A graphic novelist struggles to complete his 15,000 page comic book, a musician searches for the inspiration for his next hit, and a young girl strives to recreate her identity after years in captivity in this highly theatrical examination of creativity, addiction, love, and power. Rob Handel (Aphrodisiac, founding member of 13P) is joined for his Powerhouse debut by Tony Award® nominee Sam Buntrock (Roundabout’s Sunday in the Park with George).

The cast for A Maze includes Mark Alhadeff (Cradle and All) as Tom/Alexander/Voice/Günter, Heidi Armbruster (Tea and Sympathy) as Kim/Tish, Patrick Carroll (Good People, Redacted) as Beeson/Galgalim, Betsy Hogg (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The Crucible) as Jessica, Rebecca Naomi Jones (American Idiot, Passing Strange) as Oksana, Austin Lysy (Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The American Plan) as Paul, Mariann Mayberry (August: Osage County) as Angela/Queen/Hermione, and Daniel Oreskes (Billy Elliot: The Musical, Aida, Electra) as King/Gareth.

A cover story in the Poughkeepsie Journal delves into the nature of fame and creativity presented in A Maze with director Sam Buntrock, playwright Rob Handel, and actor Patrick Carroll. 

Encore magazine spotlights A Maze, interviewing playwright Rob Handel and actors Rebecca Naomi Jones and Mariann Mayberry.

Listen to director Sam Buntrock and playwright Rob Handel discuss A Maze on WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Read interviews with playwright, Poughkeepsie native, and Powerhouse playwright apprentice alum Rob Handel in Hudson Valley News Weekend and Northern Dutchess News Creative Living.

Performances: July 20, 21, 22, 23, 26 (post-show discussion), 27, 28, 29, 30 at 8:00pm; July 23, 24, 30 (post-show discussion), 31 at 2:00pm

Purchase tickets online.

See press release.

➯ Back to top

It’s parents weekend freshman year, but Parker’s very famous parents aren’t coming – which, trust him, is just as well. Confrontations both painfully funny and deeply poignant are sparked when Ali and Clarence show up uninvited, as Parker’s hard-won new identity is put to the test, and the family must grapple with the difficult choices of the child they love. Award winning actress and playwright Patricia Wettig (thirtysomething, Brothers & Sisters) returns to the Powerhouse where F2M was first seen in the 2010 Readings Festival, also directed by Maria Mileaf (The Argument, Lobster Alice, Underneath the Lintel).

The cast for F2M will include Theatre World Award winner Talia Balsam (Jake’s Women, Mad Men), Harriett D. Foy (Once On This Island, Mamma Mia!, The American Plan), Keira Keeley (Angels in America,The Glass Menagerie/2010 Theatre World Award), Deirdre O'Connell (Whisper House/Powerhouse 2009, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Front Page), actor and producer Ken Olin (Brothers and Sisters, thirtysomething, Alias), Phoebe Strole (Spring Awakening, Mourning Becomes Electra, 30 Rock).

Listen to an interview with Patricia Wettig and Ken Olin from WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Read an interview with Wettig in TheaterMania.

Read the feature in Encore about F2M.

Note: Adult themed, appropriate for high school ages and over.

Purchase tickets online.

 ➯ Back to top

In just seven years, from 1960 to 1967 when he died of a heart attack at age 38, Bert Berns wrote songs that would come to define the sound of an era including “Twist and Shout,” “Piece Of My Heart,” “Hang On Sloopy,” “Cry To Me,” “Cry Baby,” as well as hundreds of others. In addition, he was the producer of “Under The Boardwalk,” “Brown Eyed Girl,” and dozens of others, collaborating with Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, The Isley Brothers, Ben E. King, Solomon Burke, The Drifters, and Jimmy Page.  A discovery and celebration of the most famous composer you’ve never heard of!

