Guild Hall's 90th summer season, launching this weekend, is a bounty of plays, readings, comedy, music, dance, conversations, and film screenings, all of which will take place outdoors. With many exciting programs and big names already on the schedule, sellouts are expected.
Indeed, Josh Gladstone, the John Drew Theater’s artistic director, has advised people to keep an eye on Guild Hall's website, "which will have changes worth looking for, because there are some surprises, some castings like you wouldn't believe."
Fortunately, lawn circles are a thing of the past. The easing of capacity and face covering restrictions means the backyard theater can now accommodate 100 people per show.
"This weekend is a great launch," said Mr. Gladstone, citing tomorrow evening’s “Latin Moon and Soul” concert as “the kind of show where people are going to want to get up and dance." Presented in partnership with Organizacion Latino Americana of Eastern Long Island, the garden will pulsate with the sounds of Latin, funk, rock, and pop.
Cornelius Eady, a National Book Award finalist and Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet and singer-songwriter, will set his poetry to music in two shows Sunday evening. "It's a rich tapestry he weaves," said Mr. Gladstone, "and he's got two amazing guitarists coming out from the city to join him. It will be a pleasure to sit back on your beach chair and hear some great music under the stars."
"The Play in the Garden series, it's my number-one baby," said Mr. Gladstone. It will include plays and readings of work by people who have been part of the Academy of the Arts and Guild Hall's 90-year history, among them Wendy Wasserstein, Edward Albee, and Terrence McNally, as well as recent honorees such as Harris Yulin and Mercedes Ruehl.
Theater hits the ground running starting on Friday, June 4, with two evenings of plays by Wasserstein. The first night presents six short comedies with music, while the second will feature a staged reading of her multiple-award-winning play “The Heidi Chronicles."
Other highlights of the Play in the Garden series include "So It Goes," readings from the work of Kurt Vonnegut directed by Lisa Rothe, a sought-after director "we were able to get because things haven't yet caught fire in the industry," said Mr. Gladstone.
Other likely hot tickets include Albee's "The Zoo Story," a full production of which, starring Michael Urie ("Ugly Betty") and Ryan Spahn, will have four performances in early July, and McNally’s Pulitzer finalist, “A Perfect Ganesh.”
It wouldn't be a summer season at Guild Hall without G.E. Smith, who, with Leroy Bell, is coming off their well received album "Stony Hill." Mr. Smith will host Jim Weider, one of a select group of musicians with an endorsement from Fender, with two performances on July 5.
Another guitar virtuoso, Kaki King, will perform material from her newest album, "Modern Yesterdays," as well as songs from throughout her 20-year career as a "groundbreaking solo fingerstylist, [and] darling of the indie-rock world," according to premierguitar.com.
"Get Dancing" will happen on three nights in the Guild Hall parking lot. The program will include dances from the 1970s by Andy de Groat that Catherine Galasso has restaged. "It's going to be an amazing piece, a very avant-garde, experimental, funky multimedia dance performance," said Mr. Gladstone.
Among the highlights for later in the summer are A.R. Gurney's "Love Letters" with Mr. Yulin and Ms. Ruehl; new stand-up comedy by Mike Birbiglia; a conversation between the artists Laurie Anderson and Julian Schnabel, and an evening of the wit and cultural insights of Tom Wolfe, all told by performers dressed in Wolfe's iconic white suit.
Other notables on the horizon are the Broadway director Susan Stroman, who will be on hand for three different programs; Joy Behar, whose play “Crisis in Queens” will have a staged reading, and Kathleen Chalfant, in a reading of “Tree Confessions,” the first solo play told from the point of view of a tree.
Except for its KidFEST shows, Guild Hall will no longer require six feet of social distancing in the backyard theater. Face coverings are now optional for fully vaccinated guests and children under the age of 2 for all shows, except for KidFEST performances, when masks are required for all patrons over the age of 2 regardless of vaccination status.
