Dear Friend,


The festivities begin on June 2, when Bill Hayes hosts a (pre-recorded) conversation with McKeever. In December, we will present the world premiere of McKeever’s The People Downstairs, a play about the people who hid Anne Frank and seven others during the Holocaust, which was commissioned by PBD and developed by The Dramaworkshop.

The Contemporary Voices series opens with The Garden of Hannah List, which premiered at Florida Stage during the 1997-98 season and was described by McKeever in an interview as “the play that officially made me a playwright.” That’s followed on June 14 with the first look at his newest play, The Code. The series concludes on June 21 with Daniel’s Husband, which premiered at Island City Stage in 2015 and went on to become a hit Off-Broadway. The Wednesday evening discussions are on June 9, 16, and 23. All readings and discussions begin at 7:30pm. As usual, tickets are free, but reservations are required.

PBD closes out Pride Month on June 30 with the multi-talented Charles Busch in conversation with Hayes, part of the company’s Luminaries of Stage & Screen initiative. Busch will discuss his illustrious career as playwright, actor, cabaret artist, and drag icon. The series launches tonight with the legendary Louis Gossett Jr., followed on May 26 with the esteemed actress Lynne Moody. All conversations are pre-recorded. Once again tickets are free, but reservations are required.  

CONTEMPORARY VOICES: THREE PLAYS BY MICHAEL McKEEVER:
 
THE GARDEN OF HANNAH LIST (June 7, 7:30pm; Discussion June 9, 7:30pm)
Hannah List lives in a large and comfortable home in Nuremberg, Germany in 1939. Within the peaceful setting of her glorious and well-maintained garden, she and her family are faced with a dilemma: take a stand or do nothing as the Nazi Party rises to power around them.
THE CODE (June 14, 7:30pm; Discussion June 16, 7:30pm)
Hollywood, 1950. Prior to a dinner party at the home of director George Cukor, Billy Haines, interior designer to the stars, invites a handful of friends, including Tallulah Bankhead, for cocktails. When agent Henry Willson arrives with his newest protégé, Chad Manford, a simple request turns into a heated debate on the hypocrisy of what it takes to be a star in the land of make-believe.
DANIEL'S HUSBAND (June 21, 7:30pm; Discussion June 23, 7:30pm
Mitchell Howard does not believe in gay marriage. His partner, Daniel Bixby, does. Before they can resolve their difference of opinion, fate intervenes. This Off-Broadway hit explores the devastating consequences that can occur when fundamental rights are denied.  

Casting will be announced at a later date. The discussions are hosted by PBD Director of Education and Community Engagement Gary Cadwallader. His guests will be Bruce Linser, director of The Garden of Hannah List, and Dr. Peter Cruise, executive director of the LeRoy Collins Public Ethics Academy and affiliate associate professor at Florida Atlantic University, June 9; Christopher Renshaw, director of The Code, and Christy Andreoni, production director at the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission and a board member of Women in Television and Film - Florida, June 16; and Stuart Meltzer, director of Daniel’s Husband, and attorney Elizabeth Schwartz, a nationally recognized advocate for the legal rights of the LGBTQ community, June 23. 
Marilyn Meyerhoff and Samuel Feldman are the executive producers of Contemporary Voices. Marsha and Stephen Rabb are the program sponsors for The Garden of Hannah List, The Code, Daniel’s Husband, and the interview with McKeever. Louise and Barry Snyder are the sponsors of PBDonline.

Michael McKeever has written 30 full-length plays that have been produced at theatres around the world. Theatres in North America include Penguin Rep, Marin Theatre Company, NCTC, Phoenix Theatre, Stage West, and Florida Studio Theatre. His work has also been seen in major European cities, including Berlin, Warsaw, and Vienna. His play Daniel's Husband, produced in New York by Primary Stages, was nominated for an Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Work and went on to successful runs at the Westside Theatre (Off-Broadway) and the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles. His play After was seen Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in 2019. McKeever has won numerous Carbonell and Silver Palm awards, and has been nominated four times for the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award. McKeever is a co-founder of Zoetic Stage, a Miami-based theatre company dedicated to developing new work. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild. michaelmckeeverplays.com
 
Tickets for all programs, except the interview with Charles Busch, can be reserved now at www.palmbeachdramaworks.org or by calling the box office at 561.514.4042, x2. Tickets for Charles Busch will be available beginning May 26.

Please consider donating to PBD. With your support, we can continue to offer a variety of programs virtually and preserve our reserve funds as we await the return to our live, mainstage performances later in the year.

Stay safe.
LOUIS GOSSETT, JR.
ACADEMY AWARD-WINNER
MAY 19
In a celebrated 65-plus year career that spans stage, screen, and television and is still going strong, Louis Gossett Jr. is best known for his Academy Award-winning performance as Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman and his Emmy Award-winning performance as Fiddler in the miniseries Roots. He has been a working actor since he was 17 and made his Broadway debut in Take a Giant Step (1953). He has appeared in nine additional shows on Broadway, including the original production of A Raisin in the Sun, in which he created the role of George Murchison, and the musicals Golden Boy and The Zulu and the Zayda. He was also featured in the first American production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks (1961), which became the longest running Off-Broadway play of the sixties. Gossett made his screen debut in 1961, repeating the role of George Murchison in the film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun. A short list of his film credits includes Travels with My Aunt, The Laughing Policeman, The Deep, Enemy Mine, Daddy’s Little Girls, Why Did I Get Married Too?, and The Cuban. He has worked extensively in television, doing everything from miniseries to made-for-TV films to guest appearances in episodic shows. Some of the highlights include The Josephine Baker Story, Return to Lonesome Dove, Captive Heart: The James Mink Story, Strange Justice, Lackawana Blues, and most recently, Watchmen.

LYNNE MOODY
ROOTS AND ROOTS: THE NEXT GENERATIONS
MAY 26
Lynne Moody has been a working actress since 1973, when she appeared in the blaxploitation horror film Scream Blacula Scream. She then went on to forge a distinguished career, particularly in television, where her credits include the mini-series Roots and Roots: The Next Generations (Irene Harvey); That’s My Mama, E/R, Soap, and Knots Landing (series regular); Hill Street Blues (recurring role); and the daytime series General Hospital, for which she received a 2001 nomination for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series. Other notable TV appearances include the mini-series The Atlanta Child Murders, which featured a cast that included James Earl Jones, Jason Robards, Morgan Freeman, and Ruby Dee; the TV movies A Caribbean Mystery (based on an Agatha Christie novel), A Fight for Jenny, Escape to Witch Mountain, Last Light, Lost in London (opposite Ben Vereen), Ray Alexander: A Taste for Justice, which starred Louis Gossett Jr.; and countless guest shots on a wide variety of series. Moody studied at the Pasadena Playhouse and the Goodman Theatre, and her acclaimed stage work in Los Angeles includes David Hare’s A Map of the World at Odyssey Theatre, Jefferson Beeker’s First Couple at Tiffany Theatre, and C. Bernard Jackson’s Piano Bar at Inner City Cultural Center. She also directed Dennis Gersten’s Willie Said To at Playwrights’ Arena.