The cast includes de'Adre Aziza (Passing Strange) as Candy, Kelli Barrett (Baby It’s You, The Royal Family) as Sloopy, Jenn Collela (Urban Cowboy, High Fidelity) as Jessie, Ned Eisenberg (Awake and Sing, The Green Bird) as Wazzel, Glenn Fleshler (Spring Awakening, Arcadia, Damages), Linda Hart (Catch Me If You Can, Hairspray) as Mom,Corey Antonio Hawkins (A Raisin in the Son) as Hoagy, Manuel Herrera (West Side Story, Legally Blond, Wicked) as Carlos, Dominic Nolfi (Jersey Boys) as Young Wazzel, Jarrod Spector (Jersey Boys) as Bert, as well as Rachel Stern (Tarzan, High Fidelity, Shrek), Teresa Gattison (album Face to Face), Pilar Millhollen (Chicago), Michael Millan (Band Geeks), and Christian Carter (revival South Pacific) in the ensemble.

Purchase tickets online

Visionary and flamboyant editor George Davis transforms a dilapidated Brooklyn boardinghouse into a bohemian commune for the leading lights of 1940s New York, including novelist Carson McCullers, composer Benjamin Britten, poet W.H. Auden, and the infamous Gypsy Rose Lee. The luminaries of 7 Middagh Street form a tumultuous and remarkable makeshift family, and search for love, inspiration, and refuge from the looming war in Europe. Inspired by true events, this powerful and funny new musical marks the first commission of The Public Theater’s Music Theater Initiative.

The cast for February House includes David Costabile (Translations, Caroline, or Change) as George Davis, Cristin Milioti (That Face, Coram Boy) as Carson McCullers, David Abeles (The Pursuit of Persephone) as W. H. Auden, Andy Mientus (Shine, Spring Awakening) as Chester Kallman, Santino Fontana (The Importance of Being Earnest, A View from the Bridge, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Billy Elliott: The Musical) as Benjamin Britten, Ken Barnett(Wonderful Town) as Peter Pears, Bryce Pinkham (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Good Wife) as Reeves McCullers, Emily Swallow (High Fidelity) as Erika Mann, and Emily Young (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) as Gypsy Rose Lee.

Listen to Gabriel Kahane discuss February House on WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Listen to Gabriel Kahane and Seth Bockley discuss their new work on WKZE.

Purchase tickets online.

The Tony Award-winning creators of Spring Awakening return to the Powerhouse with this compelling contemporary musical rendering of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale of a young emperor who finds his heart in the song of a small grey bird – and in the soul of a common servant girl - far beyond the walls of the Forbidden City. Directed by the Tony Award-nominated Moisés Kaufman (33 Variations, I Am My Own Wife, Bengal Tiger..., Tectonic Theater Project).

The cast of The Nightingale includes Tony® Award winners Michael Cerveris (Sweeney Todd, The Assassins, In the Next Room: or the Vibrator Play) as Emperor and Harriet Harris (Thoroughly Modern Millie, Desperate Housewives, Fringe) as Dowager Empress as well as Uzo Aduba (Coram Boy) as Fisherwoman, Celina Carvajal (Cats, 42nd Street, Dracula) as ensemble, Blake Daniel (Spring Awakening) as Lieutenant Eunuch, Andrew Durand (The Burnt Part Boys, Spring Awakening) as Emissary et al, Michael Esper(American Idiot, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide...) as Young Emperor, Kimiko Glennas Princess Ssu-ming, Kylie Liya Goldstein (Les Misérables) as Nightingale, Arielle Jacobs (In the Heights) as Feiyan, Michael Mastro (West Side Story, Mamma Mia!, Side Man) as Chief Eunuch, and Matt McGrath (Cabaret, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dalton’s Back) as Minister of State.

Listen to Michael Cerveris discuss Powerhouse and his role in The Nightingale on WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Read an interview with Steven Sater about The Nightingale in Rural Intelligence.

Purchase tickets online.

A handball court earmarked to become a dog run becomes a battlefield in a quickly gentrifying neighborhood. Set against the backdrop of NYC's scorching summer heat, this report from the front lines of a neighborhood 'in transition' is a fresh and startling story of community, culture clash and turbulence around change.

