ALL Abilities and Disabilities ALL Gender Identities ALL Immigrants and Refugees ALL Nations of Origin ALL Races and Ethnicities ALL Religions and Creeds ALL Sexual Orientations
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Ivoryton Playhouse acknowledges that indigenous peoples and nations, including Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Schaghticoke, Golden Hill Paugussett, Niantic, and the Quinnipiac and other Algonquian speaking peoples, have stewarded through generations the lands and waterways of what is now the state of Connecticut. We honor and respect the enduring and continuing relationship that exists between these peoples and nations and this land.
Thank you to everyone who submitted plays for the 2023 Women Playwrights Festival. After receiving over 200 entries, the call for submissions is now closed. The 2023 Women Playwrights Festival at Ivoryton Playhouse will take place on Saturday, October 28, 2023.
On April 6, 2023, Ivoryton Playhouse opens its doors for a stellar new season – a year full of exciting, uplifting and affordable professional theatre. Musicals for families and romantics, stories of challenges overcome and evenings that are just plain fun, our 2023 Season has a little bit of everything and something extra! A great melting pot of a season in a theatre that feels like home.
The season opens on April 6, 2023 with a big hearted, music-filled comedy. THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE by Matthew Lopez is a wildly entertaining story filled with drag queens and an Elvis impersonator, snappy zingers and dance worthy numbers. A show that will challenge your assumptions with extraordinary humor and depth.
Ernest Thompsons’s charming and nostalgic play, ON GOLDEN POND will open on May 18, 2023. The movie was a big hit for one of the Playhouse’s most famous alums – Katharine Hepburn – and the play is a beautifully crafted love story about generations of a family struggling to show affection for each other. Heartwarming and hilarious, this is a play filled magic and memorable moments.
The summer opens on June 29, 2023 with one of the most beloved musicals of all time, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s THE SOUND OF MUSIC. The glorious melodies and timeless tale of Maria and the Von Trapps makes this the perfect musical for the whole family. Featuring Ivoryton favorites, last seen together in SOUTH PACIFIC, David Pittsinger, Patricia Schuman, Adrianne Hick and Bruce Connelly. You don’t need to “Climb Every Mountain” to see this show, but you better get your tickets early!
JERSEY BOYS, the international musical phenomenon, opens in Ivoryton on August 10, 2023. Come peek behind the scenes – and behind the music – of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Filled with all of their greatest hits, “Sherry,” “Walk Like A Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” and so many more. No wonder that, for over 15 years, America’s favorite musical is the one about the boys from Jersey.
THE COLOR PURPLE, which opens on September 28, 2023, is an inspiring saga that tells the unforgettable story of a woman who, through love, finds strength to triumph over adversity and discover her voice in the world. This musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (and 1985 Steven Spielberg film) spotlights Celie, a downtrodden young woman whose personal awakening over the course of 40 years forms the arc of this epic story. With a joyous score featuring jazz, ragtime, gospel, African music and blues, THE COLOR PURPLE is a story of hope, a testament to the healing power of love, and a celebration of life.
MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET CHRISTMAS will round off the season, opening on November 16, 2023. Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Elvis Presley come together attain to celebrate the holidays. Sun Records rings with sounds of the season and the chart toppers that made the Million Dollar quartet famous. The gang is back and up to their usual antics as we journey through stories of Christmas past, present and future!
Subscriptions are a great way to save money as single ticket prices will be going up for our three summer musicals. Six and three play subscriptions are available. Single tickets will go on sale March 1, 2023.
2:00PM: AT THE HOTEL TEXAS by Laurie Graff Laurie Graff is writer and actor from NYC. Best known for the chick-lit hit, You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs, Laurie has also written the novels Looking for Mr. Goodfrog and The Shiksa Syndrome. A produced and published OOB playwright, Laurie’s work is included in New Monologues for Women by Women and Best Men’s Stage Monologues of 1999. Having worked for years as an actress, Laurie’s favorite theatrical role was Frenchy in the Broadway hit Grease.
This play takes place late morning on Friday, November 22, 1963 and follows two sisters, Opal, a chambermaid, and Lottie, a waitress, working and scheming and sharing their plans as they work at the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth.
RECONSTRUCTION by Barbara Kimmel Barbara Kimmel is an Atlanta-based playwright and children’s author. Her plays are humorous takes on women’s struggles to find their voices and be heard. They have been produced in New York, London, Chicago, and Atlanta. She is a member of Working Title Playwrights and lives in Atlanta with her husband, playwright Hank Kimmel.
