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Out of the Mouths of Babes

Show Sponsor

John and Mollie Byrnes

August 11 – September 2

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Written and Directed by Israel Horovitz

About the Play
The New England premiere of Israel Horovitz’s latest comedy.

Four women arrive in Paris for the funeral of the 100-year-old man who loved each of them–at times variously, at times simultaneously. For 24 hours they share his apartment, delicious secrets, and a dead cat.

Out of the Mouths of Babes comes to Gloucester Stage after a sell-out run in NYC last summer, and is currently en route to its premiere in London’s West End. Gloucester Stage’s founding artistic director returns to direct his latest comedy, with a cast featuring GSC favorite Paula Plum.

“Israel Horovitz knows how to write a solid comic line that works without sounding like a punch line on a television sitcom. You won’t go away depressed or troubled about the world we live in, but you will be sweetly and happily entertained…” Rex Reed New York Observer, June 2016.

Run Time: 1 hr 45 mins (including intermission)

Suggested Age: 13+

Interested in the artwork onstage? Get a closer look here.

MAKING THEATER SERIES
Making Theater: The Myriad Details of Props Design
Friday, Sept 1 at 5:30 | RSVP
This will be a talk with Out of the Mouths of Babes Properties Designer Emme Shaw.
The event is free, but there is an option with your RSVP to purchase a meal from the Last Stop.

TALKBACKS
Sunday, August 20 & August 27
immediately following the 2pm matinee

While tickets to talkbacks are not required, seating is limited and preference will be given to those who have purchased tickets to the preceding performance

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Paula Plum* (Evvie)
Paula Plum is the recipient of five IRNE awards, the 2007 Eliot Norton Award for Best Actress, the 2004 Eliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence, and the 2003 Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University. In 2009 she was one of five actors nation-wide to receive the Fox Actor Fellowship in association with SpeakEasy Stage. As a founding member of The Actors’ Shakespeare Project she has played Cleopatra, Beatrice, Lady Macbeth, Touchstone, and Phedre. At the Lyric Stage she has appeared in Dial M For Murder, 33 Variations, Private Lives, The Goat or Who is Sylvia?, Miss Witherspoon, Death of A Salesman, Three Tall Women and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She was Artist in Residence and SpeakEasy Stage from 2010 through 2013 and conducted workshops in Mask and Handling The Hot Moments, How Actors Negotiate Intimacy Onstage and authored the biographical play What Lips My Lips Have Kissed based on the life of poetessEdna St. Vincent Millay. She has appeared regionally at the Gloucester Stage Company, the American Repertory Theatre, the New Repertory Theatre, the Huntington Theatre, and Elm Shakespeare. Film credits include: Mermaids, Malice,Next Stop Wonderland, and Irrational Man directed by Woody Allen. Television: Science Court (three seasons ABC) and co-creator and star of The Dick & Paula Celebrity Special for FX and three feature films for the Lifetime Channel.

Ms. Plum is a cum laude graduate of Boston University and has studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, the Dell’Arte Institute, and Ecole Phillipe Gaulier, Paris. She has been published in American Theatre magazine and is married to actor Richard Snee.


