AMHERST – A company of local actors from across the region has been cast in Valley Players’ fall production of Bryna Turner’s riotous, moving comedy At the Wedding. The show goes up October 1–4 as a picnic-theater performance on the beautiful grounds of the Amherst Woman’s Club (rain dates October 8–11). Half of the production’s net ticket revenue will be donated to Out Now, a local nonprofit organization supporting LGBTQ+ youth in the Valley. Tickets and more information will be available in August at valleyplayers.org.
At the Wedding features Joanna Nix (Carlo), Kate Stango (Carly), Ali Shafi (Victor), Terrance Fables (Eli), Kimberly Salditt-Poulin (Maria), Cici Drzik (Leigh), and Blue Jordan (Eva). The show is directed by Joe Van Allen, produced by Matteo Pangallo, and supported by a grant from The Emily List Fund for Performing Arts Therapy.
Valley Players is also seeking a stage manager, costumer, intimacy coordinator, and set designer (people with wedding planning experience are especially welcome). Anyone interested in volunteering for one of these positions can email info@valleyplayers.org.
Winner of the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation’s Theatre Visions Award, chosen as a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and selected as the New York Times’ Best of 2022 Unforgettable Theatrical Moments, At the Wedding follows Carlo as she arrives, unexpectedly, at her ex-girlfriend’s wedding, carrying heartbreak, bitterness, and an undeniable longing. Set just outside the reception itself, the play lingers in the liminal spaces of a familiar tradition, where Carlo and the other guests orbit the celebration and each other.
“Brutally hilarious,” praised TheaterMania, and New York Theatre Guide described it as “bitterly funny” in its “wisecracking and wisdom-sharing about the unbreakable bond between love and pain.” The New York Times found the play “fresh and trenchant,” with plenty of comedy and that “reshapes the wedding genre for our time, inviting new characters to the party.”
The director for the Valley Players’ production, Van Allen, explains, “Our vision centers on the shift from standing outside the celebration to finding connection, even in the margins. At the Wedding reveals a community deeply human in its messiness, tenderness, and desire to belong. The play reflects the reality that these lives and experiences have always existed within and alongside our most familiar traditions. In doing so, it creates space for audiences, particularly those who are underrepresented, to see themselves not at the edges of the story, but at its center.”
Valley Players is an all-volunteer 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to enrich the quality of life in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts by producing nimble, meaningful, and accessible community theater that helps to build community. Valley Players holds open auditions, prices its tickets on a pay-what-you-can scale, and donates half of its net ticket revenue to other Valley nonprofits. In its first three years, Valley Players productions have raised funds for Cancer Connection, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, River Valley Counseling Center, Community Aid Pioneer Valley, the Peace Development Fund, the Literacy Project, Way Finders, and Center for New Americans. More information, including how to donate, become a business sponsor, or join the email list, is at valleyplayers.org.
