SpeakEasy Stage Company Announces 2021-2022 Season (Boston, MA.)
THE SOUND INSIDE; BLKS; PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS; ONCE ON THIS ISLAND; and THE INHERITANCE HIGHLIGHT SPEAKEASY’S 2021-2022 SEASON
PRESS RELEASE:
After a long 18-month intermission, SpeakEasy Stage Company will proudly re-open its doors on Friday, September 24, 2021, for the start of its 31st Season.
And to mark its return, the company has announced a bold line-up of Boston premieres that includes the riveting Broadway drama THE SOUND INSIDE; the raucous Off-Broadway comedy BLKS; a mesmerizing journey into addiction and identity, PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS; the beloved musical fable ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, and the sweeping two-part epic THE INHERITANCE.
“We are thrilled to be back” said SpeakEasy Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault. “After a year and a half of Zoom calls and social distancing, the importance of human connection and the healing power of the arts have never been more clear.”
“At the same time,” Daigneault added, “I want to affirm that the safety of our patrons, artists, and staff is and will remain our primary concern for as long as the Covid-19 pandemic is a concern. We promise to keep our community informed every step of the way to ensure their safe return to our theatre, and will continuously amend our protocols to fit the latest guidance from government and health officials.”
The schedule for SpeakEasy Stage Company’s 2021-2022 Season will be:
THE SOUND INSIDE – by Adam Rapp / Sept. 24 – Oct. 16, 2021
BLKS – by Aziza Barnes / Oct. 29 – Nov. 20, 2021
PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS - by Duncan Macmillan / January 7 – February 5, 2022
ONCE ON THIS ISLAND – Book & Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, Music by Stephen Flaherty Based Upon the Novel, “My Love, My Love” by Rosa Guy / March 11 – April 16, 2022
THE INHERITANCE – by Matthew Lopez / A Two-Part Play /April 22 – June 11, 2022
For more information on SpeakEasy’s 2021-2022 Season or to subscribe, the public go online to www.SpeakEasyStage.com or call Boston Theatre Scene Ticketing Services at 617-933-8600.
Open noon-4PM, Monday through Friday.
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The following contains more information regarding each of SpeakEasy’s 2021-2022 shows.
Please note that all dates, artists, and repertoire are subject to change.
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THE SOUND INSIDE
By Adam Rapp
Directed by Bryn Boice
Boston Premiere! Sept. 24 – Oct. 16, 2021
Roberts Studio Theatre
2020 Tony Award Nominee – Best Play!
In the seventeen years since she was last published, novelist Bella Baird has almost completely isolated herself from the world. But things change when she meets Christopher - a brilliant but enigmatic student in her creative writing class at Yale. As their friendship deepens, their lives and the stories they tell about themselves become intertwined in unpredictable ways, leading to a shocking request. Intensely intimate and deeply moving, The Sound Inside is “an astonishing new play… about fiction, both the kind we read and the kind we live.” (The New York Times) 2)
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BLKS
By Aziza Barnes
New England Premiere!
Oct. 29 – November 20, 2021
Roberts Studio Theatre
Best Play – 2020 Inaugural Antonyo Award, presented by Broadway Black!
“Raw, blistering, hilarious, and engaging” (Chicago Sun-Times), BLKS follows three twenty-something black women trying to find intimacy and purpose in a city that doesn’t seem to care about them.
In the wake of a serious health scare, Octavia recruits her besties June and Imani to join her for one last epic night on the town.
But as the evening unfolds, a string of increasingly wild adventures tests their friendship in this raucous comedy of misbehavior that explores the joy and anguish of growing up and out.
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PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS
By Duncan Macmillan
Directed by David R. Gammons
New England Premiere! January 7– February 5, 2022
Roberts Studio Theatre
New York Times Critic’s Pick!
Boasting critically acclaimed, sold-out runs in both London and New York, People, Places & Things is an exhilarating new play about surviving in the modern world.
The story focusses on Emma, a thirty-something actress who thinks she is having the time of her life, until she finds herself in rehab. Her first step is to admit that she has a problem. But the problem isn’t with Emma; it’s with everyone else. And when intoxication feels like the only way to survive, how can she ever sober up?
From award-winning playwright Duncan Macmillan (1984, Lungs, Every Brilliant Thing), comes this mesmerizing trip into addiction, rehab, and identity, “a glittering paean to booze and drugs delivered as a visceral, mournful howl to the skies.” (The Telegraph – UK)
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ONCE ON THIS ISLAND
Book & Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Based Upon the Novel, “My Love, My Love” by Rosa Guy
Directed by Pascale Florestal
Music Direction by David Freeman Coleman
March 11 – April 16, 2022
Roberts Studio Theatre
Best Revival of a Musical – 2018 Tony Award!
We are thrilled to present a rousing new production of one of the most beloved musicals in SpeakEasy and Broadway history: Once on This Island.
Powered by a pulsating Calypso beat, this delightful musical fable tells the epic story of Ti Moune, a fearless peasant girl who, guided by the mighty island gods, sets out on a remarkable journey to follow her heart and find her place in the world.
Featuring a joyous, uplifting score by Tony Award winners Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime, Anastasia), Once on This Island is “a bewitching celebration of love, resilience, and the spirit of hope.” (NY Daily News) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE INHERITANCE
by Matthew Lopez
A Two-Part Play Directed by Paul Daigneault
New England Premiere! April 22 – June 11, 2022
2019 Olivier Award Winner - Best Play!
Roberts Studio Theatre
Interweaving lives and spanning generations, The Inheritance brilliantly transposes E.M. Forster’s novel Howards End to 21st century New York.
A generation after the peak of the AIDS crisis, what is it like to be a young gay man in New York? What is the legacy left to them by previous generations? What do they owe the future and each other?
Award-winning playwright Matthew Lopez explores these and many other profound themes through the turbulent and often hilarious experiences of a group of young, ambitious New Yorkers in a work that has been hailed as “perhaps the most important American play of the century so far.” (The Telegraph – UK)
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SpeakEasy Stage Company is a non-profit theatre company located in the South End of Boston and is led by award-winning Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault. SpeakEasy was named the Pavilion Resident Theater for the Boston Center for the Arts in 2007 and produces 28 weeks of new plays and musicals each season at the Nancy and Ed Roberts Studio Theater in the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.
Subscription Information Subscriptions for SpeakEasy Stage Company’s 2021-22 Season are now on sale.
To purchase or for more information, call 617-933-8600 or go online to https://www.speakeasystage.com/Season31.
Patrons with subscription questions may also call Jim Torres or Evan Turissini at 617-482-3279 or write Jim at JimTorres@SpeakEasyStage.com.
Tickets to individual shows in SpeakEasy’s 2021-22 Season are expected to go on sale in August.
