The Treasurer
- Written by Max Posner
- Directed by David Cromer
Playwrights Horizons debut. New York: Judy (Page 73), Sisters on the Ground (NYU), Snore (Juilliard), Gun Logistics (Drama League). Awards: Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, Heideman Award, two Lecomte du Nouy Awards from Lincoln Center. Two-time MacDowell Colony Fellow, Sundance Institute Theatre Fellow, P73 Fellow, former Writer-In-Residence at Williamstown. TV: Contributor to John Early’s episode of The Characters (Netflix). Libretto: Sixty Seven (Brooklyn Youth Chorus with composer Ellis Ludwig Leone). Alum: Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, Ars Nova Playgroup, The Working Farm at SPACE. Frequent volunteer at Manhattan’s 52nd Street Project. Recently graduated from the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard. Max was born and raised in Denver and lives in Brooklyn.
"I pay for her life, my brothers and I. All of it, for years. And I want to stop paying for it."
Ida Armstrong is broke, lonely, and fading fast. And she’s spending all of her children’s money, forcing her son to assume the unwanted role of The Treasurer: an arrangement that becomes untenable the more he questions his devotion to her. In this darkly funny, sharply intimate portrait, Max Posner chronicles the strained ties between a son and his aging mother, and the hell of a guilty conscience.
Featuring
Marinda Anderson
Allen, others
Pun Bandhu
Jeremy, others
Deanna Dunagan
Ida Armstrong
Peter Friedman
The Son
Playwrights Horizons: Bella: An American Tall Tale, A Life, Far From Heaven. Other Off-Broadway: Sex of the Baby (Access Theatre), Macbeth (Lincoln Center Interactive Theatre), Obama-ology (Juilliard School). Regional: Airness (Humana), A Doll’s House (Huntington), Three Sisters (Playmaker’s Rep), Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (Berskshire Theatre Award nominee, outstanding female performance), Intimate Apparel (Dorset Theatre Festival), Fairfield (Cleveland Play House). TV: “Horace and Pete,” “Gotham.” BFA: Howard University MFA: NYU Graduate Acting Program. marindaanderson.com
(as of 8/24/17)
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Wit (MTC). Off-Broadway: Plenty (The Public). World Premieres: Informed Consent (Laufer, Primary Stages/EST), True and Solid Ground (Knable, Soho Rep.), Vengeance Can Wait (Braden, PS 122), Wellesley Girl (Pelsue, Humana Festival), The Bells (Rebeck, McCarter Theatre), Far East (Gurney, Williamstown), The Catch (Weitzman, Denver Center, Henry Award for Best Supporting Actor). Film: The Judge, Burn After Reading, Michael Clayton. TV: “Blue Bloods,” “Blindspot,” “Gotham,” “Difficult People,” “Law & Order(s),” “Elementary,” “Nurse Jackie,” among others. New Dramatists’ Bowden Award for collaboration on new plays MFA: Yale School of Drama.
(as of 8/24/17)
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: August: Osage County (Tony, Drama Desk Awards). Chicago: August: Osage County (Steppenwolf, Joseph Jefferson Award), Other Desert Cities (Goodman), Death Tax (Lookingglass), Marvin’s Room (Shattered Globe), A Little Night Music (Writers), A Delicate Balance (Remy Bumppo, After Dark Award), James Joyce’s The Dead (Court Theatre, Joseph Jefferson Award), A Lie of the Mind (ATC). Regional: The Revisionist (Annenberg Center), Bounce (Kennedy Center). Film: The Visit, The Pages (upcoming). TV: “The Exorcist,” “The Strain,” “House of Cards,” “Unforgettable,” “Prison Break.” Deanna is an Artistic Associate at Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago.
(as of 8/24/17)
Playwrights Horizons: After the Revolution, The Great God Pan (Amy Herzog); Circle Mirror Transformation (Annie Baker); The Shaggs (Gregory, Lang, Madsen); Fly By Night (Connolly, Mitnick, Rosenstock); The Heidi Chronicles (Wendy Wasserstein). Broadway: Ragtime (Ahrens, Flaherty, McNally), The Heidi Chronicles, Twelve Angry Men, The Tenth Man. Other Off-Broadway: Sundown, Yellow Moon (Bonds); Her Requiem (Pierce); The Nether (Haley); End Days (Laufer); Jacuzzi (The Debate Society); The Open House (Eno); The Hatmaker’s Wife (Yee); Body Awareness (Baker, and her adaptation of) Uncle Vanya; Hamlet (The Public, 2017). Film: The Savages, Safe, Single White Female. TV: “High Maintenance,” “The Muppet Show,” “The Affair,” “The Path.”
