Made Possible in Part by:
Mollie & John Byrnes
STEW
Regional Premiere by Zora Howard
Directed by Rosalind Bevan
One of the “11 theater productions to see this summer” by WBUR‘s Jacquinn Sinclair
One of the “7 theater productions to see this summer” on BOSTON.COM
Three generations of women gather at their family home to cook and honor an anniversary together. Tensions simmer with all the Tucker women under one roof, and things come to a boil as the outside world begins to intrude upon the sanctity of Mama’s kitchen.
Zora Howard’s (TV’s Premature) award-winning play STEW makes its regional premiere at Gloucester Stage July 7 to 23, directed by Rosalind Bevan making her GSC directing debut. The 2021 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama is a hilarious and haunting drama that explores the unbreakable bond between three generations of Black women and reveals the power that loss holds over our lives when we refuse to share it with others.
Performances are Wednesday & Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday & Saturday at 8:00pm, and matinees Saturday & Sunday at 3:00pm indoors at Gloucester Stage Company, 267 East Main Street, Gloucester MA.
JULY 7 – 23
Performances
7:30 pm, WED + THU
8:00 pm, FRI + SAT
3:00 pm, SAT + SUN
Preview Performances
July 7 + 8
Talk Backs
July 16 + 23
Champagne Opening
Sunday, July 9
Run Time
90 minutes, no intermission
Content Advisory
Critical Praise for Gloucester Stage’s STEW
“a powerful story with twists and turns that we don’t always see coming.“
“the recipe for STEW [is] very well blended indeed, making the story absolutely enticing“
“While they peel carrots, blanch beans, wash lettuce, and bicker, the cast expertly executes”
“‘Stew paints a timeless and universal picture of family life, with all its messiness and serendipity.”
Shelley Sackett, New England Theater Mirror (read full review here)
“Credit (Rosalind) Bevan for putting together a layered dish of emotions and relationships, one that comfortably contains laughs, love, and silent despair.”
David Greenham, The Arts Fuse (read full review here)
“It builds with added layers that bring extraordinary dimension to each character as they bond and tease out haunting details that lie just beneath the surface of that familial banter, poking and joking.”
Erika Brown, The Cricket (read full review here)
“The ‘bookend’ structure of the play compliments its theme around the cyclical reltionship of these women and brings new questions unanswered at the final curtain.”
Kati Nalbandian, Creative Collective Massachusetts (read full review here)
“The plot simmers ever so lightly before boiling over to its dramatic end.”
Jacquinn Sinclair, WBUR (read full review here)
Made Possible in Part by:
Meet the Creative Team
Zora Howard / Playwright
Zora Howard is a Harlem-bred writer and performer. Plays include STEW, AtGN, Bust, and In Good Faith. Her work has been developed by Page 73 Productions, SPACE at Ryder Farm, Pipeline Theatre Company, Yale University, and Collaborative Artists Bloc, among others. As a performer, she has appeared on HBO, TV One, PBS, and NBC. In 2019, her feature film Premature, which she co-wrote and starred in, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and will be released by IFC Films in early 2020. She is a member of the 2019 Interstate 73 Writers Group and Pipeline PlayLab. She holds a BA from Yale University and an MFA from UCSD.
Rosalind Bevan / Director
Rosalind Bevan is a director and producer. Rosalind is currently the Casting & Producing Associate at The Huntington Theatre Company and Creative Producer at Newton Theatre Company. Some of her directing credits include NO CHILD… and TWILIGHT LOS ANGELES, 1992 at Newton Theatre Company, ECHOES by Patrick Gabridge and THE 54TH IN ’22 by Kirsten Greenidge, two short audio plays at The Huntington. THE MOORS and PROOF at Boston University. And she assistant directed WITCH at The Huntington and GREATER GOOD at Company One. She has also directed a number of readings and workshops.
Roz has also led a series of workshops about professional theatre and audition technique at various colleges and universities including Boston Conservatory, Northeastern University, and Wabash College. You may have also read her theatre criticism in WBUR’s The ARTery. Roz holds a BFA in Theatre Arts Design & Production with an Emphasis in Directing from Boston University.
Meet the Cast
Janelle Grace / Nelly
Janelle Grace is a St. Louis born, Boston based actor. She is currently studying at Boston University and has been able to work and collaborate with some incredible award winning and award deserving actors and directors. Some of her favorite credits include Agatha in The Moors, Ensemble in Revolt. She said. Revolt Again. Aaron in Titus Andronicus, and Nurse in the Ain Gordon Project.
