Tickets on sale here:  Take Me To Tickets

By Kate Forgette, opens at the Playhouse on October 2nd and runs through October 26th. If you remember the 1970s – bell bottoms, shag carpets and the best music ever! – then you are in for a treat. This heartwarming and hilarious family comedy follows Linda O’Shea back in time to her high school days in Boston. Mad about Bob Dylan and her hairy boyfriend, she is looking forward to leaving home for college and getting away from her pesky little sister Becky, her tough and inflexible dad, Michael O’Shea, her kind but distracted mother, Jo and her Aunt Terri, a no-nonsense women’s libber with guts and heart.

We all have those days we can never forget, and Linda shares one of those days with us. It is 1973 and the family faces a crisis of biblical proportions when 19 year old Linda tells her younger sister about “the birds and the bees” and is overheard by the parish priest! Holy hell and hilarity ensue as the O’Sheas band together to divert the priest, confuse a nosy neighbor and prove that nothing is more sacred than family.

Directed by Playhouse Artistic Director, Jacqueline Hubbard, the cast includes Rod Brogan, Maggie Hamel, Rebecka Jones, Amber Quick, and Autumn Eliza Sheffy.

Contains adult subject matter.

Please make sure you buy tickets direct from Ivoryton Playhouse. There are third party websites online charging much higher prices for our tickets. Our prices are $60 adult, $55 senior and $25 students of all ages (plus fees).  Don’t pay more than you have to! Please purchase online. or call the box office at 860.767.7318.

====================================================================

Director’s note from Jacqui Hubbard:

I think that is why I was drawn to this play. Yes, I was raised Catholic and yes, I was a teenager in the 1970s but it is the story that called to me. Those moments that seem like the end of the world when you are a teenager and now we look back on and smile. Those shared moments.

We all have them and it is why we treasure the people who share them with us. As long as we can tell our stories together something wonderful still exists in the world.

Let’s keep sharing our stories, together.

Jacq

====================================================================

DID YOU KNOW?  Ivoryton Playhouse offers discounted tickets on Thursday nights!  On Thursday nights at 6:00pm, tickets for that night’s 7:30pm performance can be purchased for only $30.  Limit four tickets per person.  Tickets available at the box office only, for that performance only.  Subject to availability. It is a mission of Ivoryton Playhouse to bring affordable, professional, high quality theatre experiences to our community. ====================================================================

Rod Brogan* (Mike O’Shea / Father Lovett / Betty)  Ivoryton—Hank Williams: Lost Highway. Broadway—MTC: Mauritius. Off-Broadway—Irish Rep: Beyond The Horizon, Burial At Thebes; Mint Theater Company: Mary Broome; Irondale Center: Treasure Island. National Tour—Doubt. Select Regional— Guthrie, Old Globe, Florida Studio Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Bard SummerScape, City Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Music Theatre of Connecticut, Legacy Theatre, Contemporary American Theater Festival. Film/TV—The Winning Season, Major Dad (series regular), Homeland, Manifest, Unforgettable, Oz, Third Watch, One Life To Live, Law & Order. Video Game: Grand Theft Auto 5. Education—MFA: Old Globe
.

Maggie Hamel (Becky O’Shea) is delighted to join the Ivoryton Playhouse team for Incident At Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Past credits include Becky O’Shea in Incident… (Majestic Theater); Betty Parris in The Crucible (The Hanover Theatre Repertory); Pippa Hailsham-Brown in Spider’s Web and Rebecca Gibbs in Our Town (The Barnstormers Theatre); Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden and Fan/Belle in A Christmas Carol (Creative Spirit); and Alison Summers in Billy Elliot (Seacoast Rep). Maggie volunteers at a free healthcare clinic and enjoys sewing and writing.
.

Rebecka Jones* (Terri O’Shea) is thrilled to be making her Ivoryton Playhouse debut! Other regional credits include A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas,The Crucible, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth (Hartford Stage); Network (Florida Studio Theatre); The Shadow Box (SCF); Sixteen Wounded (Long Wharf Theatre); King John, A Midsummer Nights Dream (Shakespeare & Company); Anton in Show Business, Salvage, Marion Bridge, Private Lies, Acting Out: New Play Series (Theatre4); Tempest, Macbeth (Elm Shakespeare Company). Education: MFA, Actor Training, Ohio University.
.

