Dear Friend,

Over the past few weeks, many of you have called the box office asking when you’ll be receiving your 2021-2022 subscription brochure. Well, the wait is almost over. The brochure is being mailed out starting this week.

We’ve also received lots of inquiries about what our policies will be regarding social distancing, masks, and proof of vaccine when we return to the theatre. The brochure has an FAQ page with responses to those and other questions about the upcoming season. There’s also a page devoted to our Take a Deep Breath campaign, which helps finance our new safety protocols. This is a million-dollar project, and we hope that those of you who are able to do so will consider contributing to this fund. To those of you who have already donated, we can’t thank you enough. 

We also want to call your attention to one other item in the brochure: A “save the dates” announcement for our fourth annual New Year/New Plays Festival, which takes place from January 7-9. Single tickets are not yet available, but you can subscribe now.
 
Tonight marks the conclusion of our Contemporary Voices series spotlighting Michael McKeever, with a discussion of Daniel’s Husband. PBD Director of Education and Community Engagement Gary Cadwallader will talk to Stuart Meltzer, who directed the reading, and attorney Elizabeth Schwartz, a nationally recognized advocate for the legal rights of the LGBTQ community. The program starts at 7:30pm. And you can still access the interview that McKeever did with Producing Artistic Director Bill Hayes by clicking here.

Our final event this month is a prerecorded conversation between Bill and actor, playwright, cabaret artist, and drag icon Charles Busch, part of our Luminaries of Stage & Screen series – the perfect conclusion to Pride Month.  

Finally, a reminder that our Master Playwrights Series returns on July 14, when Mark Perlberg hosts a Zoom presentation about the life and work of Wendy Wasserstein. He follows that on August 4 with a presentation on August Wilson. The programs will include scenes from their plays, read by professional actors. There will be a Q&A via Zoom at the conclusion of both programs, which start at 7:30pm.
 

As usual, tickets for all programs are free, but reservations are required (except for the McKeever interview). You can reserve your tickets at www.palmbeachdramaworks.org or by calling the box office at 561.514.4042, x2. 

We look forward to seeing you in October.
An informative and entertaining program that provides in-depth looks at the lives and works of major playwrights and includes scenes from their plays read by professional actors. 
PLAYWRIGHT, WENDY WASSERSTEIN
JULY 14 AT 7:30PM
Wendy Wasserstein won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her best-known work, The Heidi Chronicles. With great wit, humor, insight, and compassion, Wasserstein wrote plays that explored the dreams, the challenges, and the obstacles faced by women seeking to forge rich personal and professional lives. Other works include Uncommon Women and Others, Isn’t It Romantic, The Sisters Rosensweig, Third, Old Money, and An American Daughter. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Manhattan, Wasserstein was a graduate of Mount Holyoke and the Yale School of Drama. She died in January, 2006 at the age of 55. The presentation by Mark Perlberg will conclude with a Q&A via Zoom.  
PLAYWRIGHT, AUGUST WILSON
AUGUST 4 AT 7:30PM
August Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), two of 10 works that are part of his monumental Century Cycle, with each play exploring the Black experience in a different decade of the twentieth century. The rest of the cycle is made up of Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. Wilson was born in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, and with the exception of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which is set in Chicago, all the plays in the cycle take place in his hometown. A lyric poet and consummate storyteller, Wilson was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Bill Clinton in 1999. On October 16, 2005, just two weeks after the playwright’s death at the age of 60, Broadway’s Virginia Theatre was renamed the August Wilson Theatre. The presentation by Mark Perlberg will conclude with a Q&A via zoom.  
DANIEL'S HUSBAND
(Discussion June 23, 7:30pm
A discussion of the final play in our Michael McKeever Contemporary Voices series, hosted by Gary Cadwallader, PBD director of education and community engagement. Panelists include Stuart Meltzer, director of Daniel’s Husband, and attorney Elizabeth Schwartz, a nationally recognized advocate for the legal rights of the LGBTQ community.
CHARLES BUSCH
JUNE 30
Charles Busch has forged a unique place in the world of entertainment as playwright, actor, director, novelist, cabaret performer and drag icon. He is the author and star of over 25 plays including The Divine Sister, The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunset, The Tribute Artist, The Confession of Lily Dare, and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, one of the longest running plays in the history of Off-Broadway. The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife (in which he did not appear) had a run of 777 performances on Broadway and received a Tony nomination for Best Play. He wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2003, Busch received a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer and playwright. He is also the subject of the acclaimed documentary film The Lady in Question is Charles Busch. He is a two-time MAC Award winner and has performed his cabaret act in many cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Barcelona, and New York. In the winter of 2016, his show The Lady at the Mic premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. His first CD, Charles Busch Live at Feinstein’s 54 Below, was released in 2016 by Broadway Records.