New Repertory Theatre is pleased to announce its 2023 Season, as the company continues to build on its nearly 40-year legacy of excellent, provocative theatrical productions that speak to the vital issues of our time. The 2023 season includes two Tony Award-winning masterpiece plays that grow more resonant every day, and a world premiere from local talent that speaks directly to Boston and its past, present, and future.
Larry Kramer’s Tony Award winning autobiographical drama, The Normal Heart, will open June 21 for a three-week run through July 9. Set in New York City in the early 1980’s, Larry Kramer’s powerful, passionate and controversial play was the first to treat seriously the poignant and devastating subject of AIDS. The Normal Heart traces Ned Weeks, a gay activist writer, through his fight for visibility and justice for the gay community.
An angry, unremitting and gripping piece of political theatre. – New York Daily News
The Normal Heart is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com
Lorraine Hansberry’s masterpiece drama, A Raisin in the Sun and the world premiere of Phaedra Michelle Scott’s DIASPORA! will run concurrently in repertory, with A Raisin in the Sun opening September 6 through October 1, and DIASPORA! opening September 13 through October 15. The two plays bridge the gap between time and space: the onset of the civil rights movement in Chicago and Boston; the 1950’s and the present day.
A Raisin in the Sun is Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking drama, a searing and timeless portrait of a family on Chicago’s South Side, and an American classic. A Raisin in the Sun is an answer to the poem from which the title is derived – Langston Hughes’ legendary poem, Harlem. When the Youngers see an opportunity to move to a new neighborhood, each member of the family must answer: What happens to a dream deferred?
A pivotal play in the history of the American Black theatre. – Newsweek
A Raisin in the Sun is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel
French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com
DIASPORA! follows Sunny, a writer tracing her lineage to find a long-lost grandparent. Aided by her niece, her best friend, and her best friend’s new boyfriend, she searches for answers in history. Time begins to cross over, and we find ourselves in Boston during the rise of the civil rights movement and a certain young minister making waves at the Twelfth Baptist Church and Boston University. Says Scott:“Sunny, an idealistic black millennial, is writing a history about the legacy of her family. Her younger sister, Janae wants to reject everything about her ancestry in favor of a created one. Sunny discovers the mystery of her grandparents and decides to confront her past head on in order to put the spirits in her life to rest.” DIASPORA! was a SpeakEasy Stage commission as part of their Boston Project, developed and workshopped in Boston from 2017-2019.
“We believe the themes of these works are as timely as they are powerful, and offer a beautiful reminder that history has given us plenty of answers on how to build our future. Addressing activism in the time of an epidemic, and an exploration of home and displacement, these plays enlighten us in how to love in the face of terror, how to forgive in the face of betrayal, and how to connect in a time of isolation.” — Artistic Directors Michael Hisamoto, Lois Roach, Maria Hendricks
Tickets start at $30 for adults and $15 for students and are available at newrep.org. All productions will be in the Black Box Theater of the Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal
St., Watertown, MA.
For more information or interviews with members of the New Rep artistic team or board, please contact: mariabasescu@newrep.org or 802-380-7028.
About New Repertory Theatre
New Repertory Theatre (New Rep) has been an award-winning professional theatre company for
39 years, staging productions and events that speak to the vital ideas of our time. New Rep has
emerged from the pandemic with a renewed commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, accessibility, and accountability (IDEAA) infusing every aspect of the company’s work as it seeks to build community collaborations and give voice to the diverse interests of those communities.
More information on New Repertory Theatre at www.newrep.org.