The Wagner College Theatre announces a full season of in-person stage productions, welcoming masked and vaccinated audiences to its Main Stage auditorium, in Main Hall, and its Stage One studio theater.
The season kicks off on Thursday, Oct. 7 in Stage One with Bess Wohl’s “Small Mouth Sounds,” a funny and touching piece about six city dwellers seeking answers on a silent weekend retreat. The New York Times says “Small Mouth Sounds” “leaves you moved, refreshed and even enlightened.” The piece, directed by WCT professor Mickey Tennenbaum, will be performed Oct. 7-10.
Next up, WCT will present the grand return to its Main Stage with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s reimagining of the Grimm Brothers fairy tales, “Into the Woods,” directed by Michele Pawk with music direction by Lauri Young, both members of the WCT faculty. The show will be performed over two weekends, Oct. 21-24 and Oct. 28-31.
The second show in Stage One will be Emily Feldman’s “Go. Please. Go.” Directed by guest director Joan Sergey, the play explores themes of relationships and important life events, asking what it means to love somebody for a lifetime and what a lifetime even means. The play will be performed Nov. 11-14.
Next on the Main Stage is “Dance Concert 2021: So Let Us Go On” directed and arranged by alumna Theresa Flanagan ’04. It features original dance works by students, faculty and alumni, including Kayla Morgan ’22, Rebecca Marlowe ’20 and professors John Scecchetti and Emily Phillips. This edition of the Dance Concert explores the theme of emerging from the ashes and the resilience of the human spirit. Dance, music and poetry intermingle to acknowledge where we’ve been and ask where we’re going. The piece will be performed Dec. 2-5.
The spring semester has two offerings in Stage One starting with a workshop production of “Goblin Market,” a nostalgic tale of two Victorian sisters by Polly Pen and Peggy Harmon, directed by WCT professor Theresa McCarthy, performed Feb. 25-27. The second is the darkly comic “Last Days of Judas Iscariot” by Stephen Adly Guirgis, a reexamination of the New Testament’s most notorious figure. The play will be directed by WCT faculty member Joey Donnelly ’10 May 5-8.
Wagner College Theatre will produce two musicals on the Main Stage in the spring, starting with the part operetta, part farce, part screwball comedy “On the 20th Century” by Cy Coleman, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, based on the 1930s film of the same name. Directed by Brian Sgambati ’91 with music direction by Lauri Young, both members of the WCT faculty, it will be performed over two weekends, March 10-13 and March 17-20.
Closing out the season, we will be transported to Berlin circa 1930 as the Nazis ascend to power against the backdrop of the underground nightclub scene in Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret,” the original musical based on the play by John van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood. The production will be directed by Andrew Glant-Linden and music directed by Logan Medland. It will be performed over two weekends, April 28 through May 1 and May 4-8.
For the safety of our students and community, all audience members will be required to show proof of vaccination and wear a mask at all times, the same provisions required for attendance this season at all Broadway shows. This follows guidelines issued by Wagner College and the Actors Equity Association for a safe re-opening.
For tickets, please call the box office at 718-390-3259, Monday through Friday, 12 to 4 p.m., or visit the box office window one hour before all performances.
