Mainstage Plays
- 2010-2011 Season
- 2009-2010 Season
- 2008-2009 Season
- 2007-2008 Season
- 2006-2007 Season
- 2005-2006 Season
- 2004-2005 Season
- 2003-2004 Season
- 2002-2003 Season
- 2001-2002 Season
- 2000-2001 Season
- 1999-2000 Season
- 1998-1999 Season
- 1997-1998 Season
- 1996-1997 Season
- 1995-1996 Season
- 1994 Season
- 1993 Season
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2010-2011 Season
October 14–November 14, 2010
The Old Settler
By John Henry Redwood
Directed by Susan Kerner
(Mainstage)
Set in 1940s Harlem, this insightful and humorous new drama tells the story of Elizabeth and Quilly – two churchgoing sisters of a certain age. When a handsome young man from the Deep South rents a room in the apartment they share, all hell breaks loose. Since its premiere in 1997, The Old Settler has fast become a new American classic.
Starring: Ami Brabson, Suzzanne Douglas, Jamahl Marsh, and Nikkole Salter.
Design Team: Robert Monaco (Set Design), Jill Nagle (Lighting Design), Steve Brown (Sound Design), Debra Otte (Costume Design), Liz Cesario (Production Manager), and Renato Espinoza (Stage Manager).
Reviews:
http://www.nj.com/
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/
–
November 24–December 19, 2010
World Premiere
…And Then I Wrote a Song About It
Book by Eric H. Weinberger. Music by Dan S. Acquisto. Lyrics by Sammy Buck.
Directed by Igor Goldin. Musical Direction by Christian Imboden. Choreography by Antoinette DiPietropolo.
(Mainstage)
Set to the rhythm of the disco era and beyond, this earnest yet uproarious musical breaks new ground with its tour-de-force cast of one. Follow the adventures of a perspiring actor-singer-songwriter-dancer-secretary as he searches for love and fame in the early 1980s.
Starring: Nick Cearley
Design Team: Robert Monaco (Set Design), Jill Nagle (Lighting Design), Hunter Kaczorowski (Costume Design), Liz Cesario (Production Manager), and Amy Francis Schott (Stage Manager).
Reviews:
http://www.nj.com/
http://www.talkinbroadway.com/
–
February 10–March 13, 2011
World Premiere
Mercy and the Firefly
By Amy Hartman
Directed by Cheryl Katz
(Mainstage)
Soaring prose and aching emotion stalk this powerful new play in which a woman drives non-stop from LA to Pittsburgh, back to the home she fled. She returns with a spirit in need, a troubled girl, and a secret that could endanger those who love her. Developed as part of Luna Stage’s new play program, Mercy and the Firefly is a story of finding forgiveness, even in the midst of darkness.
Starring: Christopher Daftsios, Andrea Gallo, Marcie Henderson, and Alicia Rivas.
Design Team: Robert Monaco (Set Design), Jill Nagle (Lighting Design), Steve Brown (Sound Design), Christopher Metzger (Costume Design), Liz Cesario (Production Manager), Mary Ellen Allison (Stage Manager).
Reviews:
http://www.nj.com/
–
April 14–May 15, 2011
World Premiere
The Tallest Building in the World
By Matt Schatz
Directed by Troy Miller
(Mainstage)
With equal measure of ego and genius, a young New York engineer sets out to build the world’s tallest building – an easy task, as long as he can get his architect, the owner of the Empire State Building, and the Laws of Physics to cooperate. Based on actual events, The Tallest Building in the World examines the 1960s birth of the World Trade Center towers and what is gained and what is lost when we try to reach the sky.
Starring: Pun Bandhu, David Bonanno, Drew Dix, Nehassaiu DeGannes, and Kane Prestenback.
Design Team: Robert Monaco (Set Design), Jill Nagle (Lighting Design), Steve Brown (Sound Design), Lisa Loen (Costume Design), Liz Cesario (Production Manager), Mary Ellen Allison (Stage Manager).
Reviews:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/nyregion/the-doomed-tallest-building-in-the-world-review.html?_r=1
http://www.nj.com/
2009-2010 Season
The 2009-2010 season was spent relocating from our Montclair venue to a brand new two-theatre complex in West Orange, right in the heart of The Valley Arts District. During this transitional period, staged readings, workshops, classes, and other special events took place at our temporary space at 406 Tompkins Street, Orange, NJ.
2008-2009 Season
October 2–November 2, 2008
World Premiere
Fair and Decent
By Thomas H. Diggs
Directed by Jane Mandel
(Mainstage)
November, 1980. Ronald Reagan has just been elected. Uber-clever Republican operatives at a Washington think tank plot to dismantle The Fairness Doctrine and blur the line between politics and media once and for all.