Debra Wise

Debra Wise* (Evelyn)
Debra Wise is the Artistic Director of Underground Railway Theater, in-residence at Central Square Theater, Cambridge. During URT’s decades as a touring company (1979-2008), she helped create over 30 new works, and toured them nationally and internationally to venues ranging from Lincoln Center to public schools; titles included Sanctuary – The Spirit of Harriet Tubman, Home is Where, InTOXICating and The Christopher Columbus Follies. She led URT collaborations with Boston Symphony Orchestra (Firebird, Creation of the World, Tempest), Boston’s Museum of Science (Aging Puzzle), New Center for Arts and Culture (Jewish Women and Their Salons), the Mary Baker Eddy Library, the MFA and the ICA (Art InterACTions), and the Cambridge Arts Council (theater in dialogue with public art). Since creating Central Square Theater with The Nora Theatre Company, she co-founded Catalyst Collaborative @ MIT (CST’s unique science theater partnership with MIT), and led partnerships with Mount Auburn Cemetery (Our Town) and the National Park Service (Roots of Liberty – The Haitian Revolution and the American Civil War, performed with over 50 performers and guest artists Danny Glover and Edwidge Danticat). URT has won two Elliott Norton awards under Wise’s leadership; The Convert (Outstanding Production) and Bedlam’s St. Joan (Best Visiting Production). Recent acting projects included Homebody (a monologue by Tony Kushner) and The Midvale High School Fiftieth Reunion (by Alan Brody). Other appearances on the CST stage include Copenhagen, Mr g, Brundibar, The Other Place, Distracted, The How and the Why, Einstein’s Dreams, From Orchids to Octopi: An Evolutionary Love Story, Yesterday Happened: Remembering H.M., Breaking the Code, Arabian Nights and A Christmas Memory. Acting on other Boston stages has included Mistero Buffo (Boston Poet’s Theatre); A Boston Marriage and Orson’s Shadow (New Rep), Brooklyn Boy (Speakeasy), and Chosen Child (Boston Playwrights Theatre); in NYC, The Haggadah (The Public, with Julie Taymor). Wise has been nominated for outstanding performances by both the Elliot Norton Awards and the Independent Reviewers of NE. Her work as a playwright includes States of Grace, inspired by the stories, poems and essays of Grace Paley; and Alice’s Adventures Underground, based on the works of Lewis Carroll. She collaborates each summer with Harvard’s Project Zero, training educators on using theater to help students think more deeply across the curriculum.

 



Sarah Hickler* (Janice)
Sarah Hickler is very happy to be making her Gloucester Stage debut. Credits include The Gift (Mercury Theater, U.K.), The Mysteries (Shakespeare & Co./Revels), The Tempest (Boston Theater Works), Café Corvido (Boston Playwright’s Theater), Harmonious Proportions (Women OnTop Theater Festival), Elegy (Institute of Contemporary Art), and as a principle performer in DibbleDance Theater in ten seasons at Shakespeare & Co. She performs regularly with the International Action Theater Ensemble, and has collaborated and performed original work presented throughout New England, and at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival and Theaterlab in NYC.

Ms. Hickler has been choreographer/movement director on productions for Huntington Theater, Nora Theater, Gloucester Stage, Merrimack Rep, Theater Offensive, Boston Theater Works, Southwest Shakespeare Co., and was a resident artist for three seasons with the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, and one season with Actor’s Shakespeare Project.  She has directed productions for Sun Valley Shakespeare Festival, Sedona Shakespeare, MIT Shakespeare Ensemble and Emerson Stage. She has trained actors and theatre educators in graduate and undergraduate programs at such institutions as Brandeis University, Boston University, Boston Conservatory, and Shakespeare & Co., and is currently the Head of Acting and an Associate Professor at Emerson College in Boston.

 


Obehi Janice* (Marie-Belle)

Obehi Janice is an award-winning actress, writer and comedian. A graduate of Georgetown University, Obehi was named “Boston’s Best Actress” by The Improper Bostonian in 2014. Her comedic short, BLACK GIRL YOGA, won the Reel 13/AfroPunk Film Competition (WNET/New York Public Media). A leader in the millennial renaissance of socio-political arts and culture, Obehi works extensively on stage, screen and as a voice actress in video games, radio, and commercials. Recent stage credits include The Gift Horse (New Repertory Theatre)Love’s Labour’s Lost (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), We’re Gonna Die (Company One Theatre/American Repertory Theater; IRNE Award, Best Solo Performance), An Octoroon (Company One Theatre/ArtsEmerson), Mr g (Underground Railway Theater) and her solo show FUFU & OREOS (Bridge Repertory Theater). As a comedian and storyteller, she has been featured on You’re the Expert, Story Collider and The Moth. Her potent writing has been featured in Kinfolks: a journal of Black expression. Obehi also works as a director and producer. A gifted public speaker, she enjoys sharing her thoughts on faith, identity, creativity and mental health. She has garnered esteem and recognition from American Theatre Magazine, Bustle, WBUR, DigBoston, For Harriet, and The Boston Globe. She is a Luminary Artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the recipient of a TCG Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowship. Most recently, her full-length play, Ole White Sugah Daddy, received a developmental workshop and staged reading at Speakeasy Stage Company.  Out of the Mouths of Babes is her Gloucester Stage debut. www.obehijanice.com

