UMass Boston Theatre season kicks off with "Clue" – where the game comes to life, and New Voices, New Stories
The University Hall Theatre kicks off its 24-25 season next week with seven world premiere plays by UMass Boston student playwrights in New Voices, New Stories, followed by Clue: On Stage, a hilarious whodunit based on the beloved board game. Tickets are now on sale.
Clue, opening November 14 for eight performances, will be riddled with intrigue, paranoia, fast-paced hijinks, and over-the-top costumes as six mysterious guests arrive for a dinner party with murder and extortion on the menu. But who killed Mr. Boddy? In what room? With what?
Drawn from the 1985 film, and based on the game, Clue: On Stage will be directed by UMass Boston acting and improv teacher Michael Fennimore. Among the entries on Fennimore’s decades-long stage and film career, 25 years of acting and directing in 7,400 performances of Shear Madness, the longest-running non-musical play in American theater history. Clue, with its twists, turns, lightning-fast jokes, physical comedy, and farcical humor, is right up his alley.
“It’s like Agatha Christie collaborated with the Marx Brothers to make Clue come to life,” Fennimore says. “It’s a dark and stormy night, a gothic mansion, a flooded-out bridge, and one of these six crazy characters is a murderer. Or will they all be murdered themselves?”
“I’m really excited about the cast we assembled, actors willing to stretch themselves, play up the ridiculous, make superfast comic timing work, and get all the laughs,” he says.
The cast includes Aidan Butler as Colonel Mustard, Q Lauture as Mr. Green, Scott Ramlal as Professor Plum, Samantha Stanley as Mrs. White, Tahlia West as Mrs. Peacock, and Sierra Simone Wilcox as Miss Scarlett – the board game characters – and Dylan Moore as Wadsworth the butler, and Viviana Niebuhr as Yvette the maid. A supporting cast including Hannah Rolston, Derek Allen, and Elijah Headley will play multiple characters. Daniel Kang and Georgia Hauber are understudies.
New Voices, New Stories: A Celebration of UMass Boston Student Playwrights
Every two years, the University Hall Theatre invites audiences to witness seven world-premiere plays by emerging playwrights from the UMass Boston student body. Presented in an enhanced staged reading format, the seven short plays were selected through a blind reading process by faculty and past New Voices playwrights.
“This is always exciting, as it’s often the first time these playwrights have seen and heard their work performed in front of an audience,” says Ginger Lazarus, who teaches playwriting and screenwriting at UMass Boston and serves as producer and dramaturg for New Voices. “At two of the performances, we invite the audience to remain for a post-performance conversation with the writers. That feedback is invaluable to the writers, as they develop their plays further.”
Plays include Teenage Dream by Megan Feudo, AAA by Meghan Geslin, Ohio James by Leo Khomiakov, Andy vs. The Play by Denis Lemus, Chained Confessions by Vanessa Elizabeth Medeiros, I’d Like to Imagine the Unimaginable by Laura Melo dos Santos, and Two Plots by Anna Eliza Pumphrey.
The plays will be directed by Carrie Ann Quinn, professor of acting and directing, with – for the first time – two students. Nakatto Dalison Nassozi will direct AAA, and Pumphrey will direct I’d Like to Imagine the Unimaginable.
“Our focus with New Voices is to make the playwrights’ vision real, but it’s also an opportunity to experiment and try new things,” Quinn said. “I’m thrilled to share directing with Nakatto and Anna, and know they’ll knock it out of the park. Also, there’s this huge cast of 18, playing multiple roles, and so many of them will appear on our stage for the first time It’s so exciting to be part of new beginnings.”
Following the performances, many plays are submitted to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
New Voices, New Stories: A Celebration of UMass Boston Playwrights, Oct. 3 and 4 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 5 at 2 p.m. All tickets are $5 at umb.universitytickets.com. Audience talkbacks at the Oct. 3 and 5 performances.
Clue: On Stage, by Sandy Rustin Clue is adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn Additional materials by Hunter Foster and Eric Price Original music composed by Michael Holland. Directed by Michael Fennimore. Nov. 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, and 22 at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday matinees on Nov. 16 and 23 at 1 p.m. Tickets $12 for students, faculty and staff, $15 for general public. On sale now at umb.universitytickets.com