The Umbrella Stage Co @ Home Season
WELCOME
The Umbrella Stage Company thanks you for your support of our Covid-impacted, 2020-2021 @ Home Theater Season, made possible by the generosity of Gregory Maguire and Andy Newman, and by all our supporters and attendees during this time. We are gratified to have been able to retool in the pandemic and present diverse, original Performing Arts programming in a variety of formats and platforms, both in virtual spaces, recorded here at The Umbrella, in socially distanced outdoors settings, and in ongoing outreach into our courageous theater community.
With the changing guidelines for gathering and opening venues, we are again completely re-focusing our energies on safely reopening our theaters to resume our brand of Bold, Innovative and Daring performance in-person next season.
In the meantime, we welcome you to take a look back at some of the many wonderful moments we shared through our @Home Coffee House Cabarets and @Home New Works virtual productions from this past extraordinary season!
@ HOME SEASON PRODUCTIONS
Voice of Reason
May 27, 8PM
Written by Kevin Cirone
Featuring Ryan MacPherson, Jessica Washington, Dominic Carter, and Shana Dirik
Free, but RSVP Required
An original play presented by Kevin Cirone as part of The Umbrella Stage Company’s @Home New Works series.
May 8 & 14, 8PM (recording viewable through May 31)
The Umbrella Stage Company is pleased to present this loooking back/looking forward concert featuring music and original poetry that revists moments which defined the year that was and celebrates all that is ahead. Part of The Umbrella's spring Artfest! Starring many Umbrella favorites including Jess Andra, Vanessa Calantropo, Dwayne P. Mitchell, Kara Chu Nelson, and Anthony Pires, Jr. under the music direction of David Wright, with original poetry by SarahMae and Xinef Afriam.
An Elegant Storm
August 13, 2020
By Kevin Broccoli
Directed by Michelle Aguillon
Made possible by the generosity of Gregory Maguire and Andy Newman
NEW PLAY PREMIERE! Two sisters juggle family dynamics, quarantine, and an impending hurricane as they try to find their missing third sister and elderly father, who appear to be heading straight into a natural disaster. How do you protect those you love when armed only with technology? How do those who are disconnected from the world find their way back to it again? Is it possible to bridge lifelong divides at a time when so much is broken? Inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear, this digital thriller is a glimpse into a family at a breaking point. Missed it? Rewatch the video now!
Dr Smarty in the New Normal
September 10, 2020
By Andy Reynolds
Directed by Nancy Curran Willis
NEW PLAY PREMIERE! In the midst of COVID-19, 82-year-old Henry is diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Referred by his doctor for nutrition education, Henry reluctantly starts weekly meetings via Zoom with 32-year-old nutritionist Peter. Over a few short weeks, the two seemingly disparate men grow inexplicably close, drawn together as much by circumstance as their similarities. A wry, comic look at a very unfunny time. Missed it? Rewatch the video now!
@ Home Coffee House
September 24, 8PM
Featuring Jess Andra, Sean Mitchell Crosley, and Kara Chu Nelson
NEW VIRTUAL CABARET SERIES! Join us as we welcome back some of The Umbrella Stage Company's favorite alumni for a virtual mini-concert. Performing from their own homes, these familiar faces will sing a few songs and tell a few stories, and our stage community will catch up with each other via Zoom.
@ Home Coffee House Cabaret (Oct. 29)
October 29, 8PM
Featuring Vanessa Calantropo, Andrea Giangreco, Anthony Pires, Jr., and Kayla Shimizu
NEW VIRTUAL CABARET SERIES! Join us as we welcome back some of The Umbrella Stage Company's favorite alumni for a virtual mini-concert. Performing from their own homes, these familiar faces will sing a few songs and tell a few stories, and our stage community will catch up with each other via Zoom.
Asian/American in Harvard Square and Torched
November 12, 8PM
Restricted Capacity: SOLD OUT
Written by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro
Directed by Michelle Aguillon
Asian/American in Harvard Square is a series of vignettes focusing on five people who only have three things in common: they are in Harvard Square, they are Asian-American, and they all face racist microaggressions from white people, whether they are strangers, acquaintances, or old friends. Tensions build in this exploration of Asian-American lives and experiences in Cambridge, MA.