Starring: Richard Bowden, Jennifer Dean, Michael Ellison, Thom Molyneaux, and Alan Pagano.
Design Team: Jian Jung (Set Design), Jill Nagle (Lighting Design), Deborah Caney (Costume Design), Steve Brown (Sound Design), Paul Whelihan (Production Stage Manager), and Artem Yatsunov (Production Manager).
Reviews:
http://www.nj.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2008/10/new_play_about_reaganera_polit.html
–
December 4—December 20, 2008
The Santaland Diaries
By David Sedaris
Directed by David Winitsky
(Stage 2 co-production with What Exit? Theatre Company)
Christmastime. Macy’s. A hilarious chronicle of one man’s experience working as an elf in Santaland. Performed cabaret-style. For mature elves only!
Starring: Harry Patrick Christian
Design Team: Fred Kinney (Set Design), Joshua Benghiat (Lighting Design), Jeff Knapp (Sound Design), Maggie Baker (Costume Design), and Danielle Constance (Production Stage Manager).
–
April 16–May 17, 2009
World Premiere
Not God
By Marc J. Straus
Directed by Nancy Robillard
(Stage 2)
The eleventh floor. Oncology. A poetic and intimate journey through the sacred relationship between patient and doctor. Not God, a play in verse by renowned oncologist, Marc J. Straus, documents the shared journey through illness of a doctor and patient. The harrowing, eloquent poems form a remarkable dialogue revealing their unspoken yet sacred relationship and the full range of secret hopes and fears, victories and defeats.
Starring: Carol Lempert and Marshall Tuck.
Design Team: Paul Clay (Set Design), John Burkland (Lighting Design), David Margolin Lawson (Sound Design), Deborah J. Caney (Costume Design), and Liz Cesario (Stage Manager).
2007-2008 Season
October 11-November 11, 2007
Death of a Salesman
By Arthur Miller
Directed by James Glossman
Perhaps the play that most embodies the notion, true or false, of The American Dream, our production of this masterpiece will be reset in the late 1950s and feature an African-American Loman family, living and working in a white world. The text will remain wholly faithful to the original, but by recasting this seminal work through another lens, we hope to enable audiences to access the work in a different way. For while class in America has arguably become more fluid, when race is factored into the equation, it still remains an issue of intransigence.
–
November 23-December 16, 2007
Treasure Island
Adapted by Paul Whelihan,
Music by Mark Baron, Lyrics by Ian August
(Luna Stage Presents Running Rabbit Family Theatre)
This unique production, in which the entire cast sings, uses spoken word and American Sign Language to illuminate the story, is an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1883 adventure novel. The story follows the adventures of Jim Hawkins, who is transported to a treacherous world of pirates and buried treasure after he and his mother discover a pirate map in the chest of Billy Bones, a guest at their lodging-house.
–
January 24-February 17, 2008
Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue
By Quiara Alegria Hudes
Directed by Katherine Kovner
(Stage 2)
An evocative exploration of war and its impact on three generations of a Puerto Rican family when a young soldier returns from Iraq and is faced with the decision of returning for a second tour.
–
April 3-May 4, 2008
The Man in Room 306
By Craig Alan Edwards
Directed by Cheryl Katz
(Mainstage)
Memphis. April 3rd, 1968. The Lorraine Motel. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. struggles to write the most important speech of his life. The evening’s real battle however, is taking place in the deepest part of his soul. Inside room 306 we witness the private world of a complex man during an extraordinary time. The Man in Room 306 was performed at Luna Stage in the fall of 1995. April 4, 2008 will mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and there seemed no better time to bring this highly acclaimed one-man show back to our audiences.
Starring: Craig Alan Edwards
Design Team: Paul Whelihan (Production Stage Manager), Charlie Corcoran (Set Design), Jill Nagle (Lighting Design), Andy Cohen (Sound Design), Carrie Yacono (Production Manager), Scott Blackburn (Technical Director), Malachy Kronberg (Assistant Stage Manager), Bermini of New York (Costumes), Lehner & Whyte (Graphic Design), and Jennifer Snowdon & Linda A. Rice (Make-Up Design).
