In its 51st season, Pier One Theatre presents a variety of plays for audiences of all ages and by community members of all ages.
“This year, we’ll be producing a classic, which will be making its first appearance on the Pier One stage, a couple of old standards that will no doubt be familiar to longtime Pier One patrons, a musical comedy and a brand new play that veers off the beaten path,” said Jennifer Norton, theatre director.
First in the lineup is “Harvey,” a comedy written by Mary Chase and to be directed by Pier One Theatre office assistant Val Sheppard. Winner of the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, “Harvey” features a 6-foot-tall white rabbit who can only be seen by one person, his best friend, Elwood P. Dowd.
“When Elwood’s sister attempts to have him committed at the local sanitarium, a misjudged diagnosis leads to all sorts of complications and revelations, including what Harvey is and how much his presence is really appreciated,” Norton said.
“This play was previously directed here in Homer in 1988 by Raniece Sutton. We remembered it as being a lovely comedy with a lot of fun characters and a fun, poignant message about what makes us lovely as humans and what’s normal, wonderful and interesting about each of us. Even though it was written in the 1940s, the message is timely and has held up through the years and we’re excited to bring it back.”
“Harvey” will run May 17 to June 1 at Pier One Theatre on the Homer Spit.
For the first time in its 51 years of productions, Pier One Theatre presents “Hamlet,” a play written by William Shakespeare, which will be directed by Kathleen Gustafson.
This play will be a Mud Bay Bards Production, a creative branch or Pier One Theatre that focuses solely on productions centered on the works of Shakespeare.
“Hamlet has been away at school and comes home to find his father, the king of Denmark, has been killed,” Norton said. “His father’s ghost tells him to avenge his murder by killing the new king, Hamlet’s uncle. As Hamlet struggles to figure out how to proceed and how to find his place, he feigns madness and contemplates life and death. We are excited to debut on our stage this legendary Shakespeare story of family and revenge.”
“Hamlet” will run June 20 to June 30 on the Homer Spit.
In July, Pier One will present “The Addams Family — A New Musical.” Based on the book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and the characters by Charles Addams, this musical will be co-directed by Jennifer Norton and Eric Simondsen.
“’The Addams Family’ characters are ones that most people are probably familiar with,” Norton said. “This play is centered around the daughter, Wednesday, who brings a young man home to meet her family. Wanting to marry him, Wednesday asks her father, Gomez, not to tell her mother, Morticia, and begs that the family act normal for one night. Asking the kooky Addams family members for one night where they can all act normal proves to be challenging and a lot of fun. This musical is a sweet and lovely comical feast about family and what that means, even in all its weirdness.”
“The Addams Family — A New Musical” will run July 11 to July 28 at the Spit Theatre.
In August, Pier One Theatre presents “Falstaff and the Endless Machine,” written by Jared Michael Delany and to be directed by Brian Duffy. Another Mud Bay Bards Production, this contemporary play is centered around the character Falstaff who appears in several of Shakespeare’s plays including “Henry IV, Part 1,” “Henry IV, Part 2” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”
“Falstaff is a loud and humorous character who wants nothing more than to prove himself as a soldier and as man,” Norton said. “When enlisted in service though, he is faced with hard choices between friendship and duty and obeying orders verses following one’s heart and instincts. This play exemplifies Falstaff as a young man coming to terms with who he is and who he wants to be.”
“Falstaff and the Endless Machine” will run Aug. 8 to Aug. 18 at the Spit Theatre.
New to Pier One Theatre is The Ten-Minute Play Festival. Co-produced by Christine Kulcheski and Rudy Multz, this festival will showcase a selection of new, unpublished works being performed on stage for the first time.
“We hope to stage around eight new plays with submissions gathered from both experienced and novice playwrights,” Norton said. “These plays will be selected by a handful of directors, each taking on one to two plays, with a company of actors each playing several roles. The idea behind the festival is to for playwrights to have the opportunity to showcase new work and to encourage and nurture in people an enthusiasm to write plays. We’ve produced a number of locally written plays in the past few years and this will help expose us to new playwriting and new works.”
Directors and writers are encouraged to attend as is anyone interested in the craft of playwriting, with no experience required. To encourage new works for submission, playwright Kate Rich will present a workshop on the basic principles of crafting a 10-minute play. Play submissions are due to Pier One Theatre on June 15. An audition date for actors will be determined at a later date. More information about directing, writing and acting in the festival can be found on the Pier One website.
The Ten-Minute Play Festival takes place Aug. 22 to Sept. 1 at the Spit Theatre.
In October, the final production of the year takes place with Pier One Theatre presenting the classic musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” to be co-directed by Jennifer Norton and Mark Robinson.
“Wildly recognized as one of the most beloved musicals of all time, ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is all about family and family traditions,” Norton said. “Set in a small village where everyone knows everyone, where a matchmaker is making all the marriages and a rabbi is guiding them spiritually and at the same time, outside elements come into the story, like political unrest and personal freedoms and safety. It’s a lovely love story about daughters growing up and their father trying to see them grow up and to let them go and find their way. And then it is also about what it means to be from a place and have your family disrupted from that place, deep and poignant themes that are certainly relevant now.”
“Fiddler on the Roof” will run Oct. 10-20 at the Homer High School Mariner Theatre.
Norton invites community members of all ages and acting experience to audition for roles in this year’s production season. Pier One Theatre’s actors include teens who have been performing since they were 5 years old, individuals in their 30s and 40s who have been acting for anywhere from one to 20 years, and elders, like her father, Peter, who has been in more than 100 shows.
“One of the reasons, I’m really excited about this season is that some of the shows have young characters in them played by local youth,” she said. “Pier One is one of the few places in the community where we can bring people together from young to old. Some of our core members have been with us a long time and they’ll tell you about that first terrifying moment of being on stage and about those first forays into this world of acting and performing and how it transformed them. Coming together with a cast to make a collaborative body of work is extremely rewarding and satisfying. Taking that first step to come to auditions can be nerve wracking and intimidating, but we’re a big family and happy to welcome new people who bring lovely new energy. We offer an opportunity for creativity, community and camaraderie.”
For more information on shows, schedules and auditioning and to join the email list to keep up to date on the season’s productions, visit pieronetheatre.org.
Salem Geysbeek plays in Pier One Theatre’s production of “Anne of Green Gables” in the summer of 2023. Photo by Christopher Kincaid
Pier One Theatre rehearses Monty Python’s “Spamalot” with musical director Mark Robinson in the Homer High School Mariner Theatre in July 2018. Photo by Jennifer Norton
Pier One Theatre produced Trey Parker’s “Cannibal! The Musical” at the Pratt Museum Park with cast including Emilie Springer, Brian Duffy, Ethan Martin, Rudy Multz and more in the summer of 2023. Photo by Christopher Kincaid
