Follow Us:

 

OUR MISSION

Capital Stage’s mission is to entertain, engage and challenge our audience with bold, thought provoking theatre.

 

---

 

THINGS TO KNOW

COVID-19 SAFETY:

To attend a performance everyone in your party must present proof of vaccination for COVID-19 (with a second dose at least 14 days prior to the date of the performance) with a valid photo ID. Masks also must be worn in the theatre and interior lobby areas at all times. NO FOOD OR BEVERAGES ARE ALLOWED INSIDE THE THEATRE.

 

VIDEO/PHOTOS:

Recording and photography of any kind are prohibited at Capital Stage.

CELL PHONES:

Patrons are asked to turn communication devices off upon entering the theatre.

LATE SEATING & RE-SEATING:

Due to the design of our theatre, we cannot guarantee seating for late arrivals or for patrons who leave the theatre during the performance. As a courtesy to our artists and our audiences, late arrivals will be seated in a suitable location by our staff if possible and at the appropriate intervals.

REFRESHMENTS:

Only concession items purchased in the Wine & Dessert Bar are allowed. Concessions will be limited and can only be consumed while on our Patio. NO FOOD OR BEVERAGES ARE ALLOWED IN THE THEATRE.

CHILDREN:

Capital Stage is noted for bringing intimate bold productions to our region and we encourage young adults to experience a live performance. Children age sixteen and up are welcome at Capital Stage unless specifically noted in the production’s description.

WHEELCHAIR SEATING:

Seating locations at Capital Stage for patrons using wheelchairs or with a disability are located in the first row. Tickets for these seats may be purchased in person or by calling the Box Office at 916-995-5464.

RESTROOMS:

Restroom facilities are located in the lounge behind the Wine & Dessert Bar.

INFORMATION:

Brochures and information about upcoming Capital Stage productions and events are available in the box office or by visiting capstage.org.

 

---

 

 Capital Stage is a member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

 Capital Stage is a member of Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre.

Capital Stage is a member of the National New Play Network, the country’s alliance of leading nonprofit theaters that champion the development, production and continued life of new plays.

 Capital Stage is a member of Blue Star Theatres, offering discounts to Military personnel, Military family members, and Veterans.

Setting

THE SETTING

The play takes place at Hillcrest, a second-tier, on-the-cusp-of-being-a-first-tier prep/boarding school in rural New Hampshire, and in the home of the Mason family.

 

THE TIME

It begins just before Christmas and ends shortly after Easter, during the 2015-2016 academic year.

---

 

 

About The Play

By Stephanie Tucker, PhD, Dramaturg Emerita 

"Joshua Harmon has a gift for provocation. The last play of his we [Londoners] saw, BAD JEWS, took a swipe at dogmatic certainties. Now he takes aim at the smug pieties of bien-pensant white liberals." 

- Michael Billington, The Guardian

 

"Although the play is called ADMISSIONS and is about an Admissions officer, it’s not really about applying to college. That’s the container, I suppose, to be able to ask the larger questions with which the play is trying to engage. At its core, this play is an examination of whiteness: white privilege, white power, white anxiety, white guilt, all of it." - Joshua Harmon

First produced in 2018, ADMISSIONS is set in a New England prep school during “the 2015-2016 academic year.” The playwright characterizes Hillcrest as “a second-tier, on-the-cusp-of-being-a-first-tier prep/boarding school in rural New Hampshire.” This description speaks volumes about subjects Harmon explores in his three-part play—including, apparently, Hillcrest’s (or its officials’) self-awareness of the school’s position on the social/academic ladder of New England prep schools. Hillcrest is not up there with St. Paul’s or Andover, no more than Middlebury College is in the same league as Harvard or Yale. But, teasingly, Hillcrest is “on-the-cusp-of-being” in the first tier—as its name suggests and its admissions officer would have it become.

Another early stage direction, “TIME,” is similarly telling: the play “begins just before Christmas and ends shortly after Easter.” Indeed, these holidays mirror the academic calendars for colleges’ and universities’ advising applicants of early acceptance (December) and deferred admissions (Spring). However the playwright’s specifying the two most important celebrations in the Christian calendar suggests very real traditional/historical reasons for inclusion (or its inverse) into elite east-coast institutions—religious and cultural. As if punctuating this, one of the play’s two mothers, Ginnie, is described as a “very liberal WASP,” and the other, Sherri, a “very liberal secular Jewish woman,” which, if unspoken, suggests White, Anglo-Saxon. Protestant privilege prevalent in the world of Hillcrest, and other similarly exclusive institutions. 