2006-2007 Season
October 5–29, 2006
The Kreutzer Sonata
Adapted by Margaret & Larry Pine
Directed by Margaret Pine
This haunting adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novella concerns a man consumed with obsession and jealousy who reveals his deadly secret, leading the audience on an extraordinary journey and offering a penetrating look into the mind of a man caught in a hellish marriage kept alive only by ravenous sexual appetites. In a unique theatrical twist Mr. Pine is joined on stage by a pianist and violinist who perform part of Beethoven’s masterful Kreutzer Sonata.
–
November 16–December 10, 2006
Nocturne
By Adam Rapp
Directed by Juan Carlos Souki
A heart-wrenching drama in which a man, having accidentally killed his sister fifteen years before, struggles with reconciliation and redemption in a haunting exploration of personal loss and its consequences.
–
February 1–25, 2007
Honor and the River
By Anton Dudley
Directed by Nancy Robillard
This witty, biting tale, set against the romantic backdrop of a New England river, deals with a teenage boy who confronts his fear of water, the ghost of his drowned father, and an enticing, yet demanding friendship as he gears up for the spring rowing season at his boarding school.
–
April 26–May 20, 2007
Little Beasts
By Jeanne Marshall
Directed by Jane Mandel
Set in the 1920’s, painter Romaine Brooks, known for her hauntingly honest portrayals of her subjects, struggles with the painful demons from her past. These bits of madness threaten to destroy her long relationship with legendary salon hostess Natalie Clifford Barney and she is forced to choose between the comfort of her little beasts and reality.
2005-2006 Season
September 29-October 23
World Premiere
Robeson in Space
By Guillermo E. Brown & Tim Raphael
Directed by Tim Raphael
An exploration of Robeson’s life through the prism of his career as an artist and activist, and the cold war ideology that contributed to his tragic decline.
–
November 17–December 11
World Premiere
The Normals
By Chris Widney
Directed by Jane Mandel
A couple of theatrical true believers have tried to live a normal life in the suburbs. But, when their only son announces he wants to be an accountant, they pull out all the stops to keep him in “the biz”.
–
January 12-February 5
The First Annual Directors Lab at Luna Stage
Joseph E. Galione directed a workshop production of
The Pugilist Specialist by Adriano Shaplin
Shannon MacMillan directed a staged reading of
The Parent’s Evening by Bathsheba Doran
Kitt Lavoie directed a workshop production of
Creative Writing, a new play by J. Holtham
Juan Carlos Souki directed a staged reading of
Nocturne by Adam Rapp
–
February 16–March 12
The Confessions of Stepin Fetchit
By Matt Robinson
Directed by Bill Lathan
Intellect, anger, and contempt were the true substance driving the Hollywood clown known as Stepin Fetchit. A one-man tour de force that reveals the true life struggle of this African-American legend.
–
April 27-May 21
World Premiere
The Whipping Man
By Matthew Lopez
Directed by Linnet Taylor
It is April 1865, Passover, and American slaves have been set free throughout the South. A Jewish Confederate soldier returns from the war to find that his home is in ruins and that his family has disappeared. Only two former slaves remain. As each man contemplates an uncertain future, they are forced to face the truth about their past, and the complexity of freedom.
2004-2005 Season
October 7-October 31
Under Glass
By Kristine Thatcher
Directed by James Glossman
A candid look at the emotionally fraught world of infertility.
–
November 18-December 12
Ghosts
By Henrik Ibsen, Translated by Arthur Kopit
Directed by Jane Mandel
Ibsen’s rarely produced masterpiece about the sins of the father, betrayal and hypocrisy.
–
March 17-April 10
World Premiere
A Beautiful Home for the Incurable
By Ian Walker
Directed by Paul Whelihan
An agoraphobic has his identity stolen. His friends, a narcoleptic, and apraxic and a global amnesiac try to solve the caper.
–
April 28-May 22
Topdog/Underdog
By Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Eric Ruffin
The Pulitzer-prize winning drama about Lincoln and Booth, two brothers trying to make their way in urban America.
2003-2004 Season
November 13-December 21
World Premiere
Dragons
Book and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick
Directed by James Glossman
A classic good versus evil fairy tale set in a mid-evil town ruled by a dragon.
–
January 29-February 22
The Other Side of Newark
By Enid Rudd
Directed by Jane Mandel
A white teacher in the 1930s Newark School system sets out to improve the life of one of her black students.
–
March 18-April 11
World Premiere
The Fastest Woman Alive
By Karen Sunde
Directed by Cheryl Katz
The true story of Jackie Cochran—the first woman to break the sound barrier.
–
April 29-May 23
East Coast Premiere
Immoral Imperatives
By Jeffrey Sweet
Directed by James Glossman
A friend is always looking for ways to help out. But, when a married couple makes an unusual request, perhaps even friendships has its limits.
