Taco Jesus
Michael Lynch
September 22–24, 28 –30, and October 1
Winner of Bay Area Critics Award 1982
Cecil Pedigrew experiences the miracle of the face Jesus on a corn tortilla. A funny/sad tale about the quest for faith in our jaded society. Written and directed by noted Modesto actor, director, playwright, MJC Drama Professor and PTP veteran (Ride Down Mount Morgan 2005, To Kill a Mockingbird 2011) Michael Lynch.
David Auburn
November 10–12, 16–19
Recipient of the Tony Award for Best Play and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
On the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Catherine, a troubled young woman, has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. Now, following his death, she must deal with her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire; and the attentions of Hal, a former student of her father’s who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that her father left behind. Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine into the most difficult problem of all: How much of her father’s madness — or genius — will she inherit?
A Doll’s House, Part 2
Lucas Hnath
January 26–28 and February 1–4
In the final scene of Ibsen’s 1879 groundbreaking masterwork, A Doll’s House, Noral Helmer makes the shocking decision to leave her husband and children and begin a life on her own. This climactic event — when Nora slams the door on everything in her life — instantly propelled world drama into the modern age, In A Doll’s House, Part 2, many years have passed since Nora’s exit. Now, there’s a knock on that same door. Nora has returned. But why? And what will it mean for those she left behind?
Eugene O’Neill
March 22–24, 28–31
O’Neill’s autobiographical masterwork, an unflinchingly honest portrayal of addiction in a dysfunctional Connecticut family, won the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
This autobiographical play depicts one long, summer day in the life of the fictional Tyrone family, a dysfunctional household based on the O’Neill family. It’s a story of love, hate, betrayal, addiction, blame, and the fragility of family bonds—particularly between fathers and sons. It’s a story about today. One of the most celebrated plays in American theater and Eugene O’Neill’s magnum opus.
Peter Morgan
May 17–19, 23–26
British talk-show host David Frost has become a lowbrow laughingstock. Richard M. Nixon has just resigned the United States presidency in total disgrace over Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. Determined to resurrect his career, Frost risks everything on a series of in-depth interviews in order to extract an apology from Nixon. The cagey Nixon, however, is equally bent on redeeming himself in his nation’s eyes. In the television age, image is king, and both men are desperate to outtalk and upstage each other as the cameras roll. The result is the interview that sealed a president’s legacy.
Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell
Based on the books by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal
July 12–14, 18–21
Jim Fingal is a fresh-out-of-Harvard fact checker for a prominent but sinking New York magazine. John D’Agata is a talented writer with a transcendent essay about the suicide of a teenage boy — an essay that could save the magazine from collapse. When Jim is assigned to fact check D’Agata’s essay, the two come head to head in a comedic yet gripping battle over facts versus truth.