When ADMISSIONS opened Off-Broadway, at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater, Jesse Green, in the New York Times, called it “...an extraordinarily useful and excruciating satire—of the left, by the left, for the left—for today.” Adam Feldman, in Time Out, suggested that the “...nuanced and competing truths in Harmon’s 90-minute play are like a first act that dares its spectators to create a second out of post-show conversations.” The play was named the Outstanding Play of 2018 by both the Outer Critics Circle and the Drama Desk. It has since been produced throughout the United States and the United Kingdom—to critical and popular acclaim—due, to be sure, to its dramatic distinction, and also, perhaps, to its topicality. As the playwright notes:

It’s easy in times like these, to point at someone else as the problem. We see it on the right, and we see it on the left. What we see too rarely is self-reflection. This play, I hope, creates a space for some self-reflection, to look within, to consider the ways in which, even with the best of intentions, we can remain complicit in the perpetuation of something we simultaneously abhor.

ADMISSIONS explores issues of race, inclusion, equality and opportunity through its recognizable on-stage characters, while alluding to many more “players” who exist off-stage, out of sight—and perhaps, at critical times, in calendars, academic and otherwise, out of mind. 

 

Sponsors

>

Cast

Creative Team

Special Thanks

Donna Chipps

Ted Cobb

Jim Hensley, President Abbey Flooring, Inc.

Bob Mandelson

Kris Martin

Clocky McDowell

Dawn Tempest

---

 

Production Staff

Production Manager  - KATIE CANNON

Technical Director  - CARLOS LLONTOP

Lead Carpenter  - RICH KIRLIN

Scenic Charge Artist  - SAMANTHA McLEAN HAAS

Sound Designer & Engineer  - ED LEE

Lead Electrician  - MARI OYAIZU CARSON

Props Coordinators - REBEKAH FEGAN, RICH KIRLIN

Stage Manager  - ANDREANNA KONOMOS*

Stage Management Production Assistant  - ANDREW FRIDAE^

Paint Assistant  - CECILIA CASTILLO JUAREZ^

Sound & Projections Assistant  - NICHOLAS RABORN^

Lighting Assistant  - RAND DOERNING^

Properties & Production Management Assistant - KAITLIN WEINSTEIN^

Costume Assistant  - ANA MUNTEAN^

Build Crew  - KYLE DODGIN, RICH KIRLIN, CARLOS LLONTOP, TIM MCNAMARA. 2021/20 Apprentices: RAND DOERNING^, ANDREW FRIDAE^, CECILIA CASTILLO JUAREZ^, ANA MUNTEAN^,  NICHOLAS RABORN^, KAITLIN WEINSTEIN^. 2019/20 Apprentices: MILANIA CARDONA^, JOHN CAROLL^, OLLIN CHOI^, ROBIN LILLIE^, BRANDON NAKAGAKI^, LINDSEY PLATT^, ALEXANDRIA XIONG^.

COVID-19 Safety Managers  - KATIE CANNON, KEITH RIEDELL, MICHAEL STEVENSON

Associate Dramaturgs - OLGA KOROLEV, STEPHANIE TUCKER, PhD

Graphic Designers  - DAN LYDERSEN, MISTY MCDOWELL

Photographer  - CHARR CRAIL

Webmaster - MISTY MCDOWELL

^ Capital Stage Apprentice  |  * Member Actors' Equity Association

---

 

About The Playwright

By Stephanie Tucker, PhD, Dramaturg Emerita

Joshua Harmon was born in 1983 and, to quote the playwright,

...spent what I like to call my formative ‘year’ in Brooklyn before my parents basically ruined my life and moved us to the suburbs, which is where I grew up. The suburbs are fine, but I think I understood from an early age that if I ever had a shot at being cool, I would have had to stay in Brooklyn.

However, the suburbs were close enough to Manhattan for the young boy to see some pretty sophisticated plays—including musicals such as SHOWBOAT and LES MISERABLES, whose subjects (miscegenation, segregation and revolution) are not the usual fare of kids’ theater—no more than those by ancient Greek tragedians.  

My Nana took me to see MEDEA when I was ten. She said, ‘If you read the play, I’ll take you to see it.’ 

As you’ll recall, Euripedes’ eponymous character, betrayed and abandoned by her lover, takes revenge by murdering their two sons and his new bride. Nonetheless, the 10-year-old Harmon read this grim tragedy. After seeing it, he decided to become a playwright!