2002-2003 Season
October 3-October 27, 2002
World Premiere
Friends & Relations
By Arnold Rabin
Directed by Jane Mandel
A double bill of plays exploring conventions of society and family.
–
November 14-December 8, 2002
East Coast Premiere
Voice of Good Hope
By Kristine Thatcher
Directed by Brian Schnipper
This play depicts the complex personal and political life of the late Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan.
–
January 30-February 23, 2003
World Premiere
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Based on the novel by Kate Atkinson
Adapted and directed by James Glossman
The self-told story of Ruby Lenox, begun before her mid-century birth, and racing toward her millennial present.
–
March 13-April 6, 2003
World Premiere
The Nightwatchman & Six Hands
By Eric H. Weinberger
Directed by John Stringer
Two one-acts. In the first, we enter the inner world of a museum security guard. In the second, we meet three- women, linked by a plot that spans half a century and the music that lends meaning to each woman’s life.
–
April 24-May 18, 2003
World Premiere
Between the Lines
Book & lyrics by Bryan D. Leys, Music by James Campodonico
Directed by Charles Abbott
An original musical which follows the lives and careers of an actor and
an actress.
–
June 5-June 29
World Premiere
Sand Pilot
By Ron McLarty
Directed by Victoria Pero
A story of a man who finds himself at a significant site from his grandmother’s past. He seeks clues to his mysterious family history.
2001-2002 Season
Luna Stage relocated from our original Oak Place venue to our three-theatre space at 695 Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair, NJ. We spent the 2001-2002 season renovating.
2000-2001 Season
October 21-November 12, 2000
World Premiere
Rapture
By Jeanne Marshall
Directed by Jane Mandel
Set in 17th century Bologna and based on the life of Lucrezia Vizzana, the nun who broke tradition by having her musical compositions published.
–
November 22-December 12, 2000
World Premiere
Tom Waits, Me and… Dogs
Written and performed by Barbara Baker
Directed by Jane Mandel
This one-woman tour de force uses Tom Waits music as a springboard for an examination of present day mid-life.
–
February 1-February 25, 2001
My Children! My Africa!
By Athol Fugard
Directed by Eric Ruffin
Fugard’s 1988 work about a white teenaged girl who wins a school debate about feminism against a black teenaged boy.
–
March 10-March 25, 2001
The Collection
By Harold Pinter
Directed by James Glossman
Pinter’s menacing comedy about power and truth.
–
April 26-May 20, 2001
Last Lists of My Mad Mother
By Julie Jensen
Directed by Olympia Dukakis
New Jersey Premiere
A story about the toll Alzheimer’s disease takes on the parent-child relationship.
1999-2000 Season
September 30-October 24, 1999
World Premiere
Class Mothers ’68
By Eric H. Weinberger
Directed by Chris Brady
This new play relates the triumphs and travails of six mothers-all played by one actress- who are asked to present a parent production of the occasion of their children’s high school graduation.
–
November 18-December 12, 1999
True West
By Sam Shepard
Directed by James Glossman
Shepard’s tale of sibling rivalry, show business and messy kitchens.
–
January 27-February 20, 2000
World Premiere
Queen of Thebes
By Arnold Rabin
Directed by Jane Mandel
An imaginative interpretation of the Oedipus legend, focusing on Queen Jocasta.
–
March 3-26, 2000
Women’s Work: A Festival of Theatre Focusing on Women
***Tom Waits, Me and Dogs
Written, conceived and performed by Barbara Baker
Directed by Jane Mandel
***Like Bees to Honey by Andrea Green
Directed by Teresa Choate
***The Romeo and Juliet Outreach Project: The Voice of Jali
Adapted and Directed by Josette Murray-Ballo
***The Medea Project, translated by Eleanor Wilner and Ines Azar
Directed by Vincent Dopulos
–
April 27-May 21, 2000
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris
Directed by Steven Bloom
Reconceived as a dynamic musical for the new millennium, the music and lyrics of Jacques Brel beg us to rise above the violence of the 20th century and enter the 21st century with renewed spirit to live in peace
1998-1999 Season
October 29-November 22, 1998
World Premiere
The Flame Keeper
By Amos Kamil
Directed by Charles Goforth
Set in Berlin following WWII, the play explores assimilation and prejudice through a confrontation between a Jewish professor and a cigar store owner.
–
January 28-February 21, 1999
Travesties
By Tom Stoppard
Directed by James Glossman
A romp through the last century with a little bit of Joyce, a dash of Lenin and a helping of Wilde.
