Guild Hall’s outdoor Play In The Garden theater series will start this weekend with a “Weekend of Wasserstein.”
The weekend will include a mini-fest of Wendy Wasserstein’s plays, directed by Jackson Gay, including two distinctive evenings filled with smart and shining treats from the voice of one of America’s most beloved playwrights.
During her prolific, nearly four-decade career, Wasserstein wrote eleven plays. She won a Tony Award, a Pulitzer Prize, a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award.
She was also a member of Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts, where she accepted a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Her accomplishments include works such as “The Heidi Chronicles,” “The Sisters Rosensweig,” and “An American Daughter.”
Friday, June 4 will feature an evening of six short plays with music – “Bette and Me,” “Tender Offer,” “Workout,” “Medea,” “Boy Meets Girl,” and “The Man in a Case.” Wasserstein has an assortment of shorter, lesser known plays that all capture her voice.
Saturday, June 5, will feature a staged reading of “The Heidi Chronicles,” with a talkback led by Erika Rundle.
The weekend will feature Joanna Feuer, Frank Harts, Quinn Jackson, Nate Janis, Maria-Christina Oliveras, Addison Takefman, Shelley Thomas, and Georgia Warner.
The Play In The Garden series continues on June 11 with a staged reading of “Happy Birthday, Wanda June” by Kurt Vonnegut, his first play which premiered in 1970 and was adapted into a film in 1971. The play captures his brilliantly distinct perspective — it’s a darkly humorous, searing examination of the excesses of capitalism, patriotism, and American culture in the post-Vietnam War era.
The series will then continue with Michael Urie and his partner Ryan Spahn starring in Edward Albee’s “The Zoo Story” on July 8 through 11.
“A Night with the Wolfe” will happen on July 23 celebrating Tom Wolfe, also affectionately known as the Man in the White Suit. The evening will showcase his wit and cultural insights and will include excerpts from his novels, short works, articles and interviews, all told by performers each costumed in Wolfe’s iconic white suit.
Five-time Tony-winner and Academy of the Arts member Susan Stroman will direct three unique live theater events August 27 to 29, and Labor Day Weekend, September 3 and 4 will be the premiere of new play “Crisis in Queens” by Academy member Joy Behar. September 16 to 18 will be “Temptation and Other Tales: An Evening of One-Acts,” written and directed by Lyle Kessler, starring Richard Kind, Raye and Sawyer Spielberg, and Margaret Ladd.
For tickets visit www.guildhall.org.