The cast includes Reiko Aylesworth (Lights Out, ER, 24) as Laurie, Carlton Byrd (Blue Bloods) as Ra-Ra, Obie® Award winner Danny Hoch (Black Hawk Down, Prison Song, Blue Bloods) as Barry, Jeffrey Joseph (The Wrong Mr. Johnson) as Gee, Morgan Lynch (Nova Scotia) as Little Lucy, Emmy® and Golden Globe® nominee Rob Morrow (Northern Exposure, Quiz Show, The Exonerated, Numb3rs) as Christopher, Drama Desk® nominee John Douglas Thompson (The Emperor Jones, Cyrano de Bergerac) as Panama, Felix Solis (The Good Wife) as Orlando, and Victor Rasuk (Raising Victor Vargas, How to Make it in America, ER) as Javier.

Listen to actor Rob Morrow discuss his role in Handball on WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Seating in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater is general admission, and there is no assigned seating. Theater opens 15 minutes before curtain. There is no late seating. The Shiva is intimate and all seat locations are excellent.

Mario Cantone plays dazzling, dizzying Craig Russell, a 1970s female impersonator battling inner demons on his way to cult stardom. His quest for fame tests and transforms his relationship with the only person who truly knows him, his best friend and beloved confidant, author Margaret Gibson.

The cast includes Mario Cantone (Laugh Whore, Sex and the City, Assassins) as Craig Russell and Jeni Verdon (Love Sucks) as Margaret Gibson.

Listen to Mario Cantone discussMargaret and Craig on WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Read more in TheaterMania about the play.

Purchase tickets online.

Seating in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater is general admission, and there is no assigned seating. Theater opens 15 minutes before curtain. There is no late seating. The Shiva is intimate and all seat locations are excellent.

FREE*

Singer/songwriter Dar Williams (The Honesty Room, The Green World, The Beauty of The Rain) combines her passion for the environment with her trademark exquisite songs in a new musical tale of a faraway island whose inhabitants must confront the forces which threaten their magical home, and come together to protect their beloved island.  A musical fable for all ages.

The cast features Marie-France Arcilla (Lizzie Bordon, Perfect Harmony), Wilson Bridges (Acadamy), Saum Eskandani (Idol, the Musical, A Year with Frog and Toad), Jordan Gelber (All My Sons, Avenue Q), Chad Goodridge (Passing Strange), Sarah Saltzberg (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), and Phoebe Strole (Spring Awakening, F2M/Powerhouse 2011).

*Note that The Island Musical is not part of the Powerhouse subscription – separate reservations are required. Beginning July 5, please call the box office at (845) 437-5599 to make your reservation.

Read an interview with Dar Williams about her music andThe Island Musical in the Chronogram.

➯ Back to top

Vassar & New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater will present a special free reading to help beat the mid-winter blues on Saturday, February 11.*

Abigail/1702 by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is story of a woman’s quest for forgiveness for past sins, both real and imagined, and explores what happened to The Crucible’s Abigail Williams once the Salem witch hunts were over. Award-winning playwright Aguirre-Sacasa is a writer on the hit television series Glee, an author of Marvel Comic Books, and his plays include Good Boys and True and The Mystery Plays. Casting to be announced shortly.

Free and open to the public, the reading will begin at 5:30pm in the Martel Theater of the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film. A reception will follow. Please note that reservations are now filled for Abigail/1702, however there is a wait list. Please email powerhouse@vassar.edu if you would like to be added to the list with your name, email, and phone number. Please check-in at the box office of the Martel Theater at least a half-hour before the performance (5:00pm). Note that admission from the wait list is not confirmed.

*Note: This reading was originally scheduled for January 21. All reservations will be honored.

Thank you.

Press Release

➯ Back to top

Limited tickets are available for the readings on Saturday and Sunday. Call the box office at (845) 437-5599 for your reservation. 

July 29 at 8pm / Sleeping Demon
     Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley
The cast includes: Bob Dishy (Sly Fox, Mornings at Seven), Tony nominee Zach Grenier (33 Variations, Voices in the Dark, Fight Club), Ron Cephas Jones (Gem of the Ocean), Jessejames Locorriere (Richard the Third), LaTanya Richardson (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), and Jay O. Sanders (Pygmalion, Saint Joan).