In Torched, a university dean gets dangerously carried away as she eulogizes Kathleen Chang(e), an Asian American performance artist and political activist who died of self-immolation. Missed it? Rewatch the video now!
November 21, 8PM
Featuring John Breen, Barbara Pierre, Dwayne P. Mitchell, and Valerie Thompson
Free, but RSVP Required
NEW VIRTUAL CABARET SERIES! Join us as we welcome back some of The Umbrella Stage Company's favorite alumni for a virtual mini-concert. Performing from their own homes, these familiar faces will sing a few songs and tell a few stories, and our stage community will catch up with each other via Zoom. Missed it? Rewatch the video now!
Holidays Under The Umbrella
December 17, 8PM
Featuring Jess Andra, Billy Luce, Jr., Dwayne P. Mitchell, Barbara Pierre, Anthony Pires, Jr., Kayla Shimizu, and David Wright
Free, but RSVP Required
SPECIAL EVENT! Join us for Holidays Under The Umbrella, a festive virtual event in which some of The Umbrella Stage Company's favorite performers from past seasons join us to sing some songs and tell some stories of the season. Our guests will perform live from The Umbrella with accompaniment by David Wright. Missed it? Rewatch the video now!
@ Home Coffee House Cabaret (Feb. 25)
A Special Black History Month Edition
in collaboration with The Robbins House
Thursday February 25th at 8 pm
FREE, but RSVP Required
Directed by Barbara Pierre
Accompanied by David Coleman
Featuring Todd McNeel, Jr., Chantel O'Brien, and Sabrina Victor
Join us for a special Black History Month edition of our virtual cabaret series produced in collaboration with The Robbins House, a Concord-based nonprofit organization focused on raising awareness of Concord’s African, African American, and antislavery history from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Missed it? Rewatch the video now!
@ Home Coffee House Cabaret (Mar. 18)
A Special Women's History Month Edition
March 18, 8PM
Featuring Leigh Barrett, Fatima Elmi, Andrea Giangreco, and Madi Shaer
Directed by Sarajane Morse Mullins
Accompanied by Gina Naggar
Free, but RSVP Required
Join us for a special Women's History Month edition of our virtual cabaret series!
Incantation
March 25, 2021
Starring Naomi Ibasitas, Ankur Singh, and Shani Farrell
Written by Hortense Gerardo
Directed by Michelle Aguillon
Free, but RSVP Required
Angela invites Blaine and Chet to a socially-distanced house warming party on zoom to celebrate having moved into her new home. But things are not quite settled in the new environment. Join the three friends as they conjure ways to honor the ghosts from the past to make room for the future. Missed it? Rewatch the video now!
@ Home Coffee House Cabaret (Apr. 22)
April 22, 8PM
Featuring Billy Luce, Jr., Mike Chateauneuf, and Samantha Prindiville
Accompanied by James Murphy
Free, but RSVP Required
NEW VIRTUAL CABARET SERIES! Join us as we welcome back some of The Umbrella Stage Company's favorite alumni for a virtual mini-concert. Performing from their own homes, these familiar faces will sing a few songs and tell a few stories, and our stage community will catch up with each other via Zoom.
Scentsation
April 24, 12PM
Part of the Boston Theater Marathon XXIII
Written by Hortense Gerardo
Directed by Nancy Curran Willis
Featuring Michelle Aguillon and Dustin Teuber
When Lily, a medical doctor, learns her recent ex-partner will be her patient at the walk-in clinic, she conducts a “scentsational” test to help Pino recover more than their lost sense of smell.
More About The Umbrella Performing Arts & Stage Company
The Umbrella Stage Company was launched in February 2019 by the Performing Arts Program, part of the expansive Umbrella Arts Center (formerly Emerson Umbrella), a multifunction 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization founded in 1983 in Concord, MA. The fast-growing theater company earned 31 DASH Theater Award nominations last season, winning in 11 categories, including Best Lead Actor, Best Ensemble Performance (Play and Musical), Best Musical Direction, Best Director (Musical), and Best Production (Play and Musical). Learn More