(as of 8/24/17)
Creative Team
Laura Jellinek
Scenic DesignDavid Hyman
Costume DesignBradley King
Lighting DesignMikhail Fiksel
Sound DesignLucy Mackinnon
Projection DesignLeah J. Loukas
Wig DesignBrett Anders
Production Stage ManagerPlaywrights Horizons: The Light Years, A Life (Lortel Award, Drama Desk nomination), Marjorie Prime, Your Mother’s Copy… Broadway: Marvin’s Room. Other Off-Broadway: The Antipodes, Everybody (Signature); The Nether (MCC, Lortel nomination); Buzzer (The Public); The Wolves (Playwrights Realm). Regional: Yale Rep, Bard Summerscape, Cincinnati Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown, Southcoast Rep. Opera: Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Atlanta Opera. Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Design.
Playwrights Horizons debut. Off-Broadway: Hit the Wall (Barrow Street); Orange, Hat & Grace (Soho Rep.); D Deb Debbie Deborah (Clubbed Thumb); On the Floor, Wet Clutch (The Dance Cartel); The Gospel According to…Discord (Primary Stages). Regional: Steppenwolf (collaborations with Robert O’Hara and Joanie Schultz), Victory Gardens Theater (with Chay Yew and Luis Alfaro), ATC (with David Cromer), About Face Theatre, Kansas City Rep, Writers Theatre. davidbhyman.com
Playwrights Horizons: Kin (Associate). With David Cromer: Women or Nothing (Atlantic). Broadway: The Great Comet (Tony, Drama Desk, OCC Awards). Other Off-Broadway: The Last Match (Roundabout), Animal (Atlantic), The Black Crook (Abrons), Hadestown (NYTW, Drama Desk nomination), Every Angel is Brutal (Clubbed Thumb), Preludes (LCT3). Regional: Alley, ART, Berkeley Rep, Guthrie, Old Globe, Southcoast Rep, Williamstown. Opera: Bard Summerscape, Boston, Kentucky, NYCO, Omaha, Vancouver, Virginia. MFA: NYU. bradleykingld.com
Playwrights: A Life (Lortel Award, Drama Desk nomination). Other Off-Broadway: The Undertaking (The Civilians/BAM), World Of Extreme Happiness (MTC), Fulfillment (The Flea, Drama Desk nomination), Stupid F*#king Bird (The Pearl), The Old Man and The Old Moon (New Victory, Williamstown), My Mañana Comes (Playwrights Realm, Lortel nomination), The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (Second Stage, Lortel Award). Regional: La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe, Third Rail Projects, Center Theatre Group, Goodman Theatre. mikhailfiksel.com
Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Six Degrees of Separation, Spring Awakening (Outer Critics Circle nomination). Off-Broadway: Yen (MCC). Regional: Huntington, Williamstown, Cleveland Play House, Goodspeed Opera House. Opera: Greek National Opera.
Playwrights: Your Mother’s Copy of the Kama Sutra, The Shaggs. Broadway: Marvin's Room; …The Great Comet of 1812; Sweat; Oh, Hello!; The Heidi Chronicles; On The Town; A Night with Janis Joplin; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; American Idiot; Irena’s Vow. Other Off-Broadway: Julius Caesar, Sweat, Plenty, Barbecue, Fortress of Solitude, Taming of the Shrew, Love's Labour’s Lost, Into the Woods (The Public). Regional: Dallas Theater Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse.
Playwrights Horizons: Bella: An American Tall Tale. Other Off-Broadway: The Harvest (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater). Regional: The Merry Wives of Windsor (Two River Theater), The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Theatre Under the Stars); 40 productions at Alley Theatre in Houston, TX.
Max Posner has a sharp and original ear. Impeccably directed by David Cromer. Adroitly balances the everyday and the extreme.
A marvel and invaluable new play. Deanna Dunagan’s adjective-defying performance made my chest hurt.
CRITIC'S PICK! ★★★★ Searching, subtle, emotional and personal.
The Treasurer is the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award
Playwrights Horizons commission with funds provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Leading National Theatres Program.
