Works by Eve Ensler, John Patrick Shanley, Steven Sater, Duncan Sheik and More Set for Powerhouse’s 2010 Season

Vassar & New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theater has announced additional details of its 2010 season, to run June 25 – August 1.

As previously reported, Pulitzer Prize winner John Patrick Shanley will debut his latest work, Pirate on the Mainstage, July 21-August 1. The play is described as “a funny, provocative, and wildly theatrical tale of a guy who keeps showing up. Shanley’s protagonist appears a lot like Adolph Hitler, but Hitler is gone and Pirate is still with us.” Also on the Mainstage will be actor and playwright Tracy Thorne’s We Are Here (June 29 – July 11), directed by Sheryl Kaller. The play offers a glimpse at three generations of a family, who possess wit, endurance, and compassion in the face of unimaginable loss — and they all sing.

The Martel Musicals, which are concert readings of works-in-progress, will include Bonfire Night (July 16-18), featuring book, music, and lyrics by Justin Levine, and direction by Alex Timbers. This musical was inspired by the true events of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and the legendary radical Guy Fawkes. Tony Award winner Michael Mayer will direct the second offering on the Martel stage, a reincarnation of Alan Jay Lerner’s and Burton Lane’s On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (July 29-August 1), with a new book by Peter Parnell.

The Powerhouse Inside Look series of semi-staged workshops will include Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir (July 1-3), by Keith Bunin, directed by Mark Rucker; Handball (July 9-11), by Seth Zvi Rosenfeld; My Life With Men – And Other Animals (July 16-18), by Maria Cassi & Patrick Pacheco, directed by Peter Schneider; and Interviewing the Audience (July 23-25), by Zach Helm, and inspired by Spalding Gray.

The Powerhouse will also present a series of free readings (June 25-August 1), including a new work by Spring Awakening collaborators Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik: Umbrage. Other pieces will include Bekah Brunstetter’s A Long Happy Life, Stephen Karam’s Sons of the Prophet, Zoe Kazan’s This Thing of Darkness, Richard Nelson’s & Peter Golub’s Unfinished Piece for a Piano Player, Patricia Wettig’s F to M, Eve Ensler’s I Am an Emotional Creature, Romulus Linney and Eleanor Cooney’s Over Martinis, Driving Somewhere, Kate Walbert’s A Short History of Women, and Jennifer Westfeldt’s screenplay Friends with Kids.

The Powerhouse Apprentice Company will offer performances of Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal (July 9 – 12), directed by Tomi Tsunoda and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (July 16 – 19), co-directed by Drew Cortese & Mark Lindberg. In addition, Mark Linn-Baker will direct a collaboration between the Powerhouse apprentice and professional companies of the musical, 1940s Radio Hour, presented as a free-of-charge concert reading on the stage of the Martel Theater.

For further information, visit: powerhouse.vassar.edu.