The Washington Stage Guild Opens 37th Season With THE GOOD DOCTOR by Neil Simon and Anton Chekhov

The Washington Stage Guild will kick off its 2022-2023 season, a "Season of Transitions," with The Good Doctor by Neil Simon, adapted from the stories of Anton Chekhov, directed by founding member Laura Giannarelli.

Performances begin September 29 thru October 1 with four Pay-What-You-Can previews and run until October 23, 2022 at The Washington Stage Guild's home, The Undercroft Theatre in the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.

"A Broadway hit in 1973, the play reminds us that Chekhov was a master of the short story before he began to write for the stage, and Simon, one of the most prolific and successful of American Playwrights has transformed some of them into a series of vignettes by turns poignant and hilarious," says Artistic Director Bill Largess.

"We are so excited to bring DC audiences the first production of The Good Doctor in many years, and its blending of Russian satire and Simon's distinct ear for language and mastery of comic dialogue is great fun," continued Largess. "Along with bringing together a sterling company, some long-familiar to Stage Guild audiences and some new to us, we are taking special pleasure in returning to Chekhov, the author of our inaugural production in 1986, Uncle Vanya."

"I relish the opportunity to work with such talented and creative actors and designers. I have always loved Chekhov and welcome this chance to explore his world from a slightly different angle than that of his well-known masterworks, this time through the eyes of Neil Simon," says director, Laura Giannarelli. "Simon brings an assured light touch to his creative reimagining of some of Chekhov's short stories as we meet some of the unforgettable characters that populate them, but in a variety of new and amusing scenarios."

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Neil Simon is one of America's most productive and popular dramatists.

He has had dozens of plays and nearly as many major motion pictures produced. He has been showered with more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer and is the only playwright to have four Broadway productions running simultaneously. He won the Tony Award for Best Play for The Odd Couple, Biloxi Blues, and Lost in Yonkers. His plays have been produced in dozens of languages and have been blockbuster hits from Beijing to Moscow. His true success, however, is in his unique way of exposing something real in the American spirit. Simon's plays include The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Chapter Two, the musical They're Playing Our Song, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, Broadway Bound, and Lost in Yonkers, among many others. The Good Doctor opened on Broadway in 1973 with a cast that included René Auberjonois, Barnard Hughes, Marsha Mason, Christopher Plummer, and Frances Sternhagen.

The cast of The Good Doctor includes two actors very familiar to The Washington Stage Guild audiences: Morgan Duncan (WSG's Murder in the Cathedral, Lucia Mad, The Makropoulos Secret, Major Barbara, among others, two decades with Capitol Steps, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theater Company, Round House Theatre) and Lynn Steinmetz (founding company member of WSG, most recently Mrs. Warren's Profession, The Nibroc Trilogy, Arena Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Olney Theatre Center), as well as Scott Harrison (WSG's Widowers' Houses, Arena Stage's Fiddler on the Roof, productions at Theatre Under the Stars),

Arika Thames (Rorschach Theatre's Chemical Exile: Synthesis, Prologue Theatre's The Revolutionists), and Cameron McNary (Compass Rose Theatre's Pygmalion, Olney Theatre Center's Dial M for Murder; playwright of Of Dice and Men, Shoggoths on the Veldt).

The Good Doctor is directed by Laura Giannarelli, a WSG founding company member who has performed in more than 40 Guild productions and previously directed It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Widowers' Houses and Candida for the company. The production team includes Joseph B. Musumeci, Jr. (Scenic Design), Marianne Meadows (Lighting Design), Resident Designer Sígrid Jóhannesdóttir (Costume Design), Marcus Darnley (Sound Coordinator), Greg Jones Ellis (Music Coordinator), and Arthur Nordlie (Production Stage Manager).

The Good Doctor by Neil Simon and Anton Chekhov runs September 29 to October 23, 2022 with performances Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2:30pm & 8pm, and Sunday at 2:30pm. The run begins with four Pay-What-You-Can performances Thursday, September 29 at 7:30pm, Friday, September 30 at 8pm, and Saturday, October 1 at 2:30pm & 8pm (Pay-What-You-Can tickets can be purchased for any cash price at the door beginning one hour prior to curtain).

All tickets are General Admission and are $50 Thursday & Saturday/Sunday matinees, $60 Friday & Saturday evenings. Student Admission is half-price with a valid Student ID. Senior Citizens 65 years and up get $10 OFF General Admission Prices. Groups of 10 or more get half-price tickets. Purchase at https://stageguild.org/buy-tickets/

Founded in 1986 by a professional company of theatre artists dedicated to producing literate, challenging works in a collegial and supportive atmosphere, The Washington Stage Guild quickly established itself as an indispensable component of the D.C. area theatre scene; recognized as early as the end of the first season (1987) by The Washington Post. The ensemble theatre company's acclaimed repertoire of neglected classics, unfamiliar works by familiar playwrights, and stimulating new plays from around the world is presented in a style that is the Guild's own-direct and clear, with a strong commitment to adhering to the author's intent.

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