Four years later, Harmon saw Alfred Uhry’s THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO, which examines the social stratification of Southern Jews on the eve of World War II. The 14-year-old Harmon loved the play and wrote its author a 2-page letter—in pencil. Graciously, Uhry responded:  

If you want it badly enough, you can have a career in the theater.

Harmon got his undergraduate degree at Northwestern University and then attended Carnegie Mellon’s playwriting program. After completing the program, he moved back into his parents’ home: 

I was pretty despondent. I had an MFA and was back where I started, and gearing up for the 10-year winter of my discontent.

Nonetheless, he continued to write. In 2010, he became the National New Play Network Playwright-in-Residence, during which he continued to work on what would become his first play to “run more than three nights,” Bad Jews—which Capital Stage produced in 2017.

In 2012, Harmon was accepted into Julliard’s playwriting program, the result, in part, of his submitting a draft of Bad Jews with his application. While studying with Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang at Julliard, Harmon’s first play was picked up by Roundabout Theatre’s Off-Broadway Black Box Theatre.

His next play, SIGNIFICANT OTHER, was also produced by the Roundabout Theatre, opening in 2015. And in 2018, Harmon had two plays open Off-Broadway, SKINTIGHT and ADMISSIONS—both receiving prestigious awards and excellent reviews.

Clearly, the 14-year-old kid who penciled a fan letter to Alfred Uhry did indeed want a career in the theatre “badly enough.”

Meet the Company

Capital Stage Announces 2021/22 Season

Capital Stage is reopening its doors on August 25, 2021. The 2021-2022 Season will mark their 17th season beginning with Jeanne Sakata's HOLD THESE TRUTHS, directed by Jeffrey Lo (VIETGONE, THE GREAT LEAP - A VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE), and starring Jomar Tagatac (VIETGONE). HOLD THESE TRUTHS is a Co-Production with SF Playhouse, and will be offered as live in person performances, as well as virtually with a performance filmed at SF Playhouse.

Subscription sales will begin on July 19, 2021 and range from $150-$228 per person. Regular tickets will go on sale August 16, 2021, and range from $25-$49 per person. Patrons who subscribed to the 2020-2021 Season (during the pandemic) will roll over automatically to this coming season. The Box Office is available for any questions or concerns regarding tickets and subscriptions at 916-995-5464, boxoffice@capstage.org, Tue-Thu 12-4pm.

i??Learn more about their COVID-19 Safety Protocols, Procedures and what to expect when returning to live performances at Capital Stage.

ADMISSIONS by Joshua Harmon

Directed by Michael Stevenson

2018 Drama Desk & Outer Critics Circle Awards Winner for Outstanding Play

October 13 - November 14, 2021

Sherri Rosen-Mason is head of the admissions department at a New England prep school, fighting to diversify the student body. Alongside her husband, the school's Headmaster, they've largely succeeded in bringing a stodgy institution into the twenty-first century. But when their only son sets his sights on an Ivy League university, personal ambition collides with progressive values with convulsive results.

THE GREAT LEAP by Lauren Yee

Directed by Jeffrey Lo

2017 Kesselring Prize Winner

January 26 - February 27, 2022

When an American college basketball team travels to Beijing for a "friendship" game in the post-Cultural Revolution 1980s, both countries try to tease out the politics behind this newly popular sport. Cultures clash as the Chinese coach tries to pick up moves from the Americans and Chinese-American player Manford spies on his opponents. Inspired by events in her own father's life, Yee "applies a devilishly keen satiric eye to...her generation (and its parents)."

i??PASS OVER by Antoinette Nwandu

Directed by TBD

2018 New York Times Critics Pick

Sacramento Premiere

March 16 - April 17, 2022

Moses and Kitch stand around on the corner - talking shit, passing the time, and hoping that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their space with his own agenda and derails their plans. Emotional and lyrical, PASS OVER crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, exposing the unquestionable human spirit of young men stuck in a cycle just looking for a way out.

THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT by Jeremy Karekan, David Murell & Gordon Farrell

Directed by Michael Stevenson

Sacramento Premiere

May 4 - June 5, 2022

Based on the true story of reporter John D'Agata's essay 'What Happens There', THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT follows Fingal, who has a small job: to fact-check articles for one of the best magazines in the country. His boss has given him a big assignment: to apply his skill to a groundbreaking piece by legendary author D'Agata. But now Fingal has a huge problem: D'Agata made up a lot of his article. What starts professional quickly becomes profane. A brilliant comedy grappling with a seminal issue of our time.

