Tiny Beautiful Things

Based on the Book by Cheryl Strayed
Adapted for the Stage by Nia Vardalos
Co-Conceived by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail, and Nia Vardalos
Directed by Rikki Howie Lacewell
Performance Dates: September 6 - 28, 2024
Run time: 1h 15m
(no intermission)

Based on the bestselling book by Cheryl Strayed and adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos, Tiny Beautiful Things personifies the questions and answers that “Sugar” was publishing online from 2010-2012. When the struggling writer was asked to take over the unpaid, anonymous position of advice columnist, Strayed used empathy and her personal experiences to help those seeking guidance for obstacles both large and small.

Tiny Beautiful Things is a play about reaching when you’re stuck, healing when you’re broken, and finding the courage to take on the questions that have no answers.

The Winslow Boy

Written by Terence Rattigan
Directed by Mary Watko
Performance Dates: October 25 - November 16, 2024
Run time: 2h 15m
(including intermission)

What begins as a small incident ultimately grows into a “cause celebre” nearly shaking the foundations of the government. The incident is simply that of a youngster in an English government school who is expelled for an alleged theft. As a matter of fact, the youngster was entirely innocent, but practically all the evidence was against him. The boy’s family, in particular his father, proceed to contest the decision of the school and challenge its right, as a government-run institution, to damage the reputation of a boy without sufficient legal safeguards. The issue that began as a private matter involves the right of official agencies to impose their authority on the individuals of any democracy and, as the play moves relentlessly forward, we see in effect citizens of a democracy challenging the forces of bureaucracy, and thus keeping alive the issue of the basic rights of the individual.

Winner of the 1948 New York Critics’ Award for Best Foreign Play. The play was inspired by an actual event, which set a legal precedent: the case of Stonyhurst College alumnus George Archer-Shee, a cadet at Osborne in 1908, who was accused of stealing a postal order from a fellow cadet.

A Visit From St. Nicholas or The Night Before Christmas

Written by Lowell Swortzell
Directed by Joe Thompson
Performance Dates: December 5 - 15, 2024
Run time: 39m
(no intermission)

On Christmas Eve, 1822, Clement Clarke Moore's house is not as quiet as a mouse—in fact, everyone is stirring. The three children await the arrival of St. Nicholas. Mother and Father arise thinking they hear intruders. Cousin Harriet enlists the children to copy the poem their father has just written for them, which she hopes to have published for all young people to enjoy. But Father, as a distinguished professor who fears being known as a poet for children, burns the poem so it can never leave the house. At first heartbroken, the children unite to save the poem for posterity by improvising it through a riotous enactment. How they convince their father that his verses should be shared with children everywhere brings about the hilarious, happy ending. A Visit From St. Nicholas is an ideal Christmas comedy for schools, children's theatres, church groups and community theatres.

NOTE: Though considered “full length”, this show runs less than an hour. It is intended for this show to be supplemented with non-scripted material presenting holiday stories/songs from various countries and cultural communities.

Alabama Story

Written by Kenneth Jones
Directed by Eleanore Tapscott
Performance Dates: January 10 - February 1, 2025
Run time: 2h 15m
(including intermission)

As the Civil Rights movement is brewing, a controversial children’s book about a black rabbit marrying a white rabbit stirs the passions of a segregationist State Senator and a no-nonsense State Librarian in 1959 Montgomery, Alabama. A contrasting story of childhood friends — an African American man and a woman of white privilege, reunited in adulthood — provides private counterpoint to the public events swirling in the state capital. Political foes, star-crossed lovers, and one feisty children’s author inhabit the same page in a Deep South of the imagination that brims with humor, heartbreak, and hope.

Working — A Musical

From the book by Studs Terkel
Adapted by Nina Faso & Stephen Schwartz
Localized format conceived by Daniel C. Levine for ACT of CT
Directed by Tom Wyatt
Performance Dates: February 28 - March 29, 2025
Run time: 1h 45m
(including intermission)

Based on Studs Terkel's best-selling book of interviews with American workers, Working paints a vivid portrait of the workers that the world so often takes for granted: the schoolteacher, the phone operator, the waitress, the millworker, the mason, and the housewife, just to name a few. Nominated for six Tony Awards, this classic has been updated for a modern age, featuring songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, James Taylor, Micki Grant, and more. While most of the professions have been updated, the show, still set in contemporary America, contains timeless truths. Behind every job, there is a person with a story to tell.

Bump

Written by Chiara Atik
Directed by Shannon Benil
Performance Dates: April 25 - May 17, 2025
Run time: 1h 30m
(no intermission)

A car mechanic on the verge of becoming a grandfather, a community of expectant mothers on a pregnancy message board, and a pregnant woman in colonial New England each question the mechanics of childbirth. Based on the true story of Jorge Odón and the birthing device he invented in his garage, Bump spans time and space in an effort to grapple with the mystery and the miracle of maternity.