ALBANY, NY — Harbinger Theater’s fifth season wraps up with The Best We Could (a family tragedy) by Emily Feldman, directed by Chris Foster. As Harbinger’s 23rd production and 22nd Capital Region premiere. Performances will be held at from November 13th through the 22nd, with a FREE preview on November 12th.
“I’m really excited to close out Harbinger’s fifth full season with our 22nd Capital Region premiere and our sixth collaboration with the terrific Sand Lake Center for the Arts, where we have previously presented At the Wedding, The Squirrels, Dig, and Swing State. That’s a helluva list!” Patrick White, co-founder of Harbinger Theatre, said.
“I am excited to be working on The Best We Could (a family tragedy), a humorous and achingly sad tragedy about a family who take disorderly steps through their lives, but always believing they are doing ‘the best they could,’” Foster said. “They discover on a weighty road trip some hard past truths that come rising to the surface. The audience gets in on the fun. They will get to grapple with a truth too: Is ‘the best we could’ good enough?”
The Best We Could (a family tragedy) premiered Off-Broadway in 2023 and is about a daughter’s road trip with her father that becomes a theatrical journey across more than just state lines as both of their pasts rise to the surface, revealing difficult truths. Though 36-year old Ella has nearly given up on life, she agrees to accompany her father, Lou, on a long-distance trip to adopt a rescue dog. Guided by a narrator called Maps and interspersed with memories and phone calls from Ella’s mother, Peg, their journey reveals hard truths as their pasts slowly rise to the surface. The Best We Could (a family tragedy) follows their search for meaning in life, which could be very funny, achingly sad, and inexplicably familiar.
“It’s been said that one should never reveal weighty secrets during a car ride — if the other person reacts badly, there’s no escape,” Gillian Russo from New York Theatre Guide said.“The Best We Could makes us hyperaware of its theatricality, but the premise isn’t fantastical. It’s painfully plausible. It takes emotions and experiences we as humans champion – connection, family, integrity – and flips them on their head.”
In our cast we have: Tiffany McWilliams as “Ella,” Kathleen Carey as “Peg,” Tanya Gorlow as “Maps,” Robert Francis Forgett as “Lou,” and Daniel Smirlock as “Marc.”
To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Harbinger Theatre, we will have a Birthday Reception on Saturday, November 14th at 6:30 p.m., before the show. Shows will be held on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. from November 13th to the 22nd. Talkback Fridays will be held on 11/13 and 11/20, after the show.
Sand Lake Center for the Arts is located at 2880 NY-43, Averill Park, NY 12018. Tickets can be purchased on Harbinger’s website here, tickets are $15.
“I started inventing my version of Willy Loman, who has a daughter, a wife, and his own philosophies and missed opportunities. I was curious about the unique relationship between daughters and their fathers in conversations around masculinity and patriarchy. I wanted to see what would happen if I wrote a tragedy that made me laugh.” ~Emily Feldman
Do you wish you could pre-pay for all Harbinger Theatre shows for the whole year? The company will now offer a Flex Subscription, which means this is your opportunity to get four tickets for $50! The Flex Subscription can be used interchangeably, as you have the choice to use them all for a party to experience a single show or indulge in four plays you’ve never witnessed before!
$50 Flex Subscriptions are available by making a Venmo payment to @HarbingerTheatre.
All photos by Wayland Whitney.