CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC), the resident theater company of Chautauqua Institution, today announced its return to Bratton Theater in 2022, with three fully produced productions: Indecent by Paula Vogel, Animals Out of Paper by Rajiv Joseph, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee, as well as three New Play Workshops. The 2022 season will be Andrew Borba’s final season as the company’s artistic director.

“After two seasons away, returning to that sacred theater with a full conservatory and these extraordinary plays will sure make it harder to say goodbye,” shares Borba. “This is a huge season for us, and I cannot wait to welcome our community back and share it with them-it feels like we are returning home and reopening the windows to let the light in.”

The 2022 Chautauqua Theater Company schedule will unfold as follows:

Indecent by Paula Vogel
June 30–July 14

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
July 31–August 7

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.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
August 14–21

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. 

The New Play Workshops

•  No. 1: June 22–24
• No. 2: July 20–22
• No. 3: July 23–24

Chautauqua Theater Company is committed to using our resources to launch new work onto the stage and into the industry. Our signature staged reading format offers a unique bridge between written play and production. Though performed script-in-hand, three plays (to be announced later in 2022) are staged, receive design and technical support, and run for multiple ticketed performances in our 270-seat Bratton Theater.

The New Play Workshops are made possible in part by a generous grant from the Roe Green Foundation.

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA THEATER COMPANY
Approaching its 40th season, Chautauqua Theater Company is the resident professional theater and conservatory of Chautauqua Institution. Internationally known actors, directors, designers, and writers join more than 20 emerging artists drawn from the nation’s top training programs to form a unique company that produces a vibrant summer of work in the historic Bratton Theater. Dedicated to the next generation of theater artists, the development of new work, first-rate productions of modern and contemporary classics, and fresh insight into Shakespeare’s canon, CTC produces the best of a year-round regional theater within an eight-week summer season.

ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION
Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer — and year-round through the CHQ Assembly online platforms — with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through engaged dialogue.

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