Production is Square One Theatre’s 30th Anniversary Season
A comedy of manners featuring actors from Stratford, North Haven, New Haven,
Woodbridge, Milford and Fairfield.
Stratford’s Square One Theatre Company, which has been closed since March 2020, due to the pandemic, will reopen on Thursday, November 3rd with its production of The Dining Room featuring Stratford’s Bruce Murray.
Murray’s Square One Theatre stage credits include White Guy on the Bus and The Winslow Boy. Other theatre credits include: Moonlight and Magnolias, Chapter Two, The Odd Couple (Eastbound Theatre) A Few Good Men (Nutmeg Actors Rep Theatre) A Few Good Men, The Man Who Came to Diner, 12 Angry Men, Requiem for a Heavyweight (Center Stage) Threads (Orange Players) West Side Story, Bye, Bye Birdie, The Fantasticks, Fiddler on the Roof (Youth Connection).
A.R. Gurney’s classic comedy, a finalist for the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, takes place in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household. The Dining Room is a remarkable play of days long gone. Some audience members may not even remember the ‘good ol’ days’ when families sat down around a dining room table, talking, reminiscing and getting caught up on family news and events…no cell phones, no television, no internet, no distractions…just conversations around one table in each household.
According to Square One Theatre Artistic Director Tom Holehan, “We’re starting right where we left off two and half years ago when we were closed due to the pandemic. We want all of our subscribers and the general public to see this classic comedy.”
The Dining Room is comprised of a mosaic of interrelated scenes – some funny, some touching, some rueful – but when taken together, the scenes create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Overall, it tells a story of the transition into a much more efficient society with less emphasis on tradition and more emphasis on progress.
According to The New York Times “The Dining Room” is “funny and rueful and, by the end, very moving.” The New York Post describes Gurney’s play as “Hilarious and touching…as each comic sketch crazily succeeds another comic sketch a whole pattern of American life emerges.” Variety calls it “A thoughtful and superbly written comedy!”
Audiences and critics agree that “if you have the opportunity, go see six actors play over 30 characters. You’ll be treated to a range of humanity; an exploration of the traumas, joys and tensions of a wide variety of people taking place in ‘a dining room’ that manages to symbolize all of them.”
Directed by Tom Holehan (Stratford), The Dining Room features Bruce Murray (Stratford), Josie Kulp (North Haven), Ryan Hendrickson (New Haven), Lillian Garcia (Woodbridge), Danielle Sultini (Milford) and David Victor (Fairfield).
The first performance and ONLY Thursday performance of The Dining Room is scheduled on November 3rd at 7p.m. All other performances continue on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Sunday, November 20th.
The Dining Room performance schedule:
Thursday, November 3rd at 7p.m. (ONLY)
Friday, November 4th at 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 5th (two performances) at 4 p.m. (twilight matinee) AND 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 6 and 2 p.m.
Friday, November 11th at 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 12th (two performances) at 4 p.m. (twilight matinee AND 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 13th at 2 p.m.
Friday, November 18th at 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 19 (two performances) at 4 p.m. (twilight matinee) AND 8 p.m.
Sunday, November 20th at 2 p.m.
Subscribers from 2020 should call the box office to re-schedule their tickets. Lost or misplaced subscription tickets will be checked against theatre data/records and available at the box office when requested.
Single Tickets are:
$22 for each adult single ticket
$20 for each senior citizen & students
$25 for each front row seat (limited availability)
Tickets may be purchased:
By phone: box office at 203.375.8778(24/7)
Online at: squareonetheatre.com
In person: at box office 60 minutes prior to each performance
By mail: self-addressed, stamped envelope & check payable to Square One Theatre sent to Administrative Office; 656 Longbrook Avenue, Stratford, Ct 06614-5117.
Stratford Academy is located at 719 Birdseye Street in Stratford, Ample FREE parking is available.
Stratford Academy is wheelchair accessible. Please inform the box office of any special needs when reserving tickets.
For more information, up-to-date news about the theatre, the play and the actors visit squareonetheatre.com
