The Humans

MARCH 14–23

In 2016, a play opened on Broadway that would join the ranks of Death of a Salesman, Long Day’s Journey into Night, and August: Osage County as one of the great plays to examine the American family. This play went on to win the Tony Award for Best Play of 2016. The Humans is a play about the average family’s Thanksgiving, filled with fun, frustration, love, loss, turkey, therapy, and the complex range of human emotions that usually accompanies the holiday. Some of us dread it, some of us look forward to it all year, and most of us do both. This year, the Irish, three-generation Blake family is celebrating in the Chinatown apartment of youngest daughter Brigid. It’s bound to be a strange and uncanny evening wrought with psychological hubbub and a wildly good time.

The Motherf**ker with the Hat

JUNE 6 –15

Imagine if Neil Simon had written a tart romantic comedy about the denizens of Hell’s Kitchen laced with enough profanity to make a sailor blush, that would be The Motherf**ker with the Hat. This show spins profanity into an art form. The Motherf**ker with the Hat is a play by Stephen Adly Guirgis that dives far deeper into discussions on morality than its title implies. Jackie is fresh out of prison for drug dealing and happy to be home with his cocaine-loving wife Veronica. But their conjugal reunion is cut short when Jackie finds a hat in the bedroom that sure ain’t his! He turns to his drug and parole officer Ralph for guidance…before buying a gun to hunt the “motherf**ker with the hat” that messed with his wife.

The Man Who Came To Dinner

SEPTEMBER 5–14

It’s the Middle Class versus the Elites in Kaufman and Hart’s uproarious comedy The Man Who Came To Dinner. An instant hit when it opened on Broadway in 1939, the play has gone on to be one of the most performed American comedies. A popular film version was released in 1942 starring Bette Davis. The Man Who Came to Dinner, as it is so aptly named, is a comedy play about a dinner guest who long overstays his welcome. Although he originally was forced into bed-rest due to injury, he soon makes himself at home and begins meddling in his hosts’ personal lives. Christmastime is a time for giving freely, and Mr. Sherry Whiteside is freely giving his opinion and insults to the Stanley family, who are stuck with him.

Ragtime

APRIL 25 – MAY 11

Based on the famous 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime is an epic musical about America entering a new century. With its glorious score, Ragtime encapsulates the dream and the reality of an America still striving to define itself, seen through three very different perspectives. Mother is living with her typical white upper-class family in New Rochelle. Coalhouse Walker Jr. is an avant-garde musician living with his girlfriend in Harlem. And Tateh is a Jewish immigrant traveling with his daughter from Latvia to Ellis Island to the Lower East Side tenements. Despite their diverse backgrounds, all three will find their lives inextricably tied together by fate and happenstance.

Pippin

JULY 18 – AUGUST 3

Bob Fosse’s version of Pippin is not just a Medieval fairytale. If you’re looking for an epic knight and a happy-ever-after, then this is not the musical for you. However, if you’re interested in a darker quest filled with existential quandaries and a brooding prince trying to find himself, then you’re in for a one-of-a-kind show. Despite being an anachronistic musical set in Charlemagne’s France with a 70’s pop music score, Pippin is known for being one of the most realistic shows because of its connection to the audience and real life issues.

Newsies

OCTOBER 17 – NOVEMBER 2

Based on Disney’s very first completely live-action musical movie from 1992, this stage adaptation is taking Broadway by force! Jack “Cowboy” Kelly is living the typical newsboy life and carrying the banner. But the life of a seventeen-year-old newspaper hawker in 1899 New York couldn’t be much harder. He dreams of leaving the crowded city streets behind for the freedom of Santa Fe, and he’s saving every penny for that someday. But when Pulitzer raises his newspaper distribution prices, that dream suddenly vanishes. Jack and his new friend David Jacobs rally the newsboys to go on strike against the greedy corporations and seek fair treatment for child laborers. Based on the historic events of the actual newsboys’ strike of 1899, this story is full of historicity and heart. If you’re willing to be there with the newsboys in their high times and hard times, you’ll join them in feeling like a king (or queen) of New York!

My Fair Lady

DECEMBER 5–21

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that My Fair Lady, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, is stuffy and, well, British. This classic musical is romantic, humorous, and fun with a stunning score to boot. Henry Higgins is a phonetics professor looking to prove that he can turn any street urchin into a proper-speaking high society lady. Eliza Doolittle, in turn, is a poor flower girl hoping to climb up the social ladder and enjoy the comforts of life – like chocolate. She presents him with the ultimate test of his skills, and he’s more than willing to rise to the challenge.

EPAC’s celebrated reading series, EPAC on the Edge, returns for its third year in a new format.

The 2019 season will celebrate the LGBTQIA+ communities with readings of 3 different full length plays that will showcase the growing representation of these communities in the american theater. This Queer Reading Festival will take place over a single weekend in June as part of the Pride Month Celebration.

BOYS IN THE BAND BY MART CROWLEY – FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2019

SIGNIFICANT OTHER BY JOSHUA HARMON – SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 2019

BULL IN CHINA SHOP – SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 2019