Award-winning drama, Doubt, comes to Weston

WESTON, VERMONT. John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, winner of the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, begins a limited run on the Weston Playhouse MainStage on June 24. Currently the most produced play in America, Doubt will soon hit the big screen with a cast that includes Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film was written and directed by Shanley, who won the Academy Award for the screenplay for Moonstruck. The Weston production runs through July 5 in the company’s famed white-columned theatre on the Village Green.

Doubt takes place in a Bronx Catholic school in 1964, where a strong-minded nun must decide whether to voice her concerns about a male colleague. It is a story filled with suspicions and dilemmas so real that audiences find themselves talking about it long after they leave the theatre. Weston Producing Director Malcolm Ewen will direct the production. “In his profile to the published version of the play,” Ewen notes, “Shanley argues that absolute certainty has replaced doubt in modern society. The play raises questions about how we know what we know. Who can be believed? How can we learn anything without using doubt as a tool?”

Weston’s Doubt features John Leonard Thompson (Weston’s Copenhagen, Off Broadway’s Sin) as Father Flynn, Kate Goehring (Weston’s Blithe Spirit and Proof, Actors Theatre of Louisville’s The Clean House) as Sister Aloysius, Lauren Orkus (Berkshire Theatre Festival’s Night of the Iguana) as Sister James and Ora Jones (Steppenwolf Theatre’s The Violet Hour) as Mrs. Muller. The production is designed by Caleb Wertenbaker (set), Kirche Zeile (costumes), Ann G. Wrightson (lights) – recently nominated for a Tony for her design of Broadway’s August: Osage County – and Kimberly Fuhr (sound). Patricia Norcia is dialect consultant and Melissa M. Spengler is Production Stage Manager.

Like all Weston productions, Doubt is complemented by an extensive education and outreach program. Director Malcoln Ewen will discuss the play 30 minutes before curtain on June 24-28 (except Saturday night) in the Playhouse living room. Members of the cast and crew will take part in brief talkbacks following the performances of June 29 to July 5 (except Saturday night).

Reservations for Doubt, the popularafter-show Act IV Cabaret revue, and dinner at the Playhouse’s Cafe at the Falls restaurant may be made at the Playhouse box office window, by calling 802-824-5288, or by visiting www.westonplayhouse.org. MasterCard, Visa and American Express are accepted. Ask about Vermont resident, youth and student discounts.

The Weston Playhouse Theatre Company is a non-profit professional theatre supported in part by funds from the Vermont Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and an ever-growing family of individuals who believe in the impact that the performing arts can have on its community.

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