Announcing SpeakEasy Stage Company's 2019-2020 Season

The Broadway hit musical drama CHOIR BOY; the satirical and timely new comedy ADMISSIONS; the modern urban masterpiece PASS OVER; the Tony-nominated eco-thriller THE CHILDREN; and the sweeping Broadway musical BRIGHT STAR will make up SpeakEasy Stage Company's 2019-2020 Season, the company's Founder and Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault announced today.

In addition, the company's new works program, THE BOSTON PROJECT, has been renewed for a fourth season, offering two more Boston playwrights (still to be named) commissions to create new plays about what it means to live in this city at this moment.

The schedule for SpeakEasy Stage Company's 2019-2020 Season will be:

CHOIR BOY-by Tarell Alvin McCraney / Sept. 13 - Oct. 12, 2019

ADMISSIONS -by Joshua Harmon / Oct. 25-Nov. 30, 2019

PASS OVER - by Antoinette Nwandu / Jan. 3- 25, 2020

In Partnership with The Front Porch Arts Collective

THE CHILDREN - by Lucy Kirkwood / Feb. 28th - Mar. 28, 2020

BRIGHT STAR- Music, Book, and Story by Steve Martin; Music, Lyrics, and Story by Edie Brickell

May 1 - 30, 2020

"Once again I am excited to offer Boston audiences an ambitious and entertaining slate of the very best contemporary plays and musicals," said Daigneault, in announcing the new line-up. "Each of these shows is uniquely theatrical and celebrates the importance of sharing our stories to better appreciate our common humanity."

"I am also thrilled to be joining forces with the Front Porch Arts Collective to co-produce Pass Over.
Front Porch is a new black-led theatre company committed to advancing racial equity in Boston through theater, and we all look forward to combining our resources to create the most accessible, powerful, and authentic production of Pass Over possible. »

For more information on SpeakEasy's 29th Season or to subscribe, the public can call the Boston Theatre Scene Box Office at 617-933-8600 or go online to www.SpeakEasyStage.com.

Here is more information on each of SpeakEasy's 2019-2020 shows. Please note that all dates, artists, and repertoire are subject to change.

CHOIR BOY

By Tarell Alvin McCraney

New England Premiere! September 13 - October 12, 2019

Press Performance - Sunday, September 15 - 3PM

Roberts Studio Theatre

First Time Since Broadway! From Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Moonlight, comes a powerful coming-of-age story punctuated by the soaring harmonies of live gospel, spiritual, and R&B performances. For fifty years, the elite Charles R. Drew Prep School has been dedicated to the education of strong, ethical black men; its legendary gospel choir an emblem of all it holds true. But for Pharus Young, the opportunity to take his rightful place as the leader of these talented vocalists comes at a price. Can he still earn his place in these hallowed halls and sing in his own key?

ADMISSIONS

By Joshua Harmon

Directed by Paul Daigneault

New England Premiere! October 25 - November 30, 2019

Press Performance - Sunday, October 27- 3PM

Roberts Studio Theatre

Winner! 2018 Drama Desk Award - Best Play! Sherri Rosen-Mason and her headmaster husband Bill have worked hard for many years to diversify the student body at the small New England prep school where they work. But when their son's Ivy League dreams are on the line, personal ambition and progressive values collide. From provocative playwright Joshua Harmon, author of Significant Other and Bad Jews, Admissions is a bold new comedy "of the left, by the left, for the left - for today." (NY Times)

PASS OVER
By Antoinette Nwandu

In Partnership with The Front Porch Arts Collective

New England Premiere! January 3 - 25, 2020

Press Performance - Sunday, January 5 - 3PM

Roberts Studio Theatre

One of the Top Ten Plays of 2018 - New York Times! Moses and Kitch chat their way through yet another aimless day on their local street corner in this groundbreaking mash-up of Waiting for Godot and the Exodus saga. Crafting everyday profanity into poetic and humorous riffs, the friends share their dreams of deliverance, until an ominous stranger changes their world forever. Potent, daring, and breathtakingly theatrical, Pass Over unflinchingly exposes the reality of young black men just looking for a way out.

THE CHILDREN
by Lucy Kirkwood

Directed by Bryn Boice

Starring Paula Plum, Karen MacDonald, and Tyrees Allen

Boston Premiere! February 28 - March 28, 2020

Press Performance - Sunday, March 1 - 3PM

Roberts Studio Theatre

2018 Tony Award Nominee - Best Play! Following acclaimed runs in London and New York, The Children is an astonishing and thrilling new play that questions the responsibility each generation has for the way it leaves the world. In the wake of a devastating nuclear accident, Hazel and Robin, two retired physicists, are quietly living out their days in a cottage on the British coast. When an old colleague turns up with a shocking request, the three friends must come to terms with their shared culpability in this searing drama about responsibility and guilt, reparation and redemption.

BRIGHT STAR

Music, Book, and Story by Steven Martin

Music, Lyrics, and Story by Edie Brickell

Directed by Paul Daigneault

Boston Premiere! May 1- 30, 2020

Press Performance - Sunday, May 3 - 3PM

Roberts Studio Theatre

Best Musical - 2016 Tony Award Nominee! - Created by comedy legend Steve Martin and Grammy winner Edie Brickell, Bright Star is a sweeping tale of love and redemption set in the American South during the 1920s and '40s. This richly emotional story weaves together two chapters in the life of literary editor Alice Murphy: the first, as a young backwoods girl in love with the son of a prominent family; and the second, as mentor to a young soldier just back from the war. Propelled by a rousing country and bluegrass score, and brimming with charm, Bright Star is a refreshingly original and daringly hopeful new entry in the musical theatre canon.

THE BOSTON PROJECT 2020

Play Reading Dates TBA, June 2020

A new works initiative that supports the creation and development of new plays set in Boston, THE BOSTON PROJECT will return for its fourth season in 2019-2020. Two Boston playwrights will receive a commission to write a completely new work, each of which will explore what it means to live in this city at this moment and tap into the full breadth of experiences and identities that make up life in the Hub.

In addition, SpeakEasy will continue to develop one of the 2019 Boston Project plays: THE USUAL UNUSUAL by M.J. Halberstadt, a story about Boston's last remaining queer bookstore; or JUST CAUSE by Laura Neill, which explores the reality of gentrification in downtown Boston.