A woman faces breast cancer while her house is falling apart. Both require immediate attention. She struggles with anxiety and a dizzying amount of information as the decision-making processes become absurdly intertwined.
7:00PM HOW TO TIE A TIE by Brittney S. Harris Brittney S. Harris, a native of Norfolk, VA, has a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Georgia and is currently Assistant Professor of Theatre at Old Dominion University. Her areas of expertise and interests are in Race and Performance, Theatre for Social Change, and performative community-engaged programming. Brittney’s work is included in Best Women’s Monologues 2021 Anthology.
The play is set in present day and takes place in the sanctuary of a church. Charles Walker, a black man in his 40s and his wife, Grace, are getting ready for their daughter’s wedding. The play addresses the themes of non-traditional marriage in the past and present.
SCRAMBLED EGGS by Karly Thomas Karly Thomas is a New York based playwright, originally from San Juan Capistrano, CA. Her work has been produced by the University of Michigan, the Midtown International Theatre Festival, and the OC-Centric New Play Festival, as well as developed by the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival. Awards include the Kasdan Scholarship for Creative Writing, the Kennedy Center’s National Undergraduate Playwriting Award, and the National Society of Arts and Letters Richard Benvenuto Playwriting Award. Member of the Playwrights’ Center and the Dramatists Guild
A brunch-time gathering in a chic, Manhattan hotspot; an eclectic mix of characters including maybe Sarah Jessica Parker; a celebration or a commiseration? This play deals with our complicated relationships with families and abortion
Please call Sue McCann (860.767.7318) if you would like to book a boxed dinner to be delivered at 5pm. The menu for the boxed dinners:
THANK YOU: Funded in part by a grant from Community Foundation of Middlesex County / Sari A. Rosenbaum Fund for Women & Girls and the League of Professional Theatre Women Connecticut Chapter.Plus individual donations from: Anonymous, Jacqueline Hubbard, Al and Kathleen Jaffe, David and Linda May
The Great American Novel on Stage at Ivoryton Playhouse
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby Adapted for the stage by Simon Levy
No book has captured the essence of America in the 1920s with such damning insight as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY, opening on stage at the Ivoryton Playhouse on Thursday, September 29th. An American classic and a brilliantly evocative work, THE GREAT GATSBY is often referred to as “The Great American Novel”. First published in 1925, this quintessential story of the Jazz Age sold no more than 25,000 copies in Fitzgerald’s lifetime. It has now sold over 25 million copies and is treasured by generations of readers.
The story tells of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan; of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” Nick Carraway, a young newcomer to Long Island, is drawn into their world of obsession, greed and danger. Simon Levy’s beautifully crafted play captures the disillusionment as well as the decadent excess of the 1920s.
The play was originally scheduled to be produced in May of 2020 and most of the cast have been patiently waiting in the wings since then. The play is directed Playhouse Associate Artistic Director, Todd Underwood. Gatsby has long been a favorite of his and he is delighted finally to be able to put it up on stage in Ivoryton. “This is the story of the American Dream and the lengths we will go to attain it. Love is at the crux of that dream and so, of course, we are blind to the consequences of our actions.” The cast includes Carlyn Connolly* (Cabaret) as Jordan, Joseph Cordaro (Brighton Beach Memoirs)as Nickand Siobhan Fitzgerald* (I Ought To Be In Pictures; Shear Madness) as Myrtle. Making their Ivoryton debut are Gabe Belyeu* as Wolfscheim/Ens., Greg Brostrum* as Tom, Rebecca Ellis as Mrs. McKee/Ens, Erik Kochenberger as Jay Gatsby, Daniel Rios, Jr.* as George Wilson and Katharina Schmidt as Daisy.
THE GREAT GATSBY runs through Sunday, October 23rd, 2022. Performance times are Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm; evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 pm, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm. Sunday, October 23rd is a special performance and Gala at 3pm.
Our patio bar will now be open from 7pm on Friday and Saturday nights before the show where we will be serving red and white wine, rose, prosecco and beer. Cash and credit cards accepted. Come early to the Playhouse and enjoy a relaxing drink before the show.
Tickets are $55 for adults, $50 for seniors, and $25 for students. Tickets are available online at ivorytonplayhouse.org or by calling the box office at 860.767.7318. (For information on group rates, please call the box office.) For more information on the entire 2022 season, visit ivorytonplayhouse.org. The Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton.
Women Playwrights Festival 2022
Tickets for our 2023 season are now on sale!