Winnipesaukee Playhouse hosts three live performances

MEREDITH — When the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly shut down operations at the Winnipesaukee Playhouse in March, it was anyone’s guess when live performances would return to the Meredith campus. Initially the administrative team was hopeful to postpone spring shows for a few weeks and then resume. Plans for the summer season were still underway.

Of course, all that changed quickly and the spring and summer seasons were regrettably postponed indefinitely. Now, using the strict guidelines set out by the state of New Hampshire’s Reopening Task Force, the Playhouse is excited to announce a small season of three professional productions in September and October.

The first two productions of the season will take place at the Playhouse’s outdoor amphitheatre which was constructed along with the Playhouse’s main stage in 2013 but has been underused in the past few years.

“In our first few years in Meredith the outdoor stage was used frequently for our summer camp, but when we moved our camp off-campus we didn’t have as much use for it," said Neil Pankhurst, the troupe's producing artistic director. "Though this isn’t the season we initially planned, in some ways it’s nice to have an excuse to give the outdoor stage a new lease on life. The technical team is currently hard at work extending the stage and building seating platforms for the audience so nobody will have to sit on the grass like in the old days.”

The two productions that will take place outdoors are "Or," by Liz Duffy Adams and "The Mountaintop," by Katori Hall. "Or," was always scheduled to be in the 2020 season. The three-person comedy easily lends itself to an outdoor performance and having two of the three actors – Nicholas Wilder and Rebecca Tucker – as an off-stage couple (they met at the Playhouse in 2014 and in non-COVID times would have been married at the Playhouse this summer) made onstage interactions easier. The third performer, Haley Jones, is quarantined with Wilder and Tucker. All Playhouse cast and staff undergo multiple COVID tests and are strictly regulated to avoid any activity considered high risk.

"The Mountaintop" is a new addition to the season. In this Olivier Award-winning play, author Katori Hall imagines what may have taken place in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. “In most years, we choose our show titles well in advance to give plenty of time to plan and advertise them," Pankhurst said. "That does not give us much flexibility to react to current events with our programming. Of course, 2020 is the year when all of that got turned on its head. Suddenly flexibility is the key word and the ever-evolving nature of this year gave us the ability to add in programming to allow us to explore what’s on this nation’s mind. Obviously the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement is a topic that people are interested in exploring and we are grateful we are able to add a production that speaks to that.”

The final show of the season, which will take place on the Playhouse’s indoor main stage, will be a new play called "No Wake" by Erica Berman. Set in Moultonborough on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, the play explores the burgeoning friendship between a cynical local teenager and an irascible snowbird with a penchant for screaming at the jetskiers who disrupt his treasured loons. “I loved the local connection to this show," Pankhurst said. "On top of that, it was practically written for social distancing. The setting is two neighbors’ porches and 99% of the play involves them talking to each other from their own porch. That alone seems to sum up summer 2020 on Lake Winnipesaukee.”

All three productions will follow or exceed the CDC and State of New Hampshire guidelines for social distancing, mask wearing, and other pandemic precautions. Patrons are encouraged to visit www.winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org prior to booking tickets to read the COVID-19 protocols for attending. Tickets can then be purchased by calling the box office at (603) 279-0333.