After two years of challenges in programming and presenting live theatre, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Second Thought Theatre is thrilled to announce its 2022 Season—the first full season to present live theatre since March 2020. This is the second season under artistic director Carson McCain, and she is using it to explore the theme of disparity and its ubiquitously nuanced effect on varying societal structures.
“My intention with this season is to examine disparity,” said McCain. “I’m interested in not only the wealth and economic disparity we’ve seen highlighted by the COVID pandemic, but also how these discrepancies hold hands with racial and gender disparities. It is my hope that each of these shows investigates and interrogates how we might all be complicit in perpetuating disparity across the board.”
First up, the game is on in Sarah Burgess’ Dry Powder, a gripping, razor-sharp play about the price of success and the real cost of getting the deal done. Dry Powder was originally performed in March 2016 at Public Theater in New York, helmed by Hamilton director Thomas Kail and featuring an all-star cast. The play was an instant on-stage success and is the first production written by this preternaturally gifted playwright. STT Artistic Director Carson McCain will lead as director, joined by fellow STT staffers Drew Wall (Director of Operations) as set designer and Richard Oliver (Director of Communications) as sound designer. Amanda Capshaw will provided costume designs.
Second Thought’s second show of 2022 will be the widely-acclaimed Pass Over by Anoinette Chinonye Nwandu, which closed its Broadway run in October 2021, with local director Sasha Maya Ada at the helm. Information on other creative leads for this project is forthcoming. Evoking heartbreak, hope, and joy, PASS OVER – the first full play to open on Broadway in 2021 after the pandemic-necessitated lockdown — crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, illuminating the unquestionable human spirit of young, black men looking for a way out. A sobering reinterpretation of Waiting for Godot, nuanced with elements of the biblical Exodus story, Nwandu’s play is politically charged and necessarily critical in its social reflection.
Finally, Second Thought will close its season with the curiously haunting One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace. It takes place is 1665 London at the height of the city’s plight with the Bubonic plague. Wallace uses this setting to explore paralleling oppressions across time and between cultures and examine what she determines as a fundamental root of human struggle: imperialism. Information on the creative leadership for this project is forthcoming.
To learn more about STT’s 2022 season or how to purchase season subscriptions or single tickets for Dry Powder, please visit www.SecondThoughtTheatre.com.
2022 Season Lineup (Production information subject to change)
Dry Powder April 6th, 2022 – April 23rd, 2022
by Sarah Burgess
Directed by STT Artistic Director Carson McCain
The same week KMM Capital Management private equity firm forced massive layoffs at a national grocery chain, the founder and president threw himself an extravagant engagement party, setting off a publicity nightmare. Fortunately, one of the partners has a dream of a deal that will rescue his boss from the PR disaster. But are they willing to maximize returns, no matter the consequences? The game is on in this gripping, razor-sharp play about the price of success and the real cost of getting the deal done.
“Burgess’s play is a parable, really, a story from the finance-sector’s point-of-view about why money so often trumps humanity in a capitalist society. It’s funny, sleek and well-told…It may not be the world we want to live in, but DRY POWDER says it’s the world we have.” —WNYC
Pass Over July 13th – July 30th, 2022
by Antoinette Nwandu
Directed by Sasha Maya Ada
In PASS OVER, Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s “surreal,” “existential,” and “morbidly funny” (Marilyn Stasio, Variety) play, Moses and Kitch talk smack, pass the time, and hope that maybe today will be different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their space and disrupts their plans. Evoking heartbreak, hope, and joy, PASS OVER — the first full play to open on Broadway in 2021 after the pandemic-necessitated lockdown — crafts everyday profanities into poetic and humorous riffs, illuminating the unquestionable human spirit of young, black men looking for a way out. A sobering reinterpretation of Waiting for Godot, nuanced with elements of the biblical Exodus story, Nwandu’s play is politically charged and necessarily critical in its social reflection.
One Flea Spare October, 26th – November 12, 2022
by Naomi Wallace
Directed TBD
In 17th-century London, a city ravaged by the Great Plague with bodies mounting, the home of wealthy aristocrat William Snelgrave and his invalid wife becomes the couple’s infirmary, until a pair of intruders break in demanding food and refuge. Resigned to quarantine together, this unlikely group sees the social paradigms that once defined their behavior begin to break down. Roles shift, boundaries are shattered, and passions erupt in Naomi Wallace’s gripping 1995 drama. Originally inspired by the intersecting themes between Daniel Dafoe’s Journal of the Plague Year and the L.A. race riots catalyzed by the police beating of Rodney King, Wallace blends past and present – starkly pertinent given today’s current climate with COVID-19 and lingering tensions after the murder of George Floyd and subsequent riots in 2020. One Flea Spare explores how different types of oppression intersect across our timelines, always condemning the excesses of capitalism and imperialism.
“I began to think about what happens when the containment of a presumed danger through the regimentation of space breaks down, such as when South Central L.A. began to ‘invade’ Beverly Hills…By writing about about a time other than our own, it’s possible for issues that have become locked in rhetoric, or dismissed as too overdetermined for the stage, to become visible anew.” — Naomi Wallace
STT thanks everyone for their patience, and support as we transition back to in person performances. The staff, board, and artists of Second Thought Theatre are excited to be back on stage to continue providing gripping, innovative theater to the community.
