Chautauqua Theater Company Announces 2024 Season
Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC), the resident theater company of Chautauqua Institution, today announced its 2024 season. In celebration of Chautauqua’s sesquicentennial, CTC’s season will draw from the full breadth of the theater company’s legacy. CTC will present three New Play Workshops (NPW) and three mainstage productions: Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles, Lynn Nottage’s Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine, and Kate Hamill’s The Light and The Dark (the life and times of Artemisia Gentileschi), a world premiere directed by Producing Artistic Director Jade King Carroll.
The season will also include the return of the beloved Bratton Late Night, featuring the talents of the 2024 Acting Conservatory, and A Night of One Acts, featuring designs from 2024 Design Fellows. Both events will be directed by the FutureNow Stage Directing Fellows, a new fellowship offered by CTC in partnership with the Drama League.
Programming begins June 13 with the Young Playwrights Project — an annual initiative in partnership with Chautauqua’s Arts Education Department that engages third- and fourth-graders from local school districts — and concludes August 23, following the world premiere run of Kate Hamill’s The Light and The Dark.
“What an exciting season we have planned to celebrate a historic year for Chautauqua,” shared Carroll. “Opening the season with Birthday Candles — a play that started here as an NPW staged reading, catapulted to Broadway, and is now making its way around the world — brings the story back home for its first full production on Bratton Stage. It is personally meaningful to program a play by Tony Award, MacArthur “Genius” and Pulitzer Prize-winning Lynn Nottage, a writer known to many Chautauquans and with whom I have a long-standing artistic relationship. I am also thrilled to finish our season with the world premiere of CTC’s first, fully produced commission: Kate Hamill’s The Light and The Dark. Additionally, through our partnership with the Drama League, I look forward to introducing three new directors of tomorrow, who will touch every aspect of our season.”
Mainstage Productions
Birthday Candles
By Noah Haidle
Previews: July 5–7
Performance Dates: July 9–21
Ernestine Ashworth contemplates her cosmic insignificance on her 17th birthday, a feeling that follows her through the swift passage of time. In the blink of an eye, she reaches her 18th birthday, hurtles toward her 41st, accelerates into her 70th, and glides into her 101st. Birthday Candles is a heartfelt and humorous story that guides the audience through the significant, challenging, and remarkable moments as time inexorably marches on. One ordinary woman’s life is measured by the simple tradition of baking a birthday cake.
Originally developed as a New Play Workshop during the 2017 season and then performed around the country, Chautauqua will finally mount its own full production of Birthday Candles. What a fitting way to open CTC’s mainstage season and celebrate Chautauqua Institution’s 150th birthday!
This production may not be suitable for youth under 8.
Fabulation
or, The Re-Education of Undine
By Lynn Nottage
Previews: July 27-28
Performance Dates: July 30–Aug. 4
Undine is a powerful and successful business owner basking in the glory of all her accomplishments. She has everything from wealth to love and a fabulous wardrobe to match, but life has a wicked sense of humor. The man she believes is the love of her life pulls the ultimate disappearing act, stealing everything and leaving her pregnant and penniless. Plummeting down the precarious ladder of society, Undine finds herself grappling with the disintegration of her once-perfect life as she is forced to return to her humble roots in Brooklyn and the family she once abandoned. Can Undine manifest her future without acknowledging her past?
Fabulation is a sharp-witted satirical comedy that takes us from riches to rags, through twists and turns, and reveals the unexpected joys within chaos.
This production includes adult content — depictions of drug use and harsh language — and may not be suitable for youth 13 and under.
