Munroe Saturday Nights to Explore Modern Immigrant Experience

The following information was provided on behalf of Munroe Saturday Nights.

A new musical in a staged reading, featuring an intergenerational cast, will present the final Munroe Saturday Nights event of the 2012-2013 season on June 1. The play, “To Reach the Golden Door,” is being developed by the new performance group In Good Company, Inc., which presents musical theatre productions tied to historical events.

“To Reach the Golden Door” is written by acclaimed Boston-area playwright Joyce VanDyke with musical direction by Mary Neumann and stage direction by  Melanie Garber. “To Reach the Golden Door” will be presented at the Community of Christ, 1386 Mass Ave (across the street from Munroe Center for the Arts) in order to accommodate a larger audience.  The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and suitable for adults and children grade 4 and older.  Donations are gratefully accepted. Reservations are strongly encouraged:  Saturdays@munroecenter.org.

This contemporary story focuses on Ani, an Armenian-American woman who, with her Italian-American husband, Marco, operates a failing Armenian bakery and store in a Boston neighborhood in transition. Over the course of Memorial Day they encounter neighbors from Mexico, China, Syria, and those whose families come from Eastern Europe, Ireland, and the Caribbean. The discoveries they make about each other and what they share in common change the way they view their lives in America, and the future of the store.

The performers of In Good Company come from the greater Boston area. Many were members of Revels Repertory Company, the now-shuttered touring and educational theatre arm of Revels, Inc., which presented an immigration play set in the early 1900s. Throughout the time the play was performed, requests were received asking for an interpretation of today’s immigration story.  “To Reach the Golden Door” is the result of that work; the script that will be performed on June 1 in the Munroe series will continue to be developed over the summer and will begin touring to schools in the fall of 2013. A full-length version of the show will be performed in early spring 2014.

Joyce VanDyke, an Armenian American, holds a master’s in playwriting from Boston University. Her work “Deported / a dream play,” was produced at the Modern Theatre in 2012. Other plays include “The Oil Thief,” “A Girl's War,” and “Love in the Gulf.”  VanDyke is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellow, and winner of Boston's Elliot Norton Award for best new play and the John Gassner Playwriting Award. 

Mary Neumann has just completed her ninth season as artistic director of the Halalisa Singers, a world music ensemble. She earned her Masters in Music at the Cleveland Institute of Music after degree training at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. She is an active conductor, vocalist, and flute soloist, and has been a frequent performer with the Christmas Revels.

Stage Director Melanie Garber, a graduate of Emerson College, has worked with the Actors Shakespeare Project, Speakeasy Stage Company, the Boston Actors Theatre, and the Huntington Theatre Company. Garber is both a director and an actor, and most recently worked with actor-director Bobbie Steinbach on a theatre education program in the greater Boston area.

The staged reading of “To Reach the Golden Door” extends Munroe Saturday Night’s acclaimed practice of offering readings of new plays to include musicals and properties being developed for school aged children.

Last month John Minigan’s electrifying drama “Concordance” was presented, and earlier in the season, Deirdre Girard’s “Widow’s Walk” and a group of short new works were offered. This program and others in the Munroe Saturday Nights series is supported in part by a grant from the Lexington Council for the Arts, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Munroe Saturday Nights is a performing arts series for the Lexington and greater Boston community. The new 2013-2014 season will kick off in September; to be added to the Munroe Saturday Nights mailing list, email Saturdays@munroecenter.org. Munroe Saturday Nights performances are free to the public with donations gratefully accepted. Seating is limited.