As Tolstoy said “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In The House in Scarsdale, playwright Dan O’Brien traces the roots of his family’s particular unhappiness to learn why his parents and siblings cut him off years ago. The more Dan learns about his family, the more mysterious the circumstances surrounding their estrangement become, until his world is shaken when rumors surface that his real father might be another member of the family. Ultimately, Dan must decide if his pathological pursuit of the truth is worth the risk or should he follow the advice of a psychic and make his life a never-finished work of art.
ILLUMINATIONS: Pre and Post performance discussions
Sunday, May 7 A post-performance conversation with the cast of The House in Scarsdale
Sunday, May 14 @ 1pm A pre-performance discussion with genealogist, Melanie Frick.
Thursday, May 18 A post-performance conversation with the cast of The House in Scarsdale
Sunday, May 21 @ 1pm A pre-performance conversation with Kyle Clausen, Executive Director of Boston Court Performing Arts Center
Thursday, May 25 A post-performance conversation on acting with the actors of The House in Scarsdale
Friday, May 26 @ 6:30pm A pre-performance conversation “meet and greet” with Boston Court’s new Executive Director, Kyle Clausen
Friday, May 26 A post-performance conversation on directing with The House in Scarsdale director and Boston Court co-artistic director, Michael Michetti
Sunday, May 28 @ 1pm A pre-performance discussion with genealogist Donie Nelson.
Thursday, June 1 A post-performance conversation on acting with the actors of The House in Scarsdale
Friday, June 2 A post-performance conversation on acting with the actors of The House in Scarsdale
Cast: Tim Cummings and Brian Henderson
Scenic: Sara Ryung Clement
Costume: Kate Bergh
Lighting: Elizabeth Harper
Projection: Tom Ontiveros
Sound: John Nobori
Assistant Director: Ashley Steed
Dramaturg: Emilie Beck
Production Stage Manager: Alyssa Escalante
Photography: Ed Krieger
about the playwright
Dan O’Brien is a 2015-16 Guggenheim Fellow in Drama & Performance Art. His play The Body of an American, winner of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History, as well as the Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play, the PEN Center USA Award for Drama, and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award, was produced off-Broadway in 2016 at the Cherry Lane Theatre by Primary Stages, in London at the Gate Theatre, and around the US in recent years at the Wilma Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Theatre J, and Stage Left Theatre. His other plays have been produced at theaters including Second Stage Theatre, The Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Page 73 Productions, Geva Theatre Center, and elsewhere. O’Brien is currently under commission from Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles to write a play about Syria and Hollywood, an American Revolutions joint-commission from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Public Theater on the history of guns in America, and a commission from Portland Center Stage. Dan O’Brien: Plays One is forthcoming from Oberon in the UK in 2017. O’Brien’s three collections of poetry, published in the US and the UK, are War Reporter (winner of the UK’s Fenton-Aldeburgh Prize), Scarsdale, and New Life. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actor and writer Jessica St. Clair, and their daughter Isobel. danobrien.org
