Lincoln Center Theater (under the direction of André Bishop) is pleased to announce its upcoming production of Becky Nurse of Salem, a new play by Sarah Ruhl, directed by Rebecca Taichman. Becky Nurse of Salem will begin previews Thursday, October 27 and open on Monday, November 21 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street). Becky Nurse of Salem will feature Tina Benko, Candy Buckley, Alicia Crowder, Deirdre O’Connell, Thomas Jay Ryan, Julian Sanchez, and Bernard White.
Becky Nurse of Salem, a dark contemporary comedy by Sarah Ruhl, follows Becky (Deirdre O’Connell), a modern-day descendent of accused witch Rebecca Nurse in Salem. Becky, who works at the local witch museum, seems to be dogged by bad luck. Is it a curse from her past? Or her inability to navigate her present? Looking for love and redemption through spells, pills, and a bartender named Bob (Bernard White), Becky is a contemporary pilgrim for the Lock Her Up era. A play about the legacy of misogyny, witchcraft, and even Arthur Miller, Becky Nurse is a truth-teller for our times.
Becky Nurse of Salem will have sets by Riccardo Hernandez, costumes by Emily Rebholz, lighting by Barbara Samuels, sound by Palmer Hefferan, and projections by Tal Yarden. Caroline Englander is the Stage Manager.
Sarah Ruhl (Playwright). LCT: How to Transcend a Happy Marriage; The Oldest Boy; In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize). Other plays include For Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday; Stage Kiss; Dear Elizabeth; Passion Play, a cycle (PEN American Award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award); Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced around the country and internationally, translated into fourteen languages. Her books include Smile, a memoir; 100 Essays I Don’t have Time to Write; and Love Poems in Quarantine. Opera: Libretto for Eurydice (Metropolitan Opera, composer Matthew Aucoin). Awards: MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, Whiting Writers’ Award, MacArthur Fellowship, Lily Award, PEN Center Award for a mid-career playwright. Education: M.F.A., Brown University (with Paula Vogel). Teaches at the Yale School of Drama.
Rebecca Taichman (Director). LCT: How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, The Oldest Boy, The Luck of the Irish (LCT3). In 2017, Rebecca won a Tony Award for Best Director of a Play, an Obie Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for her direction of Indecent written by Paula Vogel. Indecent opened at The Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and The Vineyard Theatre before opening on Broadway. Rebecca has directed on and off Broadway, new plays and old, musicals and opera. She has worked with writers Jocelyn Bioh, Sarah Ruhl, Danai Guirira, Brian Selznick, Kirsten Greenidge, Nico Muhly, David Adjmi, Lynn Nottage and Nick Payne, among others. She has worked at theaters such as Roundabout, Lincoln Center Theater, The Public, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Old Globe, ART, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter, Woolly Mammoth, among others. Rebecca is a resident director at Roundabout, a Henry Crown Fellow at The Aspen Institute, and a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. www.rebeccataichman.com
This season, in addition to Becky Nurse of Salem, Lincoln Center Theater is also producing The Nosebleed, written and directed by Aya Ogawa, currently in previews at the Claire Tow Theater, opening Monday, August 1 and running through Sunday, August 28; Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot, featuring a book by Academy and Emmy Award winning writer Aaron Sorkin, based on the original book by Alan Jay Lerner, and direction by Bartlett Sher, beginning performances on Thursday, March 9, 2023 and opening on Thursday, April 13, 2023 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater; as well as an additional season of productions to be announced.
Lincoln Center Theater is proud to receive a grant from the Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater for Becky Nurse of Salem. This production is also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. LCT’s production season is generously supported by the LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust. LCT also deeply appreciates the Howard Gilman Foundation’s special generosity.