Amber Quick* (Josephine “Jo” O’Shea) is thrilled to be making her Ivoryton Playhouse debut!  She is an award-winning actress now based in Austin, TX.  She was most recently seen at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival as Titania/Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest, and Player 1 in Hamlet.  NATIONAL TOUR: Daisy Fay Harper in All the Way from Magnolia Springs;  REGIONAL: Actor 2/Composer/Lyricist in The Girl Who Became Legend (The Kennedy Center), Woman 2/Norma McCorvey in ROE, Mrs. Greene in The Prom, and Genie Klein in Beautiful  (ZACH Theatre)  Gayle in The Butcher of Baraboo; Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire; Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac; and Lori Bernum in The Secretary.  She was voted Best Actor by the Austin Chronicle in 2019 and 2025.  All her love to Will!
.

Autumn Eliza Sheffy (Linda O’Shea) was last seen on the Ivoryton stage in My Fair Lady. Favorite credits include Waitress (Jenna u/s, Cape Playhouse), Beautiful The Musical (Betty, Carole King u/s, Reagle Music Theater), The Marvelous Wonderettes (Betty Jean, Wohlfahrt Dinner Theatre); ELF: The Musical (Jovie, Seven Angels Theatre); and singing internationally onboard AIDALuna. Her single, “Ace,” is streaming on all platforms (autumn eliza). Proud alum of the Boston Conservatory. Honored to be a part of the Ivoryton Legacy and back performing in her home state of CT. SOCIALS:  Connect at @autumnelizasheffy. 
.

Director:  Jacqueline Hubbard

Stage Manager:  James Joseph Clark*

Assistant Stage Manager:  Holly Price

Scenic Design:  Starlet Jacobs

Lighting Design:  Autum Casey

Sound Design:  Shyloh-Symone Bailey

Costume Design:  Elizabeth Saylor and Sean Spina

Props Designer:  Kat Schorn

* member of Actors Equity

An Interview with Playwright and Actress Katie Forgette…
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Current Town: Seattle, Washington

Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.
As a kid, I was in love with old movies. I was particularly fond of prison movies. At about this time, my mother operated a daycare center out of our home. (This was in addition to taking care of her own 9 children and caring for her invalid mother who lived with us.) In the summer months I was her helper–that is, whenever she could rouse me from sleep or a television coma. She would ask me to, “Do something with the children!” So, I’d round them up and take them into the backyard and cheerfully inform them, “We’re going to play a game called Detention School–and I’m going to play the part of the Head Matron!” Among my brothers’ many derelict British sport cars, I had the kids (ages 5 to 10) sit in two rows and I would inform them of their crimes–grand theft auto, armed bank robbery–and then tell them that they were to atone for their sins by being very quiet and, most importantly, obeying the rules. (The kids seemed quite taken with the idea that they were juvenile delinquents and had rap sheets.) As part of their punishment, I would read aloud from the Encyclopedia Britannica–with a pop quiz to follow. We would go on contemplative nature walks, their heads bowed and hands folded in front of them. All responses to my questions were to begin: “Salami, bologna, we love you with all our hearts!” And, of course, part of their rehabilitation was mandatory participation in the Detention School’s theatre program. All plays having been written by–you got it–the Head Matron. Our productions were hindered by the fact that some of the actors had not yet learned to read.

Q: What are you working on now?
I’m re-writing and, as always, attempting to market my plays.

Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?
Well, it would certainly be nice to see more produced plays written by women. But that’s become such a worn-out lament, you know? The statistics just don’t seem to be budging much. I heard an interesting comment from an artistic director at a children’s theater once. She said, “Little girls will sit through stories about little boys; but little boys will not sit through stories about little girls.”

Q: What kind of theater excites you?
The kind of theater that makes me forget everything else. Arthur Miller said, “The job of the artist is to remind people of what they have chosen to forget.” But it’s my feeling that the job of the artist is also to help people forget—temporarily—what haunts them.

