Stephen Karam’s Tony Award-Winning

The Humans

 Opens February 14 at

Palm Beach Dramaworks

West Palm Beach, Fla. (Tuesday, February 4, 2025)- There’s a sense of disquiet in the air when the Blake clan gathers for Thanksgiving dinner in Stephen Karam’s The Humans, which opens at Palm Beach Dramaworks on February 14 (7:30 pm). The setting is daughter Brigid’s shabby apartment in New York City’s Chinatown, and the family dynamics are familiar to everyone: the banter, the eye rolls, the teasing, the arguments, and the love. But it’s also evident that something is amiss; Karam has described his comedy drama as “A family play that is sort of infected by my love of the thriller genre.” The Humans explores the foibles, fears, and fragilities of an American family with great insight, humor, and compassion – accompanied by an undercurrent of terror.

PBD’s production runs through March 2, with specially priced previews on February 12 and 13 (7:30pm). The play runs approximately 95 minutes, without an intermission. J. Barry Lewis directs. 

Diane and Mark Perlberg are the sponsors of PBD’s 25^th Anniversary Season.

The Humans is one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the 21^st century. “[An] inestimably kind, rich and beautiful play . . . truly remarkable and exceptionally moving,” wrote Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. “Absolutely, relentlessly gripping... rackingly funny even as it pummels the heart and scares the bejesus out of you,” wrote Jesse Green in New York Magazine. “The Humans is a major discovery, a play as empathetic as it is clear-minded, as entertaining as it is honest,” wrote Christopher Isherwood in The New York Times. In addition to winning the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, The Humans was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama that same year. The Pulitzer Prize committee called the play a “profoundly affecting drama that sketches the psychological and emotional contours of an average American family."

Karam, who is a faculty member of the New School, said in an interview on the institution’s website, “I write about things I don’t understand, so that I’m creating searching stories, stories about questions I can’t answer; I never create from a place of ‘let me teach you something.’ [In The Humans] I was processing my own existential fears associated with family and love but life generally. I hope people process their own lives and families are able to discuss the feelings/questions/frustrations the story raises inside of them.”

The Humans had its world premiere in November 2014 at American Theater Company, Chicago, Illinois (PJ Paparelli, artistic director). The play was next produced Off-Broadway, in October, 2014, by the Roundabout Theatre Company, which had commissioned the play. That production transferred to Broadway in February, 2016.

PBD’s production features Andy Prosky (PBD debut) as Erik Blake, Brigid’s father; Anne-Marie Cusson as her mother, Deirdre Blake; Lindsey Corey as her sister, Aimee; Casey Sacco as Brigid; Laurie Tanner (PBD debut) as Fiona “Momo” Blake, Erik’s mother; and Daniel Kublick (PBD debut) as Brigid’s live-in boyfriend, Richard Saad. Scenic design is by Anne Mundell, costume design is by Brian O’Keefe, lighting design is by Kirk Bookman, and sound design is by Roger Arnold. 

Stephen Karam is the author of the plays Sons of the Prophet, Speech & Debate, and The Humans. In addition to the Tony Award, he is a two-time winner of the Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and the recipient of an Obie Award for playwriting. In 2021, Karam directed his first feature film, an adaptation of The Humans for A24 Films, for which he also wrote the screenplay. Additionally, he wrote a film adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull starring Annette Bening, which was released by Sony Picture Classics. His adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard premiered on Broadway as part of Roundabout’s 2016 season. Recent honors include the inaugural Horton Foote Playwriting Award, the inaugural Sam Norkin Drama Desk Award, two Outer Critics Circle Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award, Drama Leage Award, and Hull-Warriner Award. Karam is an assistant professor at The New School, where he teaches playwriting. He is a graduate of Brown University and grew up in Scranton, PA.

The West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority, the West Palm Beach Arts & Entertainment District, and The Palm Beach Post are additional sponsors of PBD’s 25^th Anniversary Season. 

Palm Beach Dramaworks is a professional, nonprofit theatre company founded in 2000 and located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach. Each season, the award-winning company produces five shows and offers a wide variety of programs for students at the theatre and in schools. Committed to fostering the future of theatre, PBD has become a hub for playwrights in Florida and around the country to nurture their work through the Perlberg Festival of New Plays. PBD is a member of Theatre Communications Group, Florida Professional Theatres Association, the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, and NNPN. In 2024, PBD was honored as Non-Profit of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches. 

Evening performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 pm. Matinee performances are Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2 pm. Post-performance discussions follow Wednesday and Thursday matinees.



Tickets for all performances are $92, except for opening night of each production ($107) and previews ($72). Student tickets are available for $15 with a valid K-12 or university/college ID, and anyone under 40 pays $40 (no additional fees) with a photo ID. Tickets for educators and active military are half price with proper ID (other restrictions apply). Tickets can be purchased through the box office, in person or by phone (561.514.4042 ext 2), and online 24 hours a day at palmbeachdramaworks.org. 

The Don & Ann Brown Theatre is located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, at 201 Clematis Street. For ticket information contact the box office at (561) 514-4042, or visit palmbeachdramaworks.org.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Jennifer Sardone-Shiner

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(561) 891-7278

jshiner@palmbeachdramaworks.org 

www.palmbeachdramaworks.org