Israel Horovitz

Israel Horovitz (Playwright & Director)
Israel’s plays have been translated and performed in more than 30 languages, worldwide. His 70+ plays include Line (now in 39th year of continuous performance, off-Broadway, at 13th St. Repertory Theatre), The Indian Wants The Bronx, Rats, Morning, The Primary English Class, The Wakefield Plays, The Widow’s Blind Date, Today I Am A Fountain Pen, Park Your Car In Harvard Yard, North Shore Fish, Fighting Over Beverley, Lebensraum, My Old Lady, Free Gift, Cat-Lady, Stations of the Cross, One Under, 50 Years of Caddieing, Speaking Well of the Dead, Unexpected Tenderness, Fast Hands, Security, A Mother’s Love, Sins of the Mother, 6 Hotels (including The Audition Play, Fiddleheads and Lovers, Speaking of Tushy, 2nd Violin, Beirut Rocks, and The Hotel Play), Compromise, The Secret of Mme. Bonnard’s Bath, The Vote in Orange, The P Word, The Bump, Virtual Alex, and his newest play Gloucester Blue. Horovitz’s play My Old Lady is in the repertory of The Moscow Art Theatre. Screenplays include Author! Author!, The Strawberry Statement (Prix du Jury, Cannes Film Festival), Sunshine (European Academy Award – Best Screenplay), New York, I Love You, and EMMY and Golden Globe-nominated James Dean. Horovitz wrote, directed and performed the award-winning documentary 3 Weeks After Paradise. Awards include the OBIE (twice), the Prix de Plaisir du Théâtre, The Prix Italia (for radio plays), The Sony Radio Academy Award (for Man In Snow), The Writers Guild of Canada Best Screenwriter Award, The Christopher Award, The Drama Desk Award, an Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Elliot Norton Prize, a Lifetime Achievement Award from B’Nai Brith, The Literature Prize of Washington College, an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Salem (Massachusetts) State College, Boston Public Library’s Literary Lights Award, The Walker Hancock Prize, and many others.

Horovitz is Founding Artistic Director of Gloucester Stage Company (Gloucester, Massachusetts), and is active Artistic Director of the New York Playwrights Lab. He teaches a master class in screenwriting at Columbia University and La Fèmis, France’s national film school, and a playwriting master class at University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Horovitz visits France, frequently, where he often directs French-language productions of his plays.  He is the most-produced American playwright in French theatre history, and has recently been decorated as Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France’s highest honor for foreign artists. His memoires Un New-Yorkais a Paris have recently been published in France by Grasset. He also works frequently in Italy, where he is co-Artistic Director of Compagnia Horovitz-Paciotto. The 70/70 Horovitz Project, created by NYC’s Barefoot Theatre, began on Horovitz’s 70th birthday.

During the year between 31 March 2009 and 31 March 2010, 70 of Horovitz’s plays were given productions and/or readings by theatres in more than 20 countries around the globe.


Jenna McFarland Lord (Set Design)
Gloucester Stage Co: Resident set designer from 2002-2013,Gloucester Blue, New Electric Ballroom, North Shore Fish, Spring Awakening,Living Together, Table Manners, Trying, Breath of Life, Sins of the Mother, Doubt: A Parable, The Widow’s Blind Date, The Belle of Amherst, My Old Lady, Dinner with Friends, LifeX3, Spinning into Butter, The Loman Family Picnic.  Other Area Credits:Grand Concourse, Bootycandy, Big Fish, The Color Purple, In The Heights, The Drowsy Chaperone (IRNE award nomination for Best Set Design), The Great American Trailer Park Musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Theatre District, and Moonlight Room (SpeakEasy Stage Company); Something’s Afoot, Distant Music (both IRNE award nominations for Best Set Design), Steel Magnolias, The Porch, Guys on Ice, The Mousetrap (Addison Award for Best Set Design) (Stoneham Theatre); Paradise,The Convert (Elliot Norton for Best Production 2016) (Central SquareTheatre); Collected Stories, Cherry Docs (both IRNE award nominations for Best Set Design) (New Repertory Theatre); Warrior Class, Groundswell, November (Lyric Stage Company of Boston); The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth(Actors Shakespeare Project); Don Giovanni (New England Conservatory); Three Penny Opera, The Full Monty, Twelfth Night, Cosi Fan Tutte (The Boston Conservatory); A View from the Bridge, Escape From Happiness (Brandeis University). Off-Broadway: The Secret of Mme. Bonnard’s Bath (New York Playwrights’ Lab) Man in Snow (La Mama). Ms. McFarland Lord received her theatre training at Emerson College and she is currently the set design teacher at the Boston Arts Academy.


