Kilnsea, East Yorkshire. Angie and Lauren are closing up the café for another winter; the birds have gone south and taken the tourists with them. The last visitor is Lauren’s dad, Dennis, stopping by for his pasty and beans. But there’s another arrival—one that’s unforeseen and life-changing for them all. Big Big Sky is a beautifully tender play by Tom Wells, who was originally from Kilnsea. The play explores nature’s influence on love, friendship, and family—the belief that anyone who’s lost can be found, even in the remotest of places.

Bridget’s fraught marriage to Nigel, a cramped NYC apartment, and her stagnant career convince her to search for a country escape in the post 9/11 real estate gold rush in the Catskills. Armed with a limited budget and plenty of nervous enthusiasm, she enlists the aid of Mr. Sunshine to help her realize her dream. A comedy.

Spend an hour with Broadway veteran and world-famous mime Bill Bowers as he shares unbelievable true stories in this award-winning autobiographical tour de force. It Goes Without Saying takes the audience on a scenic tour of Bill’s life so far; from growing up gay in the wilds of Montana, to his outrageous jobs as a performer, to the whirlwind of Broadway and studying with Marcel Marceau.

Unreconciled is the true story of an adolescent actor cast as Jesus in a play directed by a pedophile priest. The play chronicles a survivor’s journey as he confronts his past and discovers the courage to use his voice and redefine what reconciliation means. Jay Sefton’s virtuosic solo performance is an unflinching quest for justice, brimming with heart, humor, and compassion.

Everyone who ever died is still here, just in a different part of here. Linda can communicate with them. And if you believe, she can make you hear them, too—in the thin place, the fragile boundary between our world and the other one. With acuity and relentless curiosity, Lucas Hnath’s play transforms the theater into an intimate séance, crafting an unnerving testament to the power of the mind, which has a mind of its own.

Pride@Prejudice
Written and Directed by Daniel Elihu Kramer
June 23-July 3

Originally premiered at CTC in 2011, Pride@Prejudice is a reimagining of the beloved Jane Austen classic filled with bloggers, chat rooms, Austen enthusiasts, and even Jane herself. A hilarious and moving homage to Jane Austen’s most beloved novel, with 30 characters portrayed by five versatile actors, including Candace Barrett Birk who appeared in last season’s Tiny Beautiful Things, Marielle Young, who starred in Mary’s Wedding (2018) and The Night Alive (2019), and Luke Hofmaier, nominated for a Berkshire Theatre Award for Now Circa Then (2019). 

Brian Patterson and Claire Fort make their CTC debuts. 

Daniel Elihu Kramer will direct the production himself, giving this Chester favorite a fresh twist as the company welcomes its audiences back home for the season opener.

The Berkshire Edge

Berkshire On Stage

GoNOMAD

Season Sponsors: Richard and Carol Seltzer Artistic
Director Sponsors: Karen and Chuck Schader
Education Sponsors: Ed and Carla Slomin
Production Sponsors: Charlie and Jane Johnson
Director Sponsors: Rhonda and Carl Steeg
Design Sponsors: Jeanne and Frank Speizer

Birds of North America
Written by Anna Ouyang Moench
July 7-17 Binoculars. Birds.

A Baltimore backyard. Over the course of a decade, a father and daughter navigate the changes in the climate and in their relationship. As the world around them shifts in ways both towering and minute, the one constant is the life list they keep in their birding notebook. Birds of North America is “a gentle reminder to seize the day for yourself and those you love.” (DC Metro)

Christopher Patrick Mullen, last seen in the 2004 production of The Pavilion, returns to Chester to play John.

Caitlyn will be played by Micheline Wu in her CTC debut.

Director Alex Keegan also makes her CTC debut.

Running time: 90 minutes without intermission.

The Berkshire Edge

Nippertown

Season Sponsors: Richard and Carol Seltzer
Artistic Director Sponsors: Karen and Chuck Schader
Education Sponsors: Ed and Carla Slomin
Production Sponsor: The Sunny Reid Fund
Director Sponsors: Cipora Brown and Steven Feiner

Pass Over
July 28-August 7

Moses and Kitch want out of their Chicago neighborhood and off the corner to which they are tethered. They dream of the things that await them in the Promised Land—clean socks and the return of a dead brother—if only if they can pass over. This “surreal and morbidly funny existential drama” (Variety) was the first play performed when Broadway reopened in 2021.

Christina Franklin, whose work on 2021’s The Niceties received a Berkshire Theatre Critics nomination, returns for her second season at CTC.

Kayodè Soyemi will play Moses, Austin Sasser will play Kitch, and the production will also feature Berkshire Theatre Critics award winner James Barry playing two roles.

The Berkshire Eagle

Berkshire On Stage

GoNOMAD

Season Sponsors: Richard and Carol Seltzer
Artistic Director Sponsors: Karen and Chuck Schader
Education Sponsors: Ed and Carla Slomin
Production Sponsors: Emily Wojcik and Michael Thurston
Director Sponsor: Wil Hastings

August 11-21
World Premiere

CTC’s season will close with this World Premiere Commission by Darcy Parker Bruce, sponsored by Frances Henry and Walter Korzec. Starring Tara Franklin (Tiny Beautiful Things, On the Exhale) and Raye Birk (Curve of Departure) as a daughter and father with history as murky as the dark side of the moon. Ace alternately maps craters searching for…something, and flips burgers at her day job as she tries to outrun the shadows of the past she shares with her dad, who spends his days watching gameshows from his lawn chair—on the moon. Pauli Pontrelli (I and You, The Aliens, Curve of Departure) returns for their fourth appearance at Town Hall as Ace’s co-worker, RJ.

Keira Naughton, nominated for a Berkshire Theatre Critics’ Award for 2019’s Curve of Departure, returns to direct her third show for CTC. She also staged last season’s Title and Deed.

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The Berkshire Edge

Season Sponsors: Richard and Carol Seltzer
Artistic Director Sponsors: Karen and Chuck Schader
Education Sponsors: Ed and Carla Slomin
Commission and Production Sponsors: Fran Henry and Walter Korzec
Director Sponsor: Dr. R. Allison Ryan