Chautauqua Theater Company
Chautauqua Theater Company is where the finest theater artists of tomorrow bridge the gap between their training and the professional world.
2022 Theater Company Productions:
Indecent
By Paula Vogel
Directed by Lisa Rothe
July 1- July 14
“But on the seventh night… God created Yiddish theater.”
Inspired by true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway production of Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance and set at a time when waves of immigrants were changing the face of America, this play with music from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel is full of joyful human passion and is a brilliant, moving experience about theater, censorship, and love.
Animals Out of Paper
By Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Lamar Perry
July 31- August 7
“Love and meaning are often within the folds.”
In the wake of her recent divorce, world-renowned origami artist Ilana has barricaded herself in her studio — surrounded by paper cranes and takeout boxes. When she opens her studio to a teenage prodigy and his schoolteacher, her paper-thin seclusion is interrupted as she discovers that life and love are not as simple as finding the perfect fold. Animals Out of Paper is a funny, poignant play about the collision of mismatched people and the complicated ways we hurt, heal, and love those around us.
Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Directed by Paul Mullins
August 14- August 21
“You are cordially invited to George and Martha’s for an evening of fun and games.”
In this American dramatic masterpiece, George, a professor at a small college, and his wife Martha have returned home from a Saturday night party when Martha announces that she has invited a young couple, new professor Nick and his wife Honey, to stop by for a nightcap. The drinks flow, and the inhibitions melt as this blazing story of desires, dreams, barbs, and brutality unfolds.
2022 New Play Workshops:
Flowers of Hawaii
By Lee Cataluna
June 22-24
“We understand what it’s like to raise kids who turn out nothing like we intended.”
This extended Hawaii family has a wealth of personalities including sexy grandmothers, delinquent grandkids, gender-fluid cousins, abusive wives, addict uncles, and more. They clash, they break, they mend, they eat, and they love each other. Lee Cataluna dishes up a unique play filled with heartbreak and humor and a dash of authentic Hawaiiana.
Through the Eyes of Holly Germaine
By Y York
July 20-22
“Marty said when I help the birds it will change people’s impression of my shallowness.”
On the Canary Islands in the spring of 1986, an oil spill changes everything. In this enticing new eco-drama by Y York, a rising movie star’s vacation becomes an environmental rescue mission, a long-lost love triangle re-emerges as a quadrangle, and buried family secrets are washed ashore for all to see. Romantic, funny, and deadly serious, the truth will emerge Through the Eyes of Holly Germaine.
Black Like Me, adapted from the memoir by John Howard Griffin
By Monty Cole
July 23-24
“Like shipwrecked people, we huddled together in a warmth and courtesy that was equal parts pure and pathetic.”
In 1961, white journalist John Howard Griffin medically darkened his skin to “pass” as Black. With the goal of investigating race, Griffin traveled the segregated South for three weeks and published his experiences in a series of journal entries. Black Like Me revisits Griffin’s memoir through the response of modern-day characters. This innovative noir docu-drama examines the fine line between allyship and appropriation and asks how we can transform into the people we truly want to be.
Meet Olga Sanchez Saltveit, Director of New Work
Sanchez Saltveit’s hire is the next step in CTC’s initiative to expand New Play Workshop programming and residencies. It also aligns with the overall efforts of Chautauqua Institution to amplify important and diverse American voices in the arts, fostering new work and catalyzing the creative process.