The Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College
From June 21-July 28, experience a summer full of music, artistic workshops and theatrical performances at Vassar College’s Powerhouse Theater.
Tickets are now on sale for the 38th Powerhouse Theater Season. The annual summer season brings together some of todayʼs most influential theatrical voices and welcomes the next generation of theater artists as members of the renowned Powerhouse Theater Training Program.
Powerhouse is thrilled to welcome new collaborators alongside the return of Vassar alums and old friends. This year Vassar welcomes an impressive lineup including two-time Tony Award nominee Alex Brightman (Beetlejuice, School of Rock) and Drew Gasparini (The Karate Kid) with their musical adaptation of Ned Vizzini’s young adult novel It’s Kind of A Funny Story, directed by Sarna Lapine (Call Me Izzy). The writing and directing team that recently brought the smash hit Job to Broadway, Max Wolf Friedlich (Powerhouse alum ’12) and Michael Herwitz, reunite to present The Holes. Jocelyn Kuritsky (KPOP) and her writing partners return to Powerhouse to present episodes in progress of the historical and hilarious Webby Award-honored podcast A Simple Herstory, in collaboration with The Muse Project and The Tank. Powerhouse welcomes Hook and Eye Theater to Vassar with their devised workshop of The Chamber, directed by Carrie Heitman. And for the first time since 2019, Powerhouse will present a Mainstage production, A Trojan Woman, by Sara Farrington, directed by Powerhouse alum Meghan Finn (Artistic Director – The Tank) and starring international artist Drita Kabashi (Little Ukraine) in a tour-de-force performance of a mother, alone with her child, facing the indiscriminate cruelty of war. Rounding out the Powerhouse Season are free readings of new works written and directed by Andy Boyd and Zinc Tong (The Tank), Petra Brusiloff and Christa Kimlicko Jones (Theatre East), Vassar Assistant Professor Peter Gil-Sheridan and Amalia Oliva Rojas, the winner of the Leah Ryan Fund’s “Leah Award.”
Vassar is also pleased to welcome to campus a new cohort of young actors, directors, and writers as members of the Powerhouse Theater Training Company.
These emerging artists will present a slate of free theater throughout the season, including Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, adapted and directed by Shaun Patrick Tubbs, and Leah Ryan’s adaptation of Chekov’s The Seagull, directed by Jasmine Roth. Both shows will be performed outside at the Preserve at Vassar. Max Reuben returns to direct the company in the innovative use of Soundpainting, a gestural language, in a completely devised project at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Theater-making team Hal Cosentino and Caley Chase explore justice and balance in the Greek tragedy Orestia.
“It’s an honor that so many wonderfully talented, thoughtful, and thrilling storytellers have accepted our invitation to be a part of the 39th Powerhouse Season. With arts funding at risk across the country, we’re more committed than ever to being a haven for artistic growth and development here at Vassar,” said Producing Director Michael Sheehan.
Add Your Heading Text Here
Powerhouse Theatre Schedule
A Trojan Woman (July 25 – 27) Mainstage Production “Bosnia, Gaza, Mariupol — a woman with her child, alone in a devastated city, confronts the indiscriminate cruelty of war.”
Workshops
A Simple Herstory (July 5 – 6)
Returning to Powerhouse for additional episodes-in-progress is A Simple Herstory, a groundbreaking—Webby Award-honored, Anthem Award-winning and Telly Award-winning—multi-platform audio fiction exploration of the 100+ women who have run for President of the United States.
The Chamber (July 11 – 13)
In 1628 Brussels, Alexandrine Von Taxis, the imperial postmistress, runs something more than mail through the empire’s hands. In present-day Follansbee, West Virginia, Charley Gibson works at her family’s hardware store, where lockers hold more than tools. One misplaced letter. One break-in. The consequences could be larger than anyone expects. As 17th-century operations collide with contemporary Appalachia, The Chamber explores how resistance takes shape through cunning, risk, and subverting laws.
Readings
Medea and Her Sons (June 20)
Medea, the infamous anti-hero of Greek mythology, is one of the most complex women ever written: sorceress, exile, foreigner, wife, and mother. Her betrayal by Jason and the brutal revenge thatfollowed, her story has echoed through centuries as a tale of passion and fury.