SMART PEOPLE by Lydia R. Diamond

Directed by Judith Moreland

Sacramento Premiere

June 22 - July 24, 2022

It is the eve of Obama's first election. Four of Harvard University's brightest; a surgeon, an actress, a psychologist, and a neuro-psychiatrist, are all interested in different aspects of the brain, particularly how it responds to race. But like all smart people, they are also searching for love, success, and identity in their own lives. Lydia R. Diamond brings these characters together in this sharp, witty play about social and sexual politics.

Special Holiday Production

MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY by Lauren Gunderson & Margot Melcon

Special Holiday Production

December 1 - 26, 2021

In this charmingly imagined sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennet is growing tired of her role as dutiful middle sister in the face of her siblings' romantic escapades. When the family gathers for Christmas at Pemberley, an unexpected guest sparks Mary's hopes for independence, an intellectual match, and possibly even love. This romantic comedy picks up two years after Jane Austen's beloved tale ended, with a clever and captivating style that will delight Austen aficionados and newcomers alike!

Joshua Harmon and Nicole Cox Win Inaugural Prizes for Jewish Plays, Presented by Theater J

Theater J Artistic Director Adam Immerwahr and Managing Director Jojo Ruf have announced the winners of two new play prizes: Joshua Harmon wins the Theater J Trish Vradenburg Jewish Play Prize for Prayer for the French Republic and Nicole Cox wins the Theater J Patty Abramson Jewish Play Prize for Abomination. This is the inaugural year for the two prizes, each of which recognizes a new play that celebrates, explores, and/or struggles with the complexities and nuances of the Jewish experience.

The Vradenburg Prize awards $15,000 to an established playwright and is dedicated to the memory of philanthropist, playwright, and Alzheimer's research advocate Trish Vradenburg, who served on Theater J's Council for 13 years. Commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club, Harmon's new play is a moving and powerful reflection of the history of trauma and prejudice embedded within five generations of one extraordinary Jewish family. An excerpt from Prayer for the French Republic will be performed as part of Theater J's virtual Benefit on November 18, directed by David Cromer, Tony Award-winning director of The Band's Visit and 2010 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, and featuring Tony Shalhoub, Tony Award-winning actor of The Band's Visit and TV star (Monk, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel).

"As the Artistic Director of a Jewish theater company, it is rare for me to read a play that transforms my understanding of what it is to be Jewish in America today," says Immerwahr. "Set in France, Prayer for the French Republic is about being Jewish, being American, and being part of a tribe. It's moving, powerful, and one of the most exquisite new plays I've read in many years. A writer of stage and screen, Trish Vradenburg was one of the funniest people I have ever met-I know she would have seen in Harmon a kindred spirit, seeking to illuminate the shadows of our world with humor and joy."

"Trish was a playwright herself," adds her widower George Vradenburg, "and she loved the collaborative process of creating something brand new that engaged the audience with its story, humor, and wit. It is incredibly meaningful that the inaugural winner is Joshua Harmon, who creates the kinds of plays that reach audiences of all kinds so effectively. Trish loved Theater J and would be so excited that the J is attracting such great American writers as Joshua."

"I am honored and humbled to be the first recipient of the Vradenburg Prize," says Joshua Harmon. "When I first began working on this play more than five years ago, my curiosity about the rising tide of antisemitism in Europe led me to want to write a play about what was happening over there; I could not have anticipated, when I first set out, the extent to which we would soon be grappling with those same, wrenching questions over here. I am grateful to Theater J and the committee which chose my play to receive this honor, and eagerly anticipate the moment when we can once again gather, in person, to experience a story together in a theatre."

47 plays were submitted to the Vradenburg Prize and adjudicated by Theater J staff. Two finalists were also selected: A Model City by Brooke Berman and Picture of a House in Shaker Heights by David Grimm.

The Patty Abramson Jewish Play Prize awards $3,000 and a stage reading to a promising emerging woman, trans, or non-binary playwright in recognition of a new play. The Prize is dedicated to the memory of philanthropist and venture capitalist Patty Abramson. Based on a true story, Abomination is a captivating look at identity, faith, and belonging as a small group of queer yeshiva graduates take to the courts to hold a conversion therapy organization accountable for decades of abuse. Abomination will receive a workshop in December of 2020.

