Details
Running Time: Approximately 2 hrs with a 15-minute intermission.
Special Events
$5 Night - Thursday, February 12, 7:30 pm
Post-Show Discussion with Designers - Thursday, February 12
Opening Night - Sunday, February 15, 7:00 pm
Cookie Matinee - Wednesday, February 18, 2:00 pm
Lowell Night - Wednesday, February 18, 7:30 pm
Post-Show Discussion with Lowell House and SMART Recovery - Wednesday, February 18
Post-Show Discussion with Cast - February 19, 26, March 5
Post-Show Discussion with Improbable Players and Right Turn - Wednesday, February 25
Post-Show Discussion with Lowell House - Wednesday, March 4
“Director Melia Bensussen (who directed The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead and Two Jews Walk into a War at MRT) is one of my closest collaborators. She sent me this play by an up-and-coming young playwright who is unsparing in looking at the real drama of troubled lives. I responded immediately to the family situation and to the central question at the heart of the play: can people really change?” says MRT Artistic Director Charles Towers.
Creative Team
MRT: The Exceptionals. Off-Broadway: Square Peg Round Hole, Tectonic; AliceGraceAnon, The Germ Project, Milk, Creature, New Georges; Mourning Becomes Electra, New Group; Originated roles of Marcie, Lili, and Nina Spicer in The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, Fourth Street, 37 Arts; Trouble in Paradise, Mae West in SEX, Hourglass; Speak Truth to Power, Culture Poject; Hedda in Heddatron, Les Freres Courbusier; Originated the role of Lydia in Big Love, BAM; A Streetcar Named Desire, New York Theatre Workshop; Courtney Love in Love in the Void, Self Defense, In Between. Regional: The Veri**n Play, ATL Humana; The Turn of the Screw, Irish Classical-Buffalo; Rag & Bone, Big Love, Long Wharf; Member of the Wedding, All My Sons, Westport Country Playhouse; King Lear, Playmakers; Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Cincinnati Playhouse; Marilyn Monroe in Miss Golden Dreams, ACT Seattle; Big Love, ATL, Goodman, Berkeley Rep; A Clockwork Orange, Steppenwolf. Film/TV: Law & Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, Lights Out (FX), Law & Order: Criminal Intent, CopDoc, Focus Group, Gypsy 83, Diminished Capacity, upcoming film LIV by Catherine Eaton.
MRT: Allyn is delighted to return to MRT. Previous productions include, The Seafarer, Pursuit of Happiness, The Homecoming, Moon for the Misbegotten, and As You Like It. Off-Broadway: Bug, Killer Joe, Louis Slotin Sonata, Closetland, The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd. Regional: Roles in Henry VIII, Twelfth Night, Henry the Fourth Parts 1 and 2, Timon of Athens, All’s Well That Ends Well, King Lear, Measure for Measure, Richard III, and Artistic Director of Actors’ Shakespeare Project; Roles in King John, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labors Lost, and artistic associate at Shakespeare & Company; Breaking the Code, Underground Theatre (IRNE award); Shipwrecked, Lyric Stage; Five by Ten, Speakeasy Stage (Norton award); Actors’ Theatre of Louisville; The American Conservatory Theatre; Long Wharf Theatre; The Denver Center; The Walnut St. Theatre. Television: Law and Order, Law and Order: Criminal Intent. Film: The Company Men, Julie & Julia.
MRT: Beasley’s Christmas Party (IRNE Nomination), Jack Kerouac's Beat Generation. Broadway: The Glass Menagerie with Jessica Lange, Rock n Roll, The Lonesome West. Off-Broadway: Dead End, 1599 Project, Irondale Ensemble Project; Vieux Carré directed by Austin Pendleton , Pearl Theatre; Bug by Tracy Letts; Beasley’s Christmas Party, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Apartment 3A, The Antigone Project. Regional: Mark St. Germain's Scott & Hem in the Garden of Allah, Neil LaBute's In A Forest Dark and Deep, and Evan M. Weiner’s Captors, Contemporary American Theater Festival; The Pillowman, A Steady Rain, The Shape of Things, Sideman, Rep. Theatre of St. Louis; The Night of the Iguana, The Caretaker, Triad Stage; Suddenly Last Summer, Berkeley Rep.; Kingdom of Earth, Yale Rep.; Proof, Pioneer Theatre; Custody of the Eyes, Cleveland Playhouse; The Glass Menagerie, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, A.C.T. (San Francisco) Film: Dottie’s Thanksgiving Pickle with Olympia Dukakis; Bittersweet. Television: Law and Order, Kidnapped, All My Children, Guiding Light, As the World Turns. Education: MFA: Alabama Shakespeare Festival, University of Alabama; BA: University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Other: www.joeycollins.net, @MrJoeyCollins
MRT: Debut. Off-Broadway: Mr. Sensitivity, NY International Fringe Festival. Regional: The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Underpants, Lyric Stage Company; Reconsidering Hanna(h), Boston Playwright’s Theatre; An American Daughter, Speakeasy Stage Company; The Comedy of Errors, Arcadia, Publick Theatre; Shear Madness, Charles Playhouse; The Taming of the Shrew, Commonwealth Shakespeare. International: UK - Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, Chipping Norton Theatre; Veronika Decides to Die, Theatre Collection; Private Thoughts/Public Spaces, CASA Festival; A Woman of No Importance, Artifice Theatre; Bulwer Project Workshop, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Film: One Night Only, Confessions of a Shopaholic, My Brother Jack, A Totally Minor Motion Picture. TV: Guiding Light, Brotherhood. Education: MA in Classical Acting – Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London); BA in Theatre Arts Penn State University.
