Arts & Entertainment
Thrown Stone’s 2019 Rep Hits “Close To Home”
Thrown Stone's third season features two new plays.
Ridgefield, CT – Thrown Stone’s third season features two new plays about how we live with the ones we love the most: The Connecticut Premiere of Cry it Out by Molly Smith Metzler, and the East Coast Premiere of Birds of North America by Anna Moench, performing in repertory at Ridgefield Conservatory of Dance from July 12-August 3.
Both plays deal with parenting and family — but at very different life stages. One explores early motherhood through the lens of class, while the other follows a loving, but strained relationship between a father and his adult daughter over the course of a decade.
CRY IT OUT
Cooped up on maternity leave and starved for conversation, Jessie invites her funny and forthright neighbor Lina, also a new mom, for coffee on the patio between their duplexes. Despite their vastly different finances, they become fast friends during naptimes—while someone watches from the mansion on the cliff overlooking Jessie’s yard. Cry it Out is comedy with dark edges that takes an honest look at the absurdities of being home with a baby, the dilemma of returning to work, and how class impacts parenthood and friendship.
“To me this play is about the challenges facing new parents,” says Metzler. “It’s about how unfair the socioeconomics of child care are in this country.” — American Theatre Magazine
Commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cry It Out had its world premiere at the 2017 Humana Festival, and has since been delighting audiences from Los Angeles to Detroit to Washington D.C.
- Press Preview: July 11, 2018 at 8pm
- Opens July 12, 2018 at 8pm
- Closes July 28
BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA
John and his daughter Caitlyn are birders. As they scan the skies over their backyard in suburban Maryland looking for elusive birds, years go by. Relationships begin and end. Children grow up and parents age. The climate and the world change in small and vast ways. Birds of North America takes a close look at the relationship of a father and daughter over the course of a decade as they struggle to understand the parts of one another that defy understanding.
“I found that the emotional landscape of our relationship to our changing world is similar to that in a family,” says Moench. “Hopes, expectations, disappointments, joys, sorrows, and most of all, the relentless passage of time.”
Selected from a pool of over 80 submissions as the winner of Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s Generations new play competition, Birds received its world premiere at BETC in 2017.
- Press Preview: July 18, 2018 at 8pm
- Opens July 19, 2018 at 8pm
- Closes August 3
REPERTORY RETURNS TO RIDGEFIELD
The season performs on a rotating schedule through August 3rd. On Saturday and Sunday, July 20-21 and 27-28, both plays perform — one in the afternoon, the other in the evening — with a dinner break between, giving audiences the opportunity to enjoy both shows in one day. Single admission is $59; a combo ticket for both plays is $98. Senior tickets are $49, and ages 29 and under may purchase a ticket for $29.
Both plays are appropriate for ages 14 and up. Tickets are on sale today at thrownstone.org.
ABOUT THROWN STONE THEATRE COMPANY
Thrown Stone cultivates artists and audiences through opportunity, education, and mentorship, emphasizing new work and unconventional approaches to repertoire. We are committed to integrity, inclusiveness, and using technology to serve the region with theatre of distinction.
