HAND TO GOD

A Western New York Premiere

By Robert Askins

A 2015 Broadway Comedy!

September 7 – 30, 2018

In the wake of tragedy, Jason and his mother renew their commitment to the local church and commit to organizing a spiritually redemptive puppet show. There’s only one problem: although Jason is essentially a nice boy, his hand puppet Tyrone is lewd, profane, combative, and refuses to leave Jason’s left arm. Yes, Jason’s hand puppet is moved by a greater power… the power of Satan.

SPEED THE PLOW

By David Mamet

October 26 – November 18, 2018

Bobby Gould is the newly minted Head of Production at a major Hollywood studio and needs a surefire success right out of the gate if he wants to keep his job. Two proposals land quickly in his lap. The first is a low-brow and racially insensitive action flick backed up by high-powered movie star wattage… in other words, it can’t miss. The second is an intellectually challenging, philosophically progressive, deeply important literary adaptation… obviously, a guaranteed box office bomb. Will Bobby’s alluring new secretary manage to convince him to do what might be the right thing, or will his longtime frenemy Charlie Fox return Bobby to the brimstone path? Mamet’s rapid-fire comedy/drama pits Money vs. Art, Comfort vs. Courage, and Lady vs. Tiger.

THE ILLUSION

A Western New York Premiere

Freely Adapted by Tony Kushner

January 18 – February 10, 2019

From Pierre Corneille’s, L’Illusion Comique

From the author of Angels in America. A beautiful story about love in all its wonderful and terrible forms. A penitent father seeks out a powerful, dark, magician to help him track down the son he nearly killed fifteen years ago. In a dark cave, Alcandre the Magician will conjure three tales from the lost son’s life for his father to witness. Tales of love, danger, and betrayal… told by shadows and illusions. In the process Alcandre shares a new understanding of the grandest illusion of all — love.

BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY

A Western New York Premiere

By Stephen Adly Guirgis

March 8 – 31, 2019

Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Walter “Pops” Washington, a black NYPD officer, is shot while off-duty by a white cop. Eight years later, he’s wheelchair bound, trapped in legal turnaround while trying to sue the city… and somehow, he’s become a surrogate father to a handful of hard-luck kids who call his rent-controlled Riverside Drive apartment home. Now the city is playing hardball, and Pops and his kids will be evicted unless he settles his suit. With fast paced, hard-hitting humor and grit, Guirgis leads us into the rich & complex world of Pops as he must choose between justice and survival.

THE UNDENIABLE SOUND OF RIGHT NOW

A Western New York Premiere

By Laura Eason

April 26 – May 19, 2019

Since 1967, Hank’s bar has been home to the biggest up-and-coming bands from The Clash to Nirvana in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Chicago. It’s 1992, and gentrification has hit Hank with higher-rents and new fads in fashion and music. If Hank’s to save his bar, he may have to let his daughter turn it in to a Rave nightclub where music is spun by DJ’s instead of being played by musicians. Hank would rather die, but is he willing to let his life’s work die, too?