The crowd listens to New Bedford Jazz Fest in December 2023, in the newly renovated Steeple Playhouse, New Bedford’s newest community arts center and the home of Your Theatre Inc. Photo courtesy of Bob Hughes.
Press Release
After a phenomenal opening season, The Steeple Playhouse at 159 William Street is up to speed and ready to step into its role as New Bedford’s newest community arts center with an exciting 2024-2025 season.
To recap: Opening less than a year ago, in November 2023, the Steeple Playhouse has already welcomed full houses to several shows in Your Theatre, Inc.’s 77th season, and was also the venue for many local and outside groups and their events, including New Bedford’s Boys and Girls Club Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras Party, WHALe’s Annual Meeting and Awards, The Queer Art Council’s Pride Block Party, the New Bedford Film Festival Awards, the New Bedford Fine Arts Club May Meeting, New Bedford Historical Society’s Jazz on Juneteenth, Neil McGarry’s solo A Christmas Carol as well as New Bedford JazzFest 2023.
The Steeple has already helped kick off Your theatre’s 78th season on Friday, July 12 with a world premiere of Sister Sailors by Donna W. Guthrie paired with local playwright Lawrence R. Houbre, Jr.’s Once Upon a Whaleship. These one-act plays told stories based on whaling history, inspired by actual letters and other historical documents.
Coming up soon, the Steeple Playhouse welcomes local favorite, New Bedford Festival Theatre, as they present Dan Goggin’s smash hit, Nunsense. Join the Little Sisters of Hoboken (well, what’s left of them) as they stage this riotous revue packed with hilarious, show-stopping song and dance numbers, always a crowd favorite. The New Bedford Festival Theatre’s production of Nunsense runs August 9 – 18, 2024.
September brings Your Theatre, Inc.’s first mainstage production of 2024-2025, the comedy thriller Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot, directed by Lawrence R. Houbre. Hazards and hilarity run rampant in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays. “Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot gives you everything you love about great live theatre,” said the Cleveland Examiner. “…you will find yourself swept along for a wild and funny ride.” The show will run weekends September 13-22, 2024.
The Steeple Playhouse is happy to welcome back Neil McGarry with another solo performance, this time Burbage or The Man Who