When the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly shut down operations at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse in March, it was anyone’s guess when live performances would return to the Meredith campus. Now, using the strict guidelines set out by the New Hampshire’s Reopening Task Force, the Playhouse is excited to announce a small season of three professional productions in September and October.
The first two productions of the season will take place at the Playhouse’s outdoor amphitheatre. The technical team extending the stage and building seating platforms for the audience so nobody will have to sit on the grass.
The two productions that will take place outdoors are Or, by Liz Duffy Adams and The Mountaintop by Katori Hall. Or, was always scheduled to be in the 2020 season. The three-person comedy easily lent itself to an outdoor performance and having two of the three actors, Nicholas Wilder and Rebecca Tucker, as an off-stage couple (they met at the Playhouse in 2014 and, in non-COVID times, would have been married at the Playhouse this summer) made onstage interactions easier. The third performer, Haley Jones, is quarantined with Wilder and Tucker. All playhouse cast and staff undergo multiple COVID tests and are strictly regulated to avoid any activity considered high risk.
The Mountaintop is a new addition to the season. In this Olivier Award-winning play, author Katori Hall imagines what may have taken place in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968.
“In most years, we choose our show titles well in advance to give plenty of time to plan and advertise them.,” said Producing Artistic Director Neil Pankhurst. “That does not give us much flexibility to react to current events with our programming. Of course, 2020 is the year when all of that got turned on its head. Suddenly flexibility is the key word and the ever-evolving nature of this year gave us the ability to add in programming to allow us to explore what’s on this nation’s mind. Obviously the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement is a topic that people are interested in exploring and we are grateful we are able to add a production that speaks to that.”
The final show of the season, which will take place on the Playhouse’s indoor mainstage, will be a new play called No Wake by Erica Berman. Set in Moultonboro on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, the play explores the burgeoning friendship between a cynical local teenager and an irascible snowbird with a penchant for screaming at the jetskiers who disrupt his treasured loons.
“I loved the local connection to this show. On top of that, it was practically written for social distancing! The setting is two neighbors’ porches and 99% of the play involves them talking to each other from their own porch,” Pankhurst said. “That alone seems to sum up summer 2020 on Lake Winnipesaukee.”
All three productions will follow or exceed the CDC and State of New Hampshire guidelines for social distancing, mask wearing, and other pandemic precautions. Patrons are encouraged to visit winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org prior to booking tickets to read the COVID-19 protocols for attending. Tickets can then be purchased by calling the box office at 279-0333.