Emme Shaw

Emme Shaw (Property Design)
Emme trained at Carnegie Mellon’s esteemed Drama Conservatory. She is proud to say she has worked with the GSC and Mr Horovitz for many years and is very glad to be working with this crew now. This is the fourth time Jenna Macfarland and Emme have collaborated and it is still a blast.

 

 


Russ Swift† (Lighting Design)
GSC: Resident Lighting Designer for the past 11 years. Productions include: Sweet and Sad; Out of SternoThe New Electric Ballroom; The Flick; Jacques Brel; Fences; Spring Awakening; North Shore Fish; Carnival; “Master Harold” . . . and the Boys; The Most Happy Fella; Fighting Over Beverley; Table Manners; Trying; The Breath of Life; Sins of the Mother; Billy Bishop Goes to War; Going to St. Ives; Dear Liar; The Belle of Amherst; Ponies; The Widow’s Blind Date; The Secret of Mme. Bonnard’s Bath; The Price; The Heidi Chronicles, Long Day’s Journey Into Night; My Old Lady; Spinning into Butter. Boston-area (select): The Hobbit (Wheelock Family Theatre); Scarlett Letter (Worcester Foothills); It’s All True (Lyric Stage Company of Boston); Rags (The Boston Conservatory); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, 2010 and 1012 Gala (Boston Arts Academy). Other: Mr. Swift has designed for Tri-Cities Opera, the Jewish Theatre of New England, the Publick Theatre, Chamber Theatre Productions, Boston Lyric Opera, the Worcester Forum Theatre, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, the Theatre of Newburyport, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Bristol Riverside Theatre, American Ensemble Theatre, Stephan Petronio Dance Company, the Caldwell Theatre, KewPee Corporation and the Trinidad Theatre Workshop. Mr. Swift has been on the faculty or staff at Northeastern University, Emerson College, Endicott College, Westfield State University, Eastern Connecticut State University, Salem State University, Community College of Rhode Island, and Groton School. He is currently the production manager for the Theatre Department at Boston College. Russ resides in Wilbraham with his wife, Mayre, and daughter, Michaela.


Jane Alois Stein† (Costume Design)
This marks the 20th show Jane has designed at GSC!  She is delighted to be back in Gloucester.  In addition to GSC, her designs have been seen off-Broadway; Berkeley Rep.; Merrimack Rep.; Peterborough Players; Theatre-by-the-Sea; American Repertory Theatre; Connecticut Rep.; the New Rep.; and Virginia Stage Company.

A member of the United Scenic Artists union, and the head of the Costume Design/Technology program at Virginia Tech. Prior to moving to Virginia,vJane taught for 12 years at Wheaton College.


David Remedios

David Remedios† (Sound Design)
David Remedios has previously designed sound for The Effect, The Totalitarians, The Flick and An Ideal Husband at Gloucester Stage. Recent credits include Romeo and Juliet and Our American Hamlet (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); The Niceties and Wild Horses (Contemporary American Theater Festival); Faithful Cheaters (Trinity Rep); Finish Line (Boston Theater Company at Shubert Theatre); Women in Jeopardy! (Onstage Theatre Award), The Making of a Great Moment (also at Z Space, San Francisco), and Abigail/1702 (Merrimack Rep); The Scottsboro Boys (IRNE Award, SpeakEasy Stage); Uncanny Valley (Stoneham Theatre). Upcoming projects include The Royale, KNYUM, and The Villains’ Supper Club (Merrimack Rep), and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (SpeakEasy Stage). David is a proud member of United Scenic Artist Local USA 829. remediossound.com.


