love is told through a compelling mix of The Bard's original English, translated Spanish dialogue, and projected subtitles so you can understand it all. La Tempestad — The Tempest purposefully weaves two languages to deconstruct colonialist narratives, all while retaining the shipwreck, romance, magic, and fantasy that make Shakespeare's final play so beloved. Originally presented in 2018 as a touring Teatro en El Verano production, La Tempestad is the first to transfer to Trinity Rep's main stage! 

Blues for an Alabama Sky 

By Pearl Cleage 

Directed by Jackie Davis 

May 29 – June 29, 2025 

Sacrifice and dreams in the Jazz Age 

As the creative revolution of the Harlem Renaissance bleeds into the hardships of the Great Depression, four New York friends strive to achieve their dreams. But when Alabama migrant Leland Cunningham sets his eyes on the troubled blues singer Angel, their lives are changed forever. This intimate drama questions where the personal ends and the political begins, probes the intersection of life and art, and asks how we find meaning and direction in the most tumultuous of times 

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