COVID PROTOCOLS
As we open our doors, we do so with a concern for the health and safety of our audience and staff in mind. To that end, we will implement mask and vaccine requirements for all members of the audience and staff. This is how we can sensibly move forward into the 14th season here at Shaker Bridge Theatre.
Upon arrival to the theatre, we’ll be requiring proof of vaccination or of a recent negative covid test, and we’ll ask you to be masked during the performance. This policy will be in effect for the first production of the season and will be re-evaluated after that.
We are eager to see you again and to share the power of these stories with you!
- Bill Coons, Artistic Director
2021-2022 SEASON INFO
I AND YOU
by Lauren Gunderson
November 4 - November 21
Homebound due to illness, 17-year old Caroline is suspicious of sweet, athletic Anthony after they are thrown together to work on an English project about Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. As the pair stumbles through the poem, they begin to share secrets and let their guards down, eventually unlocking the mystery that brought them together in the first place. With searing poignancy, I and You is a heartfelt, funny, and unexpected story about how much we need each other despite our differences.
THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS SHOW (abridged)
by Reed Martin and Austin Techenor
CANCELLED
Welcome to the Annual Holiday Variety Show and Christmas Pageant at St. Everybody's Non-Denominational Universalist Church, where all faiths are welcome because we'll believe anything. But there's a problem: none of the acts scheduled to perform have arrived, so three members are pressed into service to perform the entire Variety Show and Christmas Pageant by themselves. An irreverent yet heartwarming trip through the holidays, The Ultimate Christmas Show (abridged) is festive, funny, physical, family fun as these Three Wise Guys send up and celebrate our favorite holiday traditions.
New Play Reading Weekend
Dec 3 & 4
Shortly after this theatre shut its doors in March of 2020, we tried to keep the spirit alive by sponsoring a “ten minute” new play contest. I hoped to get several entries, but . . . I wound up with over 70 new plays from all over the country (and one from New Zealand) to consider!
The rules for entry were very simple:
Write a play between one and ten minutes in length with two or three characters. Let your current situation be the stimulus, the inspiration for your play. Your play can be serious, it can be comedic, it can be absurdist, etc. There are no limits to or restrictions on the style.
I intended to choose the ten best plays but ended up choosing fourteen, and this season on the weekend of December 3 & 4 at 7:30 pm, we will present readings of these new plays. We’ll present half on Friday evening and half on Saturday evening. You’re all invited and there is no charge for admission.
The Ten Winners:
Alexa The Liar by Guy Newsham
Daydream #2 by David Beardsley
Don’t Touch Me by Mike Backman
Drip-n-Drop by Eric Zengota
It’s All Happening At The Zoo by Lori M. Myers
Live by Jeannie Hines
Mary Poppins Is At A Loss Of Words by John Reshetar
Pantsdemic! by Evan Baughfman
Sheltering Out Of Place by Sylvia Ashby
Social Distance by James McLindon
The Birds Are Feeding Me by Rex McGregor
Tonight At The Stage Door by Donald Loftus
Virtuous Reality by Alex Wilkie
Working From Hideout by Jack Karp
LUNGS
by Duncan Macmillan
January 27 - February 13
The world is getting hotter, there’s unrest overseas - the seas themselves aren’t very calm - and one couple is thinking about having a child. Lungs is a smart and funny drama that follows a couple through the surprising lifecycle of their relationship, as they grapple with questions of family and change, hope, betrayal, happenstance, and the terrible pain that you can only cause the people you love.
“A thrilling meeting of head and heart.”
- The Stage
INCOGNITO
by Nick Payne
March 3 - March 20
Four actors play a combined 21 characters within Incognito’s three interwoven stories. A pathologist steals the brain of Albert Einstein; a neuropsychologist embarks on her first romance with another woman; a seizure patient forgets everything except how much he loves his girlfriend. Incognito braids these mysterious stories into one breathtaking whole that asks whether memory and identity are nothing but illusions.
“Highly recommended, thought-provoking, impressive and entertaining.”
- The Huffington Post
AN ILIAD
by Lisa Peterson & Denis O'Hare
April 7 - 24
AN ILIAD is a modern-day retelling of Homer’s classic. Poetry and humor, the ancient tale of the Trojan War and the modern world collide in this captivating theatrical experience. The setting is simple: the empty theatre. The time is now: the present moment. The lone figure onstage is a storyteller - possibly Homer, possibly one of the many bards who followed in his footsteps. He is fated to tell this story throughout history.
“AN ILIAD is pure theater: shocking, glorious, primal and deeply satisfying.”
- Time Out NY
“Spellbinding.”
- New York Times
IRONBOUND
by Martina Majok
May 5 - 22
At a bus stop in a run-down New Jersey town, Darja, a Polish immigrant cleaning lady, is done talking about feelings. It’s time to talk money. Over the course of twenty years and three relationships, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both. Pulitzer Prize award-winning playwright Martina Masjok’s Ironbound is a darkly funny, heartbreaking portrait of a woman for whom love is a luxury - and a liability - as she fights to survive in America.
“Bone-dry humor and vivid characters.”
- New York Times