But what if she never did kill those kids?
Years after the tragedy that defined her, Medea is still here—wiser, older, and still a mother. Her children survived. And now they’ve set out to understand the story of their parents by making a glitter-soaked, questionable version of events.
It Is Right to Rebel! (June 21)
It is Right to Rebel! tells the story of Jiang Qing, who was Mao Zedong’s wife for thirty-eight years and eventually one of the most powerful women in the Communist world. After a hardscrabble climb from street urchin to first lady, Jiang Qing begins a reform movement in Chinese theatre that quicklybecomes something much more sinister: the Cultural Revolution. However, when Mao dies without naming her his successor, she quickly falls from power and is put on trial for treason. This is a play about theatre as politics, politics as theatre, and revenge as revolution.
Untitled, Unknown Artist(s) (June 22)
The long-standing chair of a fine arts department finds her commitment to traditional aesthetic and artistic values challenged when she must award three students a prestigious cash prize for a piece of contemporary artwork.
In The Bronx Brown Girls Can See Stars Too (or The F*ck Is You Lookin’ At?) (June 28)
Four young girls are forced to take a communication workshop in the hopes of avoiding juvie. As they play games and learn about themselves with the help of teaching artists, one of the girls is approached by the local gang leader to prove herself or lose her home. The girls must confront their past, present, and future to determine who they want to be, all while finding community and liberation in each other.
It’s Kind of a Funny Story (July 18 -19)
After deciding not to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, seventeen-year-old Craig Gilner checks himself into Six North, a psychiatric ward, where he will face and navigate his mental health with the help of the unlikeliest group of people he’s ever met.
The Holes (July 19 – 20)
A bar in the rapidly gentrifying city of Kingston, New York has an elicit secret. But when a New York City businessman has a spiritual revelation in the backroom, everything changes. A story about shame, fathers and sons, legacy versus progress, and the relationship between spirituality and capitalism in the 21st century.
The Training Company
The Comedy of Errors (July 11 – 13)
The Comedy of Errors is a fast-paced rib-tickling farce by William Shakespeare. In this whirlwind of mistaken identities and madcap mix-ups, two sets of twins separated at birth find themselves unknowingly in the same city, setting off a cascade of wild encounters.
The Seagull (July 18 – 20)
During one hot, sticky, lakeside summer, two young artists yearn for love and recognition, while the already famous buckle under the pressures and harsh realities of their success. How far will any of them go to chase validation and meaning?
Biography (July 3, 10, 17, 24)
Biography utilizes the gestural composing language of Soundpainting to create an ensemble-based improvised performance about a spontaneously made up person who is very, very real.
Oresteia (July 20 – 21)
A curse plagues ancient Argos’ ruling family. On the advice of an oracle, King Agamemnon kills his daughter. Ten years later, his queen Clytemnestra takes revenge. When her son Orestes murders her in retribution, the city must find a way to hold him responsible.
New Works Play Festival (July 26)
This festival of new works is the culminating event for the directors and writers of the Training Company. Along with their coursework, directors and playwrights will have observed the process of bringing a new script to life in a professional rehearsal setting. Each pair of writers and directors will workshop a play that they have developed over the summer. Featuring performances by the actors of the Training Company, these short plays reflect the students’ unique voice and vision for the future of American theater.
How to Purchase Tickets
Online
By Phone: (845) 437-5599In-Person: At the Powerhouse Theater Box Office
Box Office Hours: Thursday – Sunday, 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm
All Musical Workshop and Play Workshop tickets: $30.00 Mainstage Production Tickets: $40.00
Readings and Training Program Performances: FreeIf you have trouble purchasing your tickets online, please email phtboxoffice@vassar.edu.
Take Amtrak to the Powerhouse Theater
Attend the Powerhouse Theater when it reopens via Amtrak to the Poughkeepsie Station—Don’t forget to use the Amtrak See New York and Save 15% discount! Vassar College is 2.6 miles away from the station, which makes it an easy and convenient option to get to the theater.
From the Poughkeepsie Station, taken to your reserved NYTRAIN Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Click here to reserve your car or call the Poughkeepsie office today at (845) 485-2222.