World Premiere
The Light and The Dark
(the life and times of Artemisia Gentileschi)
By Kate Hamill
Directed by Jade King Carroll
Previews: Aug. 10–14
Performance Dates: Aug. 15–23
Artemisia Gentileschi, a trailblazing artist, was the most successful female painter of the 17th century. Her artistic legacy endures as one of the few Baroque-era female artists, with dozens of paintings exhibited globally alongside Rafael and Caravaggio. Artemisia, characterized by her irreverence and audacity, aspired to attain immortality through her groundbreaking work. However, her journey took an unexpected turn, marked by a series of brutal betrayals that forever altered her life and art. The resulting transformation kindled a fire within her, a flame that continues to astonish and resonate with audiences today.
The Light and The Dark delves into the profound impact of art in assuaging trauma and explores the transformative power of female rage in reshaping societal paradigms.
This production includes adult content — nudity, a depiction of torture and an act of sexual violence as well as profanity — and may not be suitable for youth 13 and under.
New Play Workshops
New Play Reading No. 1: June 28–30
New Play Reading No. 2: July 18–20
New Play Staged Reading No. 3: Aug. 16–17
For nearly two decades, CTC has dedicated its resources to launching new work onto the stage and into the industry. The 2023 season highlighted the comprehensive journey of a new play while focusing on the text and the individual needs of each project and playwright. We are excited to continue this legacy as we prepare to announce this year’s New Play Workshops in Spring 2024.
The New Play Workshops and Readings are made possible in part by a generous grant from the Roe Green Foundation.
Early Play Development
CTC enthusiastically welcomes to the grounds acclaimed playwright Sharyn Rothstein for a 2024 residency to work on a new play with the working title Best for Baby. This marks the third commission under Carroll’s artistic leadership.
C.A. Johnson will return for a second season to continue development on her play with the new working title TELL ME YOU ARE DYING, or the trial of millicent ohakwu.
Both commissions are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Additional Programming
A Night of One Acts
July 12 at 7:30 p.m.
General Admission: $15
The CTC and Drama League’s FutureNow Stage Directing Fellows take over Bratton Stage for a one-night-only event of one-act plays featuring the talents of our 2024 design fellows and acting conservatory.
Bratton Late Night
June 29 at 10:00 p.m. following the Amphitheater performance
General Admission: $10
CTC’s favorite late-night talent showcase is back by popular demand! An evening of sketches and songs featuring the extraordinary talents of our 2024 conservatory.
TICKETS
BUY MORE AND SAVE MORE!
Six Pack: Three Mainstage Productions, Three New Play Workshops
Purchase the Six Pack and save 15% off all tickets
Visit tickets.chq.org to purchase your ticket package.
In the spirit of turning Chautauqua Institution’s “gates into gateways,” CTC is committed to fostering inclusivity and promoting the power of storytelling. Recognizing the importance of accessibility and growing a wider audience, CTC will continue to offer the Pick Your Price (PYP) program this year for select mainstage Saturday performances. This pilot program is part of a larger movement within the arts, aiming to ensure that people of all socio-economic means can experience and grow their appreciation for the arts.
The PYP promotion cannot be combined with any other theater promotions or packages.
Visit theater.chq.org/pickyourprice to learn more about the program.
ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA THEATER COMPANY
Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC) produces high-quality, live theater in a vibrant nine-week summer season. We are committed to the development of new work, the next generation of theater artists, producing galvanizing world premieres as well as exceptional modern and contemporary plays, and infusing fresh insight into the classical canon.
CTC is dedicated to becoming a national home for exciting new plays: commissioning, developing and producing new and established American playwrights. We are where the finest artists of tomorrow bridge the gap between their training and the professional world. CTC is actively building the future of the American theater.
ABOUT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION
Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during a nine-week season, and a total of more than 100,000 attend scheduled public events and even more engage online via the streaming channel CHQ Assembly. Chautauqua is dedicated to the exploration of the best in human values and the enrichment of life through a program that explores the important religious, social and political issues of our times; stimulates provocative, thoughtful involvement of individuals and families in creative response to such issues; and promotes excellence and creativity in the appreciation, performance and teaching of the arts. The Institution will celebrate its sesquicentennial in 2024.
###