During this very special season, we invite you to reflect on our legacy as we launch into the future. Ten years ago, when I first came to Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC) to direct The Tempest, I walked into Bratton and was immediately captivated by this gorgeous ship-like theater. The magic of theater lies in its ability to transport you anywhere. What better vessel to take you on these journeys than Bratton Theater?
This year is a season of birthdays. We are celebrating both the Institution's 150th birthday and the Friends of Chautauqua Theater's (FCT) 30th birthday. The Young Playwrights Project is celebrating 10 years of local community involvement. Twenty-four years ago, the FCT, with the help of a successful capital campaign, transformed Normal Hall into the stunning theater we are all sitting in today.
CTC is thrilled to offer plays at every stage of their life cycle this summer, starting with the homecoming of Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles. This play, which was a new play workshop in 2017, has since been produced across the country, on Broadway, and around the world. Birthday Candles is a play about home, the magnitude of life, and the universe, as told through seemingly small, everyday moments. Next, we present a 20-year-old contemporary American classic, Fabulation, an allegorical play that I have long admired — it’s audacity, humor, and horror of perception and expectation, all presented through an extremely satirical lens. Satire has become an increasingly necessary genre in what can seem to be an increasingly absurd world. It’s a riches-to-rags, coming-of-age story of self-discovery that unearths archetypes and makes us look more discerningly at the things and people we might take for granted. It is written by one of America’s most important living playwrights, Lynn Nottage. The final main stage production of the season is the world premiere of CTC’s very own commissioned play The Light and The Dark: the life and times of Artemisia Gentileschi, by Kate Hamill, starring the playwright herself as Artemisia. This classic tale tells the story of this oft-forgotten visionary artist and brave woman, Artemisia Gentileschi, the great Italian Renaissance painter.
It is an incredible honor to have all our playwrights joining us this summer and it’s no coincidence that we are welcoming almost all of them back home to Bratton and CTC. Noah Haidle was last here to workshop Birthday Candles in 2017. Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel was beautifully produced in 2015, and just last year I kicked off my tenure as Producing Artistic Director with Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice.
This summer, we are thrilled to welcome back commissioned artist C.A. Johnson, who joined us last season on the grounds for a writing residency, working on the first draft of Tell Me You’re Dying: the trial of millicent bonhomme. We are also welcoming back Anna Ziegler, who was with us as part of our signature NPW platform in 2008 and 2010 and is returning this year with a brand-new play, Celebrating 65 years of the Ladies' Home Journal in Cambridge, Massachusetts! For our final staged new play workshop, we are pleased to welcome Hilary Bettis and her beautiful coming-of-age story, falcon girls.
I’m also thrilled to announce that we have partnered with the Drama League, the preeminent creative development home for directors, based in New York City. We now have three fabulous directing fellows who will be presenting their own Night of One Acts, with works by José Rivera, Bill Harris and Caryl Churchill. And what a perfect year to return to Bratton Late Night, also under the direction of one of these talented fellows!
If CTC’s season were to have an actual birthday party, it would be on Aug. 1, for the homecoming of our former artistic directors who will be performing in a benefit reading of the brilliant classic Old Times by Harold Pinter. This will be a celebration of the past 150 years as we look forward to the next 150, and beyond. Prior to this performance, we will be celebrating the announcement of the future Roe Green Theater Center. The vision for this new building — both a replacement of our dilapidated theater offices and former rehearsal studios, and an expansion of our capabilities with a state-of-the-art black box theater — has long been a dream. Now, that dream is starting to turn into a reality. The Roe Green Foundation has made a transformational gift of $4.5 million, of which $1.5 million is a matching challenge. Please consider supporting the theater in whatever way you can — we cannot fully realize this dream without your support! If you are inspired to meet the challenge of Roe Green’s $1.5 million matching gift, please reach out to Chautauqua Institution’s Advancement team at 716-357-6404 or Advancement@chq.org. Anything you give towards this gift will be instantly doubled.
This year, we will also be expanding our accessibility offerings, with audio-described and sensory-friendly performances, and other programs like "Pick Your Own Price," where patrons can pay anywhere from $5 to $500 per ticket.
After all, what is a birthday but a celebration of growth and a blessing of what’s to come? So please join us in celebrating our amazing past as we move into our very bright future. Just by showing up, you are already helping to build on our legacy. Please spread the word! But for now, please lean in and enjoy the show.