Help Pick Theatre Fairfield's Season!

Theatre Fairfield needs your help.  

As the University's resident theatre company, we strive to perform plays that add to the ongoing scholarly conversations on our campus.  We do pieces that:

• Challenge audience members to think deeply about the problems of the day.
• Provide fascinating co-curricular engagement opportunities.  
• Put Theatre Fairfield plays on your syllabus, and bring your students to the theatre.  
• We are happy to tailor pre-show and post-show conversations to fit your needs.  
• Students in all disciplines can make wonderful connections between plays and their studies.
• (Contact Marti LoMonaco or Lynne Porter for ideas on how we can connect your class to the productions.)

The theatre faculty has settled on a series of plays for next season, but we're stuck on making the final choice.  So, we decided to ask you--the University community--to make the choice, by doing a quick survey.

Here's what we're considering:

October Show Options:

A.  Tiny Beautiful Things based on the book by Cheryl Strayed, adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos

B.  The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa FastHorse

April Show Options:

C.  Pride and Prejudice by Kate Hamill, based on the novel by Jane Austen

D.  Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, based on the ancient myth of Orpheus & Eurydice

Click here to go to the survey: https://forms.gle/5wtv6A3VYxP1VcC87

Read more about each play here:

A. Tiny Beautiful Things 

based on the book by Cheryl Strayed, adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos

About the play: 

When the struggling writer [Strayed] was asked to take over the unpaid, anonymous position of advice columnist, she used empathy and her personal experiences to help those seeking guidance for obstacles both large and small. Tiny Beautiful Things is a play about reaching when you’re stuck, healing when you’re broken, and finding the courage to take on the questions which have no answers.

“Catharsis, that ancient communal ritual of purging and healing…a show that aims to open our eyes to the tiny moments when the world surprises us with care.” – New York Magazine

“Heart-tugging and emotionally rewarding.” – The Huffington Post

(https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/62781/tiny-beautiful-things)

B. The Thanksgiving Play

by Larissa FastHorse

About the play: 

Good intentions collide with absurd assumptions in this wickedly funny satire, as a troupe of terminally “woke” teaching artists scrambles to create a pageant that somehow manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month. 

"The familiar, whitewashed story of Pilgrims and Native Americans chowing down together gets a delicious roasting from expert farceurs."- The New York Times

(https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/65137/the-thanksgiving-play)

C.  Pride and Prejudice 

by Kate Hamill, based on the novel by Jane Austen

About the play: 

This isn't your grandmother's Austen! Bold, surprising, boisterous, and timely, this P&P for a new era explores the absurdities and thrills of finding your perfect (or imperfect) match in life.  Literature's greatest tale of latent love has never felt so theatrical, or so full of life than it does in this effervescent adaptation.  Because what else turns us into great fools...than the high-stakes game of love?

“A laugh-out-loud adaptation.... This PRIDE AND PREJUDICE has comedy at its heart, but regarding the treatment of women, it shows us enough unsettling similarities between the 18th century and now to make us pause thoughtfully between laughs.” – TheaterMania.com

(https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=5789)

D.  Eurydice 

by Sarah Ruhl, based on the ancient myth of Orpheus & Eurydice

About the play: 

In Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl reimagines the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. With contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.

"Touching, inventive, invigoratingly compact and luminously liquid in its rhythms and design, Eurydice reframes the ancient myth of ill-fated love to focus not on the bereaved musician but on his dead bride - and on her struggle with love beyond the grave as both wife and daughter." - San Francisco Chronicle 

(https://www.concordtheatricals.com/p/2949/eurydice)

Click here to go to the survey: https://forms.gle/5wtv6A3VYxP1VcC87

Thanks for your help with this.  We look forward to performing your choices.

Theatre Fairfield