July 30 at 2pm / Marry Harry 
     By Jennifer Robbins, Michael Biello & Dan Martin
     Directed by Kent Nicholson
     Musical direction by Jeff Callwell 
The cast includes: Cameron Folmar (Five by Tenn), Annie Golden (The Full Monty, Xanadu), Melissa Hammans (Paper Cranes), Ann Harada (9 to 5, Avenue Q), Jillian Louis (The Dinasour Musical), Susan J Jacks (Flight of the Lawnchair Man), Andy Kelso (Mamma Mia!), Olivia Mell (Sex, Relationships, and Sometimes Love), Drama Desk winner Javier Munoz (In the Heights), and James Van Treuren (The Scarlet Pimpernel). 

July 30 at 5pm / The Public
     By Ed Hime
     Directed by Jim Simpson
The cast includes: Tracee Chimo (Irena’s Vow, Circle Mirror Transformation), Michael Esper (American Idiot, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide..., The Nightingale/Powerhouse 2011), Morgan Lynch (Handball/Powerhouse 2011, The Fairy Tale Project, AutoMotive), Annie McNamara (Gatz, God’s Ear), Joseph Parks (Eurydice) and Morgan Spector (A View from the Bridge). 

July 31 at 2pm / The Hour of Feeling 
     By Mona Mansour
     Directed by Giovanna Sardelli
The cast includes: Janis Dardaris (Becky Shaw, Breaking Legs, Scorched), Jessica Dickey (The Amish Project), Ryan King (iCandy), Ryan McCarthy (After Miss Julie, All Day Suckers), Tony nominee Omar Metwally (Sixteen Wounded), and Rasha Zamamiri (Sbelling Bee, Wife Swap). 

July 31 at 5pm / Matty's Place
     By Frank Pugliese
     Directed by Lisa Peterson
The cast includes: Patrick Breen (The Normal Heart, Next Fall), Louis Cancelmi (Vincent in Brixton), David Eigenberg (Take Me Out, Six Degrees of Separation), Dominic Fumusa (Wait Until Dark, Tape, [sic], Fault Lines/Powerhouse 2008), and Saverio Guerra (Mixed Emotions). 

➯ Back to top

Friday, June 24 at 8:00pm
Day One, A Hotel Room, Evening 
By Joanna Murray-Smith
Directed by Mark Rucker 

Saturday, June 25 at 4:00pm
Rivers of January
By Ben Snyder 
Directed by Leah Gardiner

Saturday, June 25 at 8:00pm
Rising Returns 
Written and directed by Daniel MacIvor

Sunday, June 26 at 2:00pm
Drones
By Matt Witten
Directed by Lisa Peterson 

Sunday, June 26 at 5:00pm
Playground: The Hallie Flanagan Project
By Mattie Brickman
Directed by Jen Wineman 

*Reservations are now filled Readings Festival 1. Please call the box office at (845) 437-5599 the day of the reading to see if any tickets have been released.

Seating in the Susan Stein Shiva Theater is general admission, and there is no assigned seating. Theater opens 15 minutes before curtain. There is no late seating. The Shiva is intimate and all seat locations are excellent.

➯ Back to top

July 8-11 at 6pm
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
By William Shakespeare
Directed & Adapted by Anthony Luciano
Assistant direction by John Moriarty
Stage Manager: Katherine Pardue
Outdoor Amphitheater
FREE 

How can young love, with all its potential for chaos and change exist in a world of order and security?  Only the imagination makes it possible. The Powerhouse Apprentice company’s production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes aim at young love with a cast of characters with the voices to know: young people themselves. The cast includes: Leah Alfieri, Lena Beckenstein, Shaina Ferguson, Tyler Glover,  George Hider, Olivia Hoffman,  Shannon Kelly,  Daphne Kim, Toni Kitsopoulos,  Olivia Nielsen,  Tanner Sands,  Leana Simpson, and Meghan Smith 

