Meet Nancy and Bill, who have moved into the Grand Horizons retirement community after 50 years of marriage. They’re so settled that they can predict each other’s sneezes. Until dinner. Over a quiet meal at home, Nancy drops a bombshell: she wants out.
Cue their adult children, who come rushing in to “save” their parents. Ben, the elder son, knows just how to use his organizational skills to fix the situation – not. Ben’s wife Jess is happy to provide free psychotherapy, both uninvited and unhelpful. Brian, the younger son, offers all sorts of compassion and empathy…while he falls apart emotionally. In the middle of the night he brings to his parents’ home a hookup he’s picked up at a gay bar.
But the comedy is the icing. The cake is a tale of what happens when a wife and mother develops an identity larger than just those two roles. At heart, Grand Horizons is a feminist story. A story of how family members unpack decades of secrets, suppressed sighs, and overdue truths.
This Tony-nominated 2019 show is described as “by turns funny, shocking, and painfully honest” (broadway.com), and “a clever truth bomb of a play…supremely funny” (New York Times).
The cast includes Gay White as Nancy; Gary Mutz as Bill; David Michetti and Rod McFadden as their sons Ben and Brian; Vicki Beckerman as Jess, Ben’s pregnant wife; Mar Jennings as Bill’s girlfriend; and Joe Costella as Brian’s gay friend.
Cue their adult children, who come rushing in to “save” their parents. Ben, the elder son, knows just how to use his organizational skills to fix the situation – not. Ben’s wife Jess is happy to provide free psychotherapy, both uninvited and unhelpful. Brian, the younger son, offers all sorts of compassion and empathy…while he falls apart emotionally. In the middle of the night he brings to his parents’ home a hookup he’s picked up at a gay bar.
But the comedy is the icing. The cake is a tale of what happens when a wife and mother develops an identity larger than just those two roles. At heart, Grand Horizons is a feminist story. A story of how family members unpack decades of secrets, suppressed sighs, and overdue truths.
This Tony-nominated 2019 show is described as “by turns funny, shocking, and painfully honest” (broadway.com), and “a clever truth bomb of a play…supremely funny” (New York Times).
The cast includes Gay White as Nancy; Gary Mutz as Bill; David Michetti and Rod McFadden as their sons Ben and Brian; Vicki Beckerman as Jess, Ben’s pregnant wife; Mar Jennings as Bill’s girlfriend; and Joe Costella as Brian’s gay friend.
“Quartet” tells the story of Cecily, Reggie and Wilfred, all famous opera singers in their day, who are enjoying their autumn years in a home for retired musicians. They are looking forward to performing in a concert to celebrate Verdi’s birthday. When Jean Horton, the fourth member of their famous quartet, takes up residence at the home, three of the four are keen to recreate the third act quartet from “Rigoletto.” Jean, however, unfailingly tactless, overbearing, reminding everyone of her diva status, and also Reggie’s ex-wife, has other ideas. Can the four put aside their old grudges and re-team for one more show-stopping finale? The show must go on in this funny and poignant play.
The four characters include: Cecily Robson (Cissy), in the early throes of memory loss, has a friendly, open, and happy personality, but occasionally “loses it”; Reginald Paget (Reggie), organized, serious and intense, is unglued by Jean’s presence; Wilfred Bond (Wilf), full of humor and fantasies of trysts, is highly focused on sex, however imaginary; Jean Horton, very proud, and reluctant to admit to growing old, is more uncomfortable in the surroundings of the retirement home. She was married a number of times, none of them very happily.
Cast members are: Lee Gale Gruen (Cecily “Cissy” Robson), Neil Fiore (Reginald “Reggie” Paget), Edward Kimak (Wilfred “Wilf” Bond), Jean Wilcox (Jean Horton), and Martha Boesing (Understudy for Jean Horton).
The show’s director, Stephanie Singer, is an actor, director, and an acting and improv teacher. She directed the 2023 multimedia musical play “JFK a Remembrance” at the Rossmoor Event Center and recently directed “Doubt” at the Town Hall Theater in Moraga.
“Flamingo Court” consists of three short plays, each set in a different condo within the same retirement community. In the first act, Angelina, a widow, starts to develop feelings for her neighbor, Dominic. However, her sick husband is in the next room, leading to a series of comedic situations as a friend plays matchmaker. In the second more somber, yet poignant playlet, Clara is dealing with memory loss and the emotional struggle of being moved by her loving husband, Arthur, to a home for dementia care. In the final story, 89-year-old Harry wants to celebrate his birthday by hiring a hooker to scandalize his money-grubbing daughter and her annoying husband.
Cast in the first act are Gail Wetherbee as Angelina, Joe Costella as Dominic, Maria Faer as friend Marie, and Thomas Cassese and Lee Gale Gruen as soap opera actors, with Jon Rasmussen as the narrator. In act two, Martha Hawkins is Clara, and Edward Kimak is Arthur. Cast in the third act are Gary Mutz as Harry, David Michetti as Mark, Vicki Beckerman as Charity, Neil Fiore as Walter, and Toby Cowen as Chi-Chi. Faer, Hawkins, Mutz and Cowen are new to Naked Stage.
“In the end, ‘Flamingo Court’ is a good prescription for any senior who wants to reassess what growing older means in the new millennium,” commented the director Michael McGarty.