New Hampshire Theatre Project announces 2022-23 season
PORTSMOUTH - New Hampshire Theatre Project’s 2022-23 MainStage Season focuses on the season theme: Legacy & Transformation: What Do We Leave Behind? Founding director Genevieve Aichele will be shifting her role with NHTP at the end of the season and this year will be a celebration of her 35 years with NHTP as well as the possibilities and hopes for what comes next. The question What Do We Leave Behind? is global and personal all at once and will be reflected and connected with each show.
Monique Peaslee Foote, NHTP artist and board member, says: “As artists and humans we are continually growing and changing. Theater makers transform the playwright's words into entire worlds and universes where actors morph into fully realized characters. Audiences are invited to witness these transformations and are encouraged to leave with all that comes from participating in a shared experience from connectedness to curiosity.”
NHTP’s MainStage season will officially begin in November with A Thousand Doorways by Diane Edgecomb. This was the first show NHTP had to cancel due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, and we are honored to bring it back in 2022. What if telling a story meant risking your life? Moved by the silencing of the Kurdish language by Turkish laws, Diane Edgecomb embarks on a journey of intrigue and heart to record the last Kurdish storytellers.
NHTP will celebrate the holidays with storyteller Jennifer Munro in A Tour de Force, One-Woman Theatrical performance ofA Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. A native of Great Britain, Jennifer Munro, an award-winning storyteller, actor, and author brings Scrooge, the Cratchits, and the Fezziwigs vibrantly to life in her dramatic, and thoroughly English, interpretation of Dickens’ literary classic.
January has always been a great time for comedy and NHTP continues this tradition with The 39 Steps. Director Blair Hundertmark says: "With The 39 Steps, which went from a 1915 book to a classic 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film to a 2005 play, the concept of transformation is baked into its legacy. In this fun and fast-paced staged version, playwright Patrick Barlow proves that 100+ years later the original plot of good vs. evil, with one everyman saving the world from an international network of spies, could be transformed into a wild comic romp by using only four actors to play scores of characters while staying true to the original suspenseful storyline. And, of course, the transformation of our mild-mannered everyman into an action hero is a magnificent personal journey-- not to be missed!"
CJ Lewis directs Dreaming Again March 24 to 26 at NHTP before it tours throughout New Hampshire. First debuted in 2012, Dreaming Again this play by Genevieve Aichele, is based on interviews with over 40 people who left their homes and their lives in other countries to resettle in New Hampshire. Given New Hampshire’s role as a refugee resettlement state, this play is as relevant today as it was 10 years ago. Dreaming Again is a collection of stories told by real people who live in our state right now. Hearing their personal experiences is moving and deepens understanding and builds empathy and connections for audiences.
NHTP’s 7th Annual Storytelling Festival will take place on Friday, April 15 at 8 pm at NHTP. This popular program will feature six storytellers sharing a variety of traditional tales, personal stories and spoken word performance. Storytellers include Genevieve Aichele, Simon Brooks, Matt Gile, Kayla Lewis and Angel Simone. Seacoast favorite musicians Ben Baldwin and Kent Allyn will provide musical accompaniment.
The 2022-23 MainStage season will conclude in May with You Can't Take It With You by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman and directed by Monique Peaslee Foote. This smash hit comedy the show ran on Broadway for 838 performances and returned five times, most recently in 2014. The zany cast of characters will feature many of the NHTP actors and company members who have worked with Genevieve Aichele over the years and the themes in this 50-year-old play are still relevant, poignant - and hilarious - today.
For more information, Janice Hastings at 603-431-6644, or janice@nhtheatreproject.org
Theme: Legacy & Transformation: What Do We Leave Behind?
A 1000 Doorways - November 18 - 20, 2022 *
A Christmas Carol - December 9 - 11, 2022 *
The 39 Steps - January 20, 2023 - February 5, 2023
Dreaming Again - March 24-26, 2023
7th Annual Storytelling Festival - April 15, 2023 *
You Can't Take It With You - May 5-21, 2023
For more information: nhtheatreproject.org/onstagenow
*These shows will be livestreamed.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH Theatre Project announces 2022-23 season