Breezy Leigh* / Lillian
Breezy Leigh is an actress and media personality known for BARSpodcast and the television shows Baby Mama Drama and Step Into My Office. After working in the corporate world after college, Leigh pursued her passion to positively impact and inspire through entertainment. Her theater credits include Off Broadway: Le Blanc (People’s Improv Theater); A Sketch of New York (The Producers’ Club Theater). Regional: Joy & Pandemic (The Huntington), Superstitions (OKC Rep); Oedipus Rex/ Symphony of Psalms (SF Symphony); Animals Out of Paper (Chautauqua Theater Company). Film: Step into my Office (BRIC TV); Baby Mama Drama (Chela Films). She received her MFA in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater and Honors BA from University of Virginia.
Cheryl D. Singleton* / Mama
Sadiyah Dyce Janai Stephens / Lil Mama
Sadiyah Dyce Janai Stephens (she/they) is excited to make her Gloucester Debut. Dyce is a New York City native, raised in The Bronx, and has been afforded opportunities with plenty of different people, in many different environments, allowing for her to experience plenty of narratives first hand. With many points of intersectionality, Stephens is excited to bridge communities through the conversations they don’t have. She intends to pave her own path in the theatrical world while answering the big questions even if it means a new answer every day. She has recently earned a BFA in Contemporary Theatre at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Her other credits include Bright Half Life (Vicky), Midsummer Nights Dream (Hermia), Everybody (Usher/God/Understanding), TJ Loves Sally 4Ever (Annette), and The Wiz (Dorothy).
Chris Everett / Understudy Mama & Lillian
Chris Everett (she/her) is an Elliot Norton Award nominated actor, singer, writer, and voiceover artist based in Boston. Recent theater credits include Bud, Not Buddy (Wheelock Family Theater) and the debut performances of Confidential Informant (TC Squared), I’ll Be There for You (2nd Act), and can i touch it? (Company One). Television credits include, Kevin Can F*** Himself (AMC), SMILF (SHOWTIME), and Castle Rock (Hulu). Film credits include Don’t Look Up, I Care A Lot (Netflix), About Fate, Godmothered (Disney+), The Good House, and TED. Chris is also the lead singer for the blues, funk & soul band, Umami.
Serenity S’rae / Understudy Lil’ Mama & Nelly
Serenity was just seen making her Boston professional debut at Gloucester Stage as Sibyl in Private Lives. Hailing from the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, the actress, writer, and producer, is graduating from Boston University’s School of Theatre this May with a BFA in Theatre Arts Performance. Serenity’s passion for the arts began early, and she honed her skills at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy, studying theater, where she spent her final two years of high school. Her theater credits include Uncle Vanya, Dontrell Who Kissed The Sea, and Stupid Fucking Bird. While at Boston University, S’rae has produced two theater shows and was commissioned to write plays, showcasing her versatility as a theatre maker.
Meet the Production Team
Aubrey Dube / Sound Designer
Aubrey Dube’s previous design credits include Bluest Eye, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Clydes (Huntington), Paradise Blue, The Thin Place (Gloucester Stage Company), Trayf Good (New Rep), Clydes (Berkeley Rep), Queens, Torch Song, House of Ramon (Moonbox Productions), Vinegar Tom, Monster, Serious Money, Pentecost (PTP/NYC); Cymbeline, Pilgrims of the Night (Suffolk University), Orlando (Brandeis University), Everybody, Antipodes, Love and Information, As You Like It, Sensitive Guys (Northeastern University), We Are Pussy Riot (Colgate University), Big Love, The Imaginary Invalid, In the Next Room, and Man of La Mancha (Middlebury College); A Taste of Honey (Boston Center for American Performance); Delirium, Daddy Issues, and The Hothouse (Boston University); Winter People(Boston Playwrights Theatre); Fences (The Umbrella Theatre) and Downtown Crossing, Vietgone (Company One). Aubrey holds an MFA in Sound Design from Boston University. Originally from Botswana, he now lives in Boston and hosts a soccer talk show on youtube called @footballpowerhour.
Sunny Feldman / Assistant Director & Apprentice
Sunny is a multi talented artist with a passion for devised, immersive, and multidisciplinary theatre. She graduated from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a BFA in Contemporary Theatre. She worked with the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC, Emerald Necklace Conservancy’s Beyond Walls program, Boston Playwright’s Theatre, INSeries Theater, and Little Theatre of Alexandria.