July 15-18 at 6pm
Cymbeline
By William Shakespeare
Directed & Adapted by Brian McManamon
Outdoor Amphitheater
FREE

Shakespeare’s rarely performed play, Cymbeline, defies classification.  Like a greatest hits compilation, it combines much of what Shakespeare did best into one play.  At once a comedy, romance, history and tragedy – it’s got it all: battles, poison, mistaken identities, forbidden love, a cross dressing girl, a tyrannical father, a cruel step-mother, a banished lover and a deceitful villain all neatly tucked into a lightning-paced, streamlined production. The cast includes: Nicole Boyd, Eliot Cohen, Gabriela Espinosa, Arianna Knox, Naomi Kunstler, Dayna Li, Casey McSherry, Eliza Orleans, Victoria Pollack, Minou Pourshariati, and Carl St. Goar. Shona Tucker, a Vassar drama professor and Powerhouse faculty member, portrays Cymbeline.

July 22-25 at 6pm
A Dream Play
By August Strindberg
In a new version by Caryl Churchill
Directed by Jessi D. Hill
FREE 

Agnes, a daughter of the Gods, descends to Earth to bear witness to many problems of human beings. The characters she meets multiply and dissolve; environments change in an instant as time moves forward and backward, and a mysterious locked door conceals a secret. Similar to Alice in Wonderland, August Strindberg’s groundbreaking experimental work, A Dream Play (1902) is a fantasy where the consciousness of a dreamer is our lens. Caryl Churchill, one of the most prolific female playwrights in the English-speaking world, has adapted Strindberg’s Dream in this visceral and spare version. The cast includes: Annabel Barrett, Lauren Charnow, Holly Crane,Tom Ellis, Mateo Ervin, Betty Etheredge, Libby Froeber, Corissa Goodrich, Sam Kotansky, and Cara Ronzetti. 

At the Outdoor Amphitheater (rain location, Matthew's Mug in the College Center below The Retreat)

➯ Back to top

An ensemble of upscale partygoers play out a story of love and other societal forces, loosely inspired by Emily Bronte's classic novel "Wuthering Heights" and set to the 1979 disco album of the same name by composer John Ferrara and his "disco orchestra." The cast includes: Annabel Barrett, Lauren Charnow, Holly Crane,Tom Ellis, Mateo Ervin, Betty Etheredge, Libby Froeber, Corissa Goodrich, Sam Kotansky, and Cara Ronzetti.

The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center - Late Night at the Lehman Loeb
No reservations are necessary.

➯ Back to top

June 28 & 29 at 8:00pm
Untitled
Conceived and directed by Erin Ortman
Assistant Director: Lilla Goettler
Stage Manager: Theresa Serrian
Company: Nicole Boyd, Eliot Cohen, Gabriela Espinosa, Arianna Knox, Naomi Kunstler, Dayna Li, Casey McSherry, Eliza Orleans, Victoria Pollack, Minou Pourshariati, Carl St. Goar

"My worst fears have happened; my nightmares have come to life."

July 16 - 17 at 9:30pm
Rewrite
Directed by Tomi Tsunoda
FREE 

The cast includes: Nicole Boyd, Eliot Cohen, Gabriela Espinosa, Arianna Knox, Naomi Kunstler, Dayna Li, Casey McSherry, Eliza Orleans, Victoria Pollack, Minou Pourshariati, and Carl St. Goar.

Apprentice Final Directing Projects presents two evenings of 
Wholly Joan by Erik Ehn 
Both performance feature the full Apprentice Acting Company 

July 28 at 10pm
Directed by Alexis Wilcock, Lilla Goettler, and John Moriarty

and

July 29 at 10pm
Directed by Marlee Koenigsberg, Talia Feldberg, Caleb Caudill, and Christine Gaden

Saturday, July 30 at 8:00pm
Apprentice Reading Series
Featuring plays written by: Nora Brickner, Nicky Davis, Ryan Williams French, Anya Josephs
Directed by members of the Apprentice Company faculty and staff

➯ Back to top