Jenna Worden

Jenna Worden* (Stage Manager)
Jenna Worden is delighted to return for her third season with Gloucester Stage. Favorite GSC credits include Out of Sterno, The Flick, and The Totalitarians. In addition, Jenna has worked with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (Our American Hamlet), WGBH (A Christmas Celtic Sojourn), Childsplay AZ, and Phoenix Theatre. She recently signed on as Programs Coordinator of Brighter Boston, a non-profit partnership providing teenagers with professional internships in technical theatre and event production. Jenna earned both her BA in Theatre Studies and BSEd in History from Northern Arizona University.

In Horovitz’s ‘Out of the Mouths of Babes,’ there are four sides to every story

“This New England premiere of “Out of the Mouths of Babes’’ has a stealthy charm that wins you over”
The Boston Globe

BWW Review: N.E. Premiere of Israel Horovitz Comedy, OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES

“Horovitz is a comic wordsmith whose dialogue sets off ripples of laughs about situations ranging from mundane to absurd. In the hands of a less-skilled writer, some of these scenes could be fodder for a television sitcom, but Horovitz differentiates his characters well and lets their quips and speeches define them.”
Broadway World

“Babes” Shine in Horovitz’s Latest at GSC

“In addition to Horovitz’ ability to write legitimately funny dialogue for the opposite sex, it is the performances of the quartet of actresses that makes this play so enjoyable.”
The Theatre Mirror

REVIEW: Horovitz’s ‘Out of the Mouths of Babes’ entertains at Gloucester Stage

“Interactions between these four wonderful actresses are consistently entertaining as the play works its way through to a spirited conclusion. It’s a fun night out for theater-goers.”
Wicked Local

‘Out Of The Mouths Of Babes’ Comes Sexism And Snap At Gloucester Stage

“Israel Horovitz’s Out of the Mouths of Babes is a droll, snappy comedy with an intoxicating whiff of Blithe Spirit.”
WBUR The ARTery

Israel Horovitz’s latest play is a witty comedy

“Horovitz knows how to write comedy and the jokes work, especially when delivered with caustic disdain by Plum and Wise.”
Wakefield Daily Item

A showcase in Gloucester for a quartet of acclaimed actresses

“[Out of the Mouths of Babes] is a comic showcase for a quartet of some of Boston’s finest actresses — Sarah Hickler, Obehi Janice, Paula Plum, and Debra Wise — all of whom bring their own detailed impressions of their characters to the stage.”
The Boston Globe

Set of play premieres with gallery of local art

A discussion of the artwork onstage in the production featuring an interview with properties designer Emme Shaw.
The Gloucester Daily Times

Horovitz directing premiere of his latest comedy in Gloucester

An interview with playwright and director Israel Horovitz about Out of the Mouths of Babes
The Gloucester Daily Times

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

“Gloucester Stage founding artistic director Israel Horovitz’s Out of the Mouths of Babes stops in Gloucester for its New England premiere between runs in New York and London.”
The Improper Bostonian

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA)
° Member of Stage Directors & Choreographers Society (SDC)
† Represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA-829 of the IATSE (USA)

Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30pm with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:00pm. In the final week of the run there will be an additional Tuesday evening performance at 7:30pm.

Hard Travelin’ with Woody
Written and performed by Randy Noojin
Sunday, Aug. 13, 7:30pm
BUY TICKETS $25

Seeger
Written and performed by Randy Noojin
Monday, Aug. 14, 7:30pm
BUY TICKETS $25

New Shorts
Written and directed by Israel Horovitz
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 7:30pm
FREE

Travels with a Masked Man
Written and performed by John Hadden
Sunday, Aug. 27, 7:30pm
BUY TICKETS $25

The Pizzicato Effect
Created and performed by Brendan Hughes
Monday, Aug. 28, 7:30pm
BUY TICKETS $25