Karen “KJ” Gilmer / Costume Designer
Ms. Gilmer earned her BA in French at West Chester and an MFA in Costume Design at Boston University. She has traveled extensively designing costumes for Opera, Theatre and Dance. Some of her favorite designs include Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, She Kills Monsters, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, Marie Antoinette by David Adjimi, Kander and Ebbs’ The Scottsboro Boys, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Intimate Apparel, The Royale, All My Sons, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, The Way of the World, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Carmen Jones and Rodeo with Point Park Dance Company.
Miranda Gonzalez / Assistant Stage Manager & Apprentice
Originally from Brownsville, TX, Miranda is a recent graduate at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA where they received their BA in Theatre in addition to minors in Philosophy, Communications, and Pre-Law. They look forward to forging new connections between intersectionality, the principle of proximity, and theatre.
Jenna McFarland Lord / Scenic Design
Gloucester Stage Co.: Over 50 shows from 2002- present including: Grand Horizons, Between the Sheets, 39 Steps, Cyrano, New Electric Ballroom, North Shore Fish, Driving Miss Daisy, Belle of Amherst, Round and Round the Garden. Other Selected Area Credits: Lyric Stage: Sister Act, Fabulation, Last 5 Years,Twelfth Night, Warrior Class, November, This Wonderful Life, SpeakEasy Stage Co.: The PROM, BLKS (Elliot Norton for Design),Shakespeare in Love, Men on Boats, Bootycandy, The Color Purple, The Drowsy Chaperone , The Great American Trailer Park Musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Actors Shakespeare Project: Hamlet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, New Repertory Theatre: Collected Stories, Cherry Docs, Greater Boston Stage: Calendar Girls, Distant Music, Something’s Afoot, Guys on Ice, The Mousetrap, Central Square Theatre: Paradise, The Convert Off-Broadway: La Mama: Man in Snow New York Playwrights Lab: The Secret of Mme. Bonnard’s Bath. Ms. McFarland Lord is currently the set design teacher at the Boston Arts Academy, a public high school for the arts. jennamcfarlandlord.com (she/her)
Pat-Rice Rooney* / Production Stage Manager
Pat-rice Rooney was last seen at Gloucester Stage as the AEA Production Stage Manager of Grand Horizons. Recent Gloucester Stage Credits include Think of Me Tuesday, (PSM*) Seared (ASM), Tiny Beautiful Things (ASM) and The 39 Steps (ASM). Recent Boston Area Credits include Company One’s and The ART’s Black Super Hero Magic Mama (PSM). Lyric Stage Company’s The Book of Will (ASM*), Greater Boston Stage’s All is Calm (ASM*) and Moonbox Productions Rocky Horror Show (PSM*) She graduated from Millikin University with a BFA in Stage Management in 2020. She’d like to thank everyone at Gloucester Stage Company for their trust and this opportunity. Claire R for dealing with her shenanigans and Mum, and Duck for their unyielding support. Hope you enjoy the show!
Emme Shaw / Props Designer
Emme is thrilled to be back with Gloucester Stage! Previous work with GSC includes: Out of the Mouths of Babes, Cyrano, The 39 Steps, Native Gardens, Baskerville, Reparations, and Paradise Blue. Other recent credits include Miss Holmes Returns with Greater Boston Stage (design/acting), and BLKS (Elliot Norton recipient design), English, Fairview, and The Prom with Speakeasy Stage. Emme is the Properties designer and supervisor at Boston College Theater Department, and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon Drama. Thank you to Phoebe.
Kat Zhou † / Lighting Designer
Kat C. Zhou is a lighting designer for theatre, dance, and opera, currently based in New York City. She is delighted to return to Gloucester Stage, having previously designed Mr. Fullerton, Between the Sheets; Tiny Beautiful Things; and Reparations. Recent credits in the Boston area include The Chinese Lady (Central Square Theater, *Elliot Norton Award), Wild Goose Dreams (Speakeasy Stage), X, the Life and Times of Malcolm X (BMOP/Odyssey Opera), and BLKS (Speakeasy Stage, *Elliot Norton Award). Kat was the inaugural recipient of the Howell Binkley Fellowship (2021). Formerly, she served as the artist-in-residence at the Signet Society (2018-2020), and was the president/managing director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players (2013-2017). She holds an MFA in lighting design from Boston University and an AB in mathematics from Harvard College. More info: katzhoudesign.com
Critical Praise for Zora Howard’s STEW
“comic broad strokes and rapid-fire dialogue”
“intimate drama [that] invites a comfortable familiarity”
“A captivating story that’s intimate, funny, & heartbreaking in equal measure.”