Northern Stage Kicks Off 2024 With CONSTELLATIONS

Northern Stage's season continues in the new year with Nick Payne's cosmic love story Constellations with performances from January 24 to February 11, 2024, in the Byrne Theater at the Barrette Center for the Arts.

What if you'd made a different choice? What if you'd said the thing that popped into your head just after you walked away? Directed by Northern Stage's BOLD Associate Artistic Director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, Nick Payne's Olivier Award-winning modern romance Constellations follows Roland, a beekeeper, and Marianne, a scientist, from their first meeting through a multitude of possible futures. From marriage to heartbreak, through sickness and health, and back again, Constellations is a play that reveals the vast universe of possibilities in our lives.

"Constellations is the story of a couple who find and lose and find each other again in multiple universes” says Wansley. “The play is poetic and playful, funny and quite moving. In our production, we've added a live pianist on stage to play both the expanse of the cosmos and the intricacies of human connection. Our production stars real life married couple Robert David Grant and Izzie Steele - their chemistry on stage is extraordinary and I think you will fall in love with their story. 

Constellations received its world premiere in London in 2012, starring Rafe Spall and Sally Hawkins, and its Broadway Premiere in 2015, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson. The 2021 West End revival directed by Michael Longhurst won the 2022 Olivier Awards for Best Revival and Best Actress. Payne's “dazzling [...] high-concept romance”, according to The Guardian, is “a drama about time and memory, about death and grief, playful and profound, comic and mournful. It asks big questions about existence, purpose and free will but [...] also feels weightless and fun. It affirms life, love and companionship even as it drives towards the death of its ending. A theatrical multiverse indeed.”

This cast of two features Izzie Steele (Northern Stage's Sense and Sensibility, Hulu's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency) as Marianne and Robert David Grant (Northern Stage's Sweat, King Lear, Macbeth) as Roland. The cast will be accompanied by pianist Rose Van Dyne (1776 on Broadway and National Tour, Cambodian Rock Band at Oregon Shakespeare Festival).

Joining Wansley on the creative team are Joey Mendoza (Scenic Designer), Lexi Spanier (Costume Designer), Alek Deva (Sound Designer), Mary Ellen Stebbins (Lighting Designer), Colt Luedtke (Production Stage Manager), Monique St. Cyr (Assistant Director), and Julia Egizio (Assistant Stage Manager).

Northern Stage's 2023/24 Season continues in March with Olivier Award-winning comedy The Play That Goes Wrong (March 13 - April 14) by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, directed by Peter Hackett. More information can be found at https://northernstage.org/2023-24-season/.

The Northern Stage 2023/24 season is sponsored by Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, its season underwriter since 2018. Constellations is made possible in part by generous support from John & Karen Sanders. Constellations is also sponsored by Schiffman, Dattilio, & Company, P.C.; Coldwell Banker Lifestyles; and Tyler, Simms, & St. Sauveur, P.C.. Opening Nights are sponsored by A.B. Gile, a division of The Rowley Agency; Downs, Rachlin, Martin; and Four Seasons Sotheby's International Realty. Access for All performances are sponsored by Bar Harbor Bank & Trust. Northern Stage is supported in part by the Vermont Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Vermont Community Foundation.

Event Information

Constellations
By Nick Payne
Directed by Sarah Elizabeth Wansley

Performance Dates
January 24 to February 11, 2024

Previews:
Wednesday, January 24 at 7:30 PM
Thursday, January 25 at 7:30 PM
Friday, January 26 at 7:30 PM

Opening Night: Saturday, January 27 at 6:30 PM

Additional performances following Opening Night:
Wednesday at 7:30 PM ($20 WED: January 31)
Thursday at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM
Friday at 7:30 PM
Saturday at 2:00 PM and 7:30 PM (Talkback: February 3 post-show)
Sunday at 5:00 PM

The Byrne Theater at the Barrette Center for the Arts
Northern Stage
74 Gates St
White River Junction, VT 05001

Sarah Elizabeth Wansley, Director
Joey Mendoza, Scenic Designer
Lexi Spanier, Costume Designer
Alek Deva, Sound Designer
Mary Ellen Stebbins, Lighting Designer
Monique St. Cyr, Assistant Director
Rose Van Dyne, Pianist
Colt Luedtke, Production Stage Manager

Ticket prices range from $19 to $69. All preview seats are $34 with $19 tickets available for students and $20 tickets available for those under age 25. Access for All tickets (for EBT card holders) are $5 and are available for any performance while ticket supplies last.  To purchase, call (802) 296-7000 or visit www.northernstage.org.

Northern Stage (northernstage.org) is a regional non-profit LORT-D professional theater company located in White River Junction, VT. Northern Stage actively engages its audiences with world-class productions and extensive educational and community outreach programs in its new home, the Barrette Center for the Arts. Founded in 1997, the company has offered more than 150 professional productions of new works, classics, and musicals. Now in its 26th Season, Northern Stage serves over 50,000 people. In 2014, the company launched a new play festival that has cultivated seven world premiere productions and three Off-Broadway transfers, including The New York Times Critic's Pick Only Yesterday. Northern Stage's breadth of programming supports the company's mission of “changing lives, one story at a time.”

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