–
March 5-28, 1999
Woman’s Work: A festival of Original New Works by Women
***Class Mothers ’68 by Eric H. Weinberger
Directed by Chris Brady
***Hello and Godbye by Athol Fugard
Directed by Yael Farber
***2012: A Masque for the Millennium
Book and Lyrics by Lora Cooper, Music by Diane Moser
Directed by Karin O’Connell
–
April 22-May 16, 1999
World Premiere
Burying Fiona�
By Jeanne Marshall
Directed by Jane Mandel
A wicked comedy about life, death, family secrets and tequila.
1997-1998 Season
October 16-November 9, 1997
Waiting For Godot
By Samuel Beckett
Directed by James Glossman
The hilarious and terrifying classic of 20th century theatre.
–
January 29-February 22, 1998
The Foreigner
By Larry Shue
Directed by Richard Currie
The odd assortment of guests at Betty Meek’s rural fishing lodge find themselves up against terrifying odds. They discover surprising and entertaining ways to overcome.
–
March 6-29, 1998
Women’s Work: A festival of Original Work by Women
***Marvelous Party: An Evening with Beatrice Lillie
Created and performed by Susan Borofsky
***In a Person is a City
Written and Performed by Amy Guggenheim
Directed by Cheryl Katz
***Motherhood and Other Desperate Acts
Created and Performed by Deborah Maclean
–
April 23-May 17, 1998
World Premiere
Fancies
By Crispen Larangerira
Directed by Moira Wylie
An African-American anthropologist engaged in a long term study of the Kau Nuba in the Sudan is spiritually devastated by the carnage as the Kau are “ethnically cleansed”. In New York, his Caucasian wife struggles to hold their marriage together.
1996-1997 Season
October 31-November 24, 1996
Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Directed by James Glossman
Shakespeare’s classic play of murder and its consequences.
–
January 16-February 9, 1997
The Homage That Follows
By Mark Medoff
Directed by Laurie Wessely
A drama about a TV star returning home to the southwestern ranch of her widowed mother, and the men, both past and present that inhabit these women’s lives. From the author of Children of a Lesser God and When You Comin’ Back Red Ryder.
–
March 6-30, 1997
Rosa Loses Her Face
By Kitty Chen
Directed by Jane Mandel
A new play about generational and cultural conflicts between a Chinese woman living in LA and her assimilated daughter.
–
April 24-May 18, 1997
Berlin to Broadway, A Musical Voyage
Directed by Laurie Wessley
A journey through the remarkable career of Kurt Weill, one of the great pioneers of modern musical theatre.
1995-1996 Season
November 2-26, 1995
The Man in Room 306
By Craig Alan Edwards
Directed by Cheryl Katz
The Man in Room 306 finds Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Lorraine Motel the night of his last and most prophetic speech, and the day before his assassination. This one-man show about the human struggle of leadership celebrates the final challenge and victory of the extraordinary man named Dr. King.
–
February 1-25, 1996
An Invitation to the Blues
By Jacquetta McMurray and Zelda Patterson
Directed by Beatrice Winde
The life stories of three talented women, Memphis, Mac Jack and Hildy, intersect on the Old Chittlin’ Circuit in An Invitation to the Blues. A rebellious daughter, a bitter and lonely piano player, and a woman running from the murder of an unfaithful lover find themselves as a family, sharing their present and shunning their past.
–
April 11-May 5, 1996
World Premiere
Kick the Can
By Jim Lehrer
Adapted and directed by James Glossman
Having lost an eye watching a game of kick-the-can, Mack, a modern Huckleberry Finn, runs away from his Kansas home in 1951 to become…a pirate. (No small feat in the land-lockedMidwest traversed by busses rather than boats.) A wry, rollicking coming-of-age story that celebrates the open road and American innocence lost and found.
–
May 9-June 9, 1996
World Premiere
“we don’t have enough sugar for the public”
Created and directed by Jane Mandel
Woven from the personal stories of community residents and from material generated by the company of artists, this unique project is a theatrical exploration of racism and how it affects our daily lives.
1994 Season
Reckless
By Craig Lucas
Directed by Jane Mandel
Rachel starts her journey as the intended victim of a hit man. Along the way she wins the lottery, and ends up a therapist pondering whether the modern world might not be a vast conspiracy designed to systematically undermine her own increasingly shaky sanity.
1993 Season
In the Name of the Woman
Created and directed by Jane Mandel
A transformational fast forward through women’s history beginning in the matriarchal time of the goddess, with scenes along the way based on art, politics, poetry, newspaper articles and personal stories, and ending in the present.
