This
- Written by Melissa James Gibson
- Directed by Daniel Aukin
Melissa James Gibson's recent plays include What Rhymes with America; This; [sic]; Suitcase or, those that resemble flies from a distance; Brooklyn Bridge (with a song by Barbara Brousal) and Current Nobody. Her work has been produced and/ or developed at Playwrights Horizons, Center Theatre Group, Soho Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, The Children’s Theatre Company, Steppenwolf, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Seattle Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club and the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab among others, regionally and internationally. Current commissions: Atlantic Theater Company; Second Stage Theatre. Honors: OBIE Award; Guggenheim Fellowship; Steinberg Playwright Award; Kesselring Prize; Whiting Writers Award; Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights’ Fellowship; LILLY Award; Jerome Fellow; MacDowell Colony Fellow; NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist. MFA: Yale School of Drama; graduate of New Dramatists. Teaching: Lecturer in the Program in Theater at Princeton University, spring semesters 2011 and 2012. Film: screenplay for All Is Bright, starring Paul Giamatti, Paul Rudd and Sally Hawkins, directed by Phil Morrison (2013 Tribeca Film Festival premiere). TV: seasons 1 and 2 of “The Americans”; season 3 of “House of Cards”. THIS and Other Plays is published by TCG.
Jane is not okay. She’s a promising poet without a muse, a single mother without lessons to pass along. Her dating life’s a shambles, and her helpful friends are only helping make things more complicated. This bright, witty, un-romantic comedy captures the uncertain steps of a circle of friends backing their way into middle age.
Featuring
Louis Cancelmi
Eisa Davis
Glenn Fitzgerald
Julianne Nicholson
Darren Pettie
PH: This. BROADWAY: Passing Strange. OFF-BROADWAY: Passing Strange (Public); The Violet Hour (MTC); June and Jean In Concert (Public, Signature). TV & FILM: "Hart of Dixie," "Smash," "Mercy," "Damages," The Stare, In the Family, Welcome to the Rileys. (As of Jan 2013).
DARREN PETTIE (Kenny). Broadway: Butley. Off-Broadway: The Milk Train
Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (Roundabout Theatre Company); The Collection (Atlantic Theater); This, Spatter Pattern (Playwrights Horizons); Hillary (New Georges); Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams (Primary Stages); Hobson’s Choice (Atlantic Theater); Unwrap Your Candy (Vineyard Theatre); Measure for Measure (Delacorte). Regional and festivals: How the Other Half Loves (Westport), Don’t Dress for Dinner (Royal George), The Cry of the Reed (Huntington), The Taming of the Shrew (Commonwealth Shakespeare Festival), Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams (WTF). Film and TV: Taking Woodstock, The International, Ghost Town, Four Single Fathers, “Mad Men,” “Ringer,” “Rizzoli & Isles,” “Pan Am,” “Castle,” “Prime Suspect,” “Scandal,” “Gossip Girl,” “Cashmere Mafia,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Without a Trace,” “Numb3rs,” “CSI,” “Crossing Jordan,” “Charmed.” (As of August 2012)
Creative Team
Louisa Thompson
Scenic DesignerMaiko Matsushima
Costume DesignerMatt Frey
Lighting DesignerPeter Eldridge
Original MusicMatt Tierney
Sound DesignerKasey Ostupchuck
Production Stage ManagerLouisa Thompson is an award-winning set/costume designer and creator of theatrical work for young audiences. In 2018, she received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Design. Her designs have been seen Off-Broadway, on Regional stages, and internationally (with the 10 year tour of GATZ by Elevator Repair Service). Known for explorations of audience space, site specificity, and the potential for materials on stage, Louisa is considered an innovator in the field and has been recently featured in the book Scene Shift. Currently, Louisa connects her projects as Ground_Cloth, a container for past, present, and future explorations of cloth, play, and environmental justice.
Playwrights Horizons: The Profane, Rancho Viejo, A Life, Placebo, This, Grand Concourse, The Call, Go Back to Where You Are, She Stoops to Comedy. Other Off-Broadway: Everybody (Signature), All the Ways... (MCC), War (LCT3), Gloria (Vineyard), The Way We Get By (Second Stage), Buzzer (The Public), An Octoroon (Soho Rep., TFANA), Generations (Soho Rep.). Regional: For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday (Humana Festival 2016, Berkeley Rep).
Matt Tierney is an American actor with a diverse range of credits on stage, television, and film. Born and raised in New York City, Tierney discovered his passion for acting at a young age and began performing in local theater productions. He went on to study theater at the prestigious Juilliard School, where he honed his craft and developed his unique style.
Photos by Joan Marcus of (1) Glenn Fitzgerald, Eisa Davis, Darren Pettie, Julianne Nicholson, and Louis Cancelmi; (2) Eisa Davis, Glenn Fitzgerald, and Julianne Nicholson; (3) Julianne Nicholson and Glenn Fitzgerald; and (4) Darren Pettie and Julianne Nicholson.
Ms. Gibson graduates into the theatrical big leagues with this beautifully conceived, confidently executed and wholly accessible work, which is not just her finest to date but also the best new play to open Off Broadway this fall.
