Amherst, MA— Silverthorne Theater Company is pleased to announce the final mainstage production in their 2022-2023 season of all women playwrights and directors: The Cake, a comedy by Bekah Brustetter. Brunstetter is a founding member of The Kilroys and writer for the NBC hit series “This is Us”. Directed by Gina Kaufmann and assistant directed by Ezekiel Baskin, The Cake will run June 9th – 17th, 2023 at Emily Dickinson Hall Theater at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. Tickets are available at tinyurl.com/thecake23 at $25 general admission, with discounted tickets for students, seniors, and audience members 25 and under. Silverthorne Theater Company is a proud participant in the Card to Culture program, offering $5 tickets to SNAP/EBT, WIC, and ConnectCare cardholders.
The cast is anchored by Elizabeth Aspenlieder*, a company member at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, where she has performed in over 30 plays over the past 20 years, including Regan in King Lear, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hermione in A Winter’s Tale. She won Boston’s prestigious Elliot Norton award for her solo performance in the comedy Bad Dates and won a 2019 Berkie Award for best supporting actor in The Waverly Gallery. In The Cake, Aspenlieder will be taking on the role of Della, a conservative baker who faces a crisis of conscience.
Rounding out the cast are four veteran actors, listed here with their previous Silverthorne Theater credits: Tahmie Der (The Taming, Christmas at Pemberley, Intimate Apparel), Gabriel Levey (Intimate Apparel), Claudia Maurino (Christmas at Pemberley) and Sam Samuels* (The Mystery of Irma Vep, Tar2f!).
When Della, a North Carolina Baker and devout Christian, is asked to bake a wedding cake for her best friend’s daughter, she is overjoyed. But that joy is short-lived when she learns that the intended is another bride and realizes she is faced with an agonizing choice between faith and family. Struggling to reconcile her deeply-held belief in “traditional marriage” and the love she has for the woman she helped raise, Della finds herself in strange new territory. Inspired by a story still in the headlines, this marvelously funny play is proof that love is the key ingredient in creating common ground.
Gina Kaufmann is a theater director and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Association (SDC), as well as a professor in the Department of Theater at UMass Amherst. She has worked as a director and acting coach in numerous regional venues, including The Williamstown Theatre Festival and Shakespeare & Company (Lenox). In New York, she has directed for SoHo Rep, Home for Contemporary Theatre and Art, Wings Theatre, and Dixon Place. More recently (’21 –’22), Kaufmann directed Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life for both Silverthorne Theater and WAM Theater (at MASS MoCA). For Silverthorne, she also directed Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists and, for Shakespeare & Company, a musical version of Tartuffe.
Founded in 2014, Silverthorne Theater Company’s mission is to engage Valley artists and audiences in the conversations of our time with bold, intimate, professional theater. In keeping with said mission, the 2022-2023 season celebrates all female+ playwrights and directors. To reserve tickets for The Cake, please visit tinyurl.com/thecake23 or call 413-768-7514.