Q: What’s a recent moment that reminded you why you chose to do theatre?
Watching Fat Ham at the Seattle Rep and being so totally transported that my popcorn brain actually stopped popping for those 90 minutes.

Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?
Be careful not to seek too many opinions about your work. Two or three readers are plenty–choose wisely. Smart, theater-savvy folks–preferably people who read lots of plays. And even then, don’t take any one comment too much to heart. It’s all a crap shoot and nobody really knows anything for certain. One thing you can control is how much you write. The more plays you finish, the better you get. Once you’ve got a draft, take a break, maybe a few days or weeks, then re-read, re-write, re-peat. Be patient. As my mother used to say: “God’s delays are not God’s denials.” Personally, I’m pinning my hopes on being discovered posthumously.

Q: What are you reading?
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield.

Q: What music are you listening to?
I was just listening to Johnny Hartman.

Q: Shoot your shot: What artist or company are you dreaming of working with, or what show are you dreaming of working on?
I wish I could work with Christopher Evan Welch again. He was hilarious, talented, and naughty. He passed away in 2013, and I still read/write/see plays and think, “Chris would gobble up this role like nobody’s business.” I’d love to work with Doug Hughes again. He creates a rehearsal room that is seriously creative, with a healthy dollop of lunacy.

With thanks to www.adamszymkowicz.com and American Theatre – People to Watch

1970s Nostalgia and Family Chaos on Stage:
Ivoryton Playhouse Features Hilarious New Play in October!

Dust off your bellbottoms and crank up the Bob Dylan—Ivoryton Playhouse is taking audiences back to the 1970s with Kate Forgette’s heartwarming and hilarious family comedy Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, opening October 2 and running through October 26.

Set in 1973 Boston, the play follows 19-year-old Linda O’Shea as she navigates the rocky transition from high school to college. Madly in love with her scruffy boyfriend Buzz and dreaming of freedom, Linda is stuck juggling her pesky little sister Becky, her iron-willed father Michael, her kind but distracted mother Jo, and her feminist firebrand Aunt Terri. But when Linda explains “the birds and the bees” to Becky, and their parish priest happens to overhear, holy hell breaks loose. The O’Sheas must scramble to outwit the priest, confound a nosy neighbor, and discover that nothing is more sacred than family.

“This play spoke to me right away,” says Executive Director and show director Jacqueline Hubbard. “The older we get, the more we realize those teenage ‘end of the world’ moments become the stories we laugh about and treasure for the rest of our lives. Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help captures that perfectly.”

This female-centered story is brought to life by a powerhouse creative team, led by Jacqueline Hubbard (director). The design team includes Starlet Jacobs (scenic design), Shyloh-Symone Bailey (audio engineering and sound design), Autum Casey (lighting design), Kat Schorn (props design), and Liz Saylor and Sean Spina (costume design). James Joseph Clark* serves as stage manager.

The talented cast features Rod Brogan*, Rebecka Jones*, Amber Quick*, Maggie Hamel, and Autumn Eliza Sheffy.

*These actors appear courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. 

SHOWTIMES:
Wednesdays at 2 pm 
Thursdays at 2 pm and 7:30 pm
Fridays at 7:30 pm
Saturdays at 2 pm and 7:30 pm 
Sundays at 2pm

Ivoryton Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton, CT. 
Tickets are available at ivorytonplayhouse.org or by calling the box office at (860) 767-7318

Contains adult subject matter. Run time approx. 2 hours and 30 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.

About Ivoryton Playhouse: Ivoryton Playhouse is a renowned small professional theater on the Shoreline. It is known for its exceptional productions and commitment to creating unforgettable experiences for audiences of all ages.

For more information, interviews, and press inquiries, please contact:
Ben Hope, Executive Producer – ben@ivorytonplayhouse.org

For press tickets, please contact:
Susan McCann – susanmc@ivorytonplayhouse.org

===========================================================

Looking for something to do? Ivoryton Playhouse has been voted best place to see live theatre by readers of The Shoreline Times for three years in a row. Come to Essex and visit our historic, professional theatre – a Connecticut treasure!