"It is a testament to the enduring power of Jewish storytelling and Jewish stories that the Patty Abramson Jewish Play Prize received over eighty submissions in its inaugural year," says Immerwahr. "It took an army of forty volunteer readers to evaluate the submitted plays. Cox's loving and engaging story of young, gay, Orthodox Jews is a marvelous and captivating story that readers adored. I look forward to seeing productions of this play around the country, at Jewish and non-Jewish theaters alike. We are all so grateful to the Abramson/Silverman family for honoring and celebrating Patty Abramson's longtime commitment to nurturing women in their careers with this one-of-a-kind prize."

"Patty would be pleased to know that the prize named for her honors women playwrights, since the passion of her professional career was supporting young women," adds her widower Les Silverman. "I look forward to the Theater J community being introduced to Nicole's voice."

"What an honor to win the inaugural Patty Abramson prize." says Cox. "It's thrilling to be included in her huge circle of influence, and I'm deeply grateful to Theater J for recognizing and supporting my play."

85 plays were submitted to the Abramson prize and read by over 40 members of the Theater J community, from artists to Council members to staff. A committee made up of philanthropist Michele Berman, director Johanna Gruenhut, Theater J Managing Director Jojo Ruf, and director and Abramson's stepdaughter Leigh Silverman selected the winner and two finalists: Belfast Kind by Margot Connolly and Grains of Wheat by Abigail Weaver.

Joshua Harmon's plays include Bad Jews (Roundabout Underground; Roundabout/Laura Pels; West End), Significant Other (Roundabout; Broadway/Booth Theatre), Admissions (Lincoln Center Theater; West End), and Skintight (Roundabout). His plays have been produced across the country including at The Magic, Geffen Playhouse, Studio Theatre, Theater Wit, Speakeasy, and Actor's Express, and internationally in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, and throughout the U.K. He is a two-time MacDowell Colony Fellow and under commission at Manhattan Theatre Club and Roundabout, where he is an Associate Artist. Education: Juilliard.

Nicole Cox is a writer in DC. Her play, Office of the Speaker, won Best Drama at Capital Fringe 2019, and her poem, "I Want Lou Reed" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She's had productions and readings at the 1-Minute Play Festival, Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage, and Citizens Play Festival. Paula Vogel and Dan O'Brien invited Nicole to workshop her play, All Other Nights, at the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Her work is published in literary magazines including American Book Review, Tablet Magazine, Split Lip, Electric Literature, Briar Cliff Review, and Hanging Loose. Nicole earned her MFA from Emerson College.

ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (AEA)

Founded in 1913, this union represents more than 45,000 actors and stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark of excellence.

Capital Stage Staff

MICHAEL STEVENSON - Artistic Director

PETER MOHRMANN - Co-Founder, Associate Artist

KEITH RIEDELL - Managing Director

KATIE CANNON - Production & Company Manager

MISTY MCDOWELL - Marketing Manager

AALIYAH PETERS - Audience Services Manager

CARLOS LLONTOP - Technical Director

ED LEE - Resident Sound Designer & Engineer

RICH KIRLIN - Lead Carpenter

LOGAN HELLER – Box Office Assistant

RUBY SKETCHLY – Front of House Assistant

JAMIE JONES, GAIL RUSSELL, JANIS STEVENS – Associate Artists

KATHY DAVENPORT – Bookkeeping Assistant

DEEDEE WALKER – Volunteer Coordinator

RAND DOERNING, ANDREW FRIDAE, ANA MUNTEAN, KAITLIN WIENSTEIN, CECILIA CASTILLO JUAREZ, NICK RABORN - Apprentices

KATIE CANNON, MICHAEL STEVENSON, KEITH RIEDELL - COVID Safety Officers

---

 

Capital Stage Board Members

Chastity E. Benson
California State Association of Counties

Donnell Brown
National Grape Research Alliance

Dan Brunner, Treasurer
Arts Patron

Melissa Conner
Seed Communications Design

Kathryn E. Doi
Hanson Bridgett LLP

Theresa Harvath, Secretary
Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing – University of California, Davis

Sherry Hartel Haus
Downey Brand

Steve Koonce
Arts Patron

Kris Martin
Arts Patron

Kristi Quesada Mathisen
Sacramento Country Day School

Peter Mohrmann, Co-founder
Capital Stage

Lori Abbott Moreland
Arts Patron

Damaris L. Perez
Crowe LLP

Mike Tentis, Board President
UC Davis Strategic Communications

Peggy Wheeler
California Hospital Association

---

Board Emeritus:

Stephanie Gularte, Founding Artistic Director
Capital Stage

Clif McFarland
Mitchell Chadwick

Arlen Orchard
SMUD

Jonathan Williams, Co-Founder
Capital Stage

Julie Stark
Arts Patron