MRT: Debut. Regional: Operation Epsilon, Nora Theatre; These Shining Lives, Strangers on a Train; It’s a Wonderful Life, Stoneham Theatre; Legacy of Light, Arms and the Man, Lyric Stage; Reflections of a Rock Lobster, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Boston Children’s Theatre; The Crucible (tour), New Repertory Theatre; Oleanna, Contemporary Theatre of Boston; Inherit the Wind, Hobson’s Choice, The Winter’s Tale, Little Women; Peterborough Players. Other: Allan is pleased to be making his debut with Merrimack Repertory Theatre!
Mr. Gandiello's plays include Sunrise Highway (Ojai Playwrights Conference), Black Fly Spring (Xavier University), Swept (Williamstown Theatre Festival), At the Finish (Smith and Kraus's The Best 10 Minute Plays of 2014), and Teeming Shore (The Best 10 Minute Plays of 2015). He holds an MFA from The New School for Drama, where his play Off the Realness received a workshop production. He is an alum of the Ars Nova Play Group. Twice a Finalist for the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, he attended the company's Summer Residency at Yale and was a member of the 2014 I-73 Writers Group. He has attended residencies at The Blue Mountain Center and SPACE on Ryder Farm. For the screen, Nick developed and shot a television pilot, Substance, with Ready Set Go Productions. As a teaching artist, he led the Naked Angels 3 Thursdays Summer Style. Nick is currently the Literary Manager of Young Playwrights Inc., for which he has led playwriting workshops in Virginia, Miami, and NYC. His deepest thanks to Mom, Chris, Sue, and Ken for their support; Kellie for her love; Alexis, Melia, and Charles for believing in this play; the cast for their work; and you for coming to see this.
Read what others have to say about Nick Gandiello.
MRT: Memory House, Two Jews Walk Into A War, The Blonde, The Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead, Aunt Dan & Lemon, Something in the Air. Boston: Awake and Sing, Luck of the Irish (IRNE Award Best New Play), Circle Mirror Transformation, Huntington Theatre; The Cherry Orchard, Twelfth Night (Norton Award for Best Production, 2012), Merchant of Venice, Taming of the Shrew, Actors Shakespeare Project; Not Enough Air by Masha Obolensky, Nora Theatre Company. Off-Broadway: Numerous productions at Primary Stages, Manhattan Class Company (MCC), Playwrights Horizons, Bay Street (Sag Harbor), Women’s Project, New York Shakespeare Festival, among others. Regional: Baltimore Centerstage, La Jolla Playhouse, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, People’s Light and Theatre Company (Barrymore nomination for Best Director), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Denver Center Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Festival), San Jose Repertory Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, and numerous summers at the O’Neill Theatre Conference. International: Festival Internacional de Teatro, Havana, Cuba; American delegate to the former Czechoslovakia. Other: She is the recipient of an OBIE Award for Best Direction and a Princess Grace Foundation Directing grant, as well as their Statuette Award. Her edition of the Langston Hughes translation of Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding is published by Theatre Communications Group. Ms. Bensussen is featured in Women Directors Speak by Rebecca Daniels and Women Direct Shakespeare by Nancy Taylor. She is Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Emerson College, Boston.
Photos
Oceanside
By Nick Gandiello. Directed by Melia Bensussen. Running at Merrimack Repertory Theatre February 12 - March 8, 2015.
Click on any photo below to view larger.
Video
Blog Post: Week 1: The Scary Thing About a Dream Coming True
Blog Post: Week 2: It's Not Just About Learning Lines
Blog Post: Week 4: Fifteen Conversations at Once
Blog Post: Week 5: What Success Looks Like
Blog Post: An Actor's Perspective: Being Someone Else's Wife
Blog Post: A Designer's Perspective: Practical Matters (or, Practicals Matter)
Video
About the Play
Meet the Scenic Designer, Judy Gailen
Meet the Lighting Designer, John Malinowski
Meet the Sound Designer, David Remedios
A look at the play through excerpts and interviews
Playwright and Director discuss the importance of preview performances
Playwright and Director discuss world premieres
Reviews
WGBH Arts Editor Jared Bowen - "...a riveting thriller"
Nashua Telegraph - The show is gripping and an excellent character study...You’ll be engaged and paying rapt attention..."
Talkin' Broadway - "...a powerful new drama..."
Broadway World: "(Playwright Nick) Gandiello and director Melia Bensussen, along with a truly exceptional cast, have done remarkable work..."
Read what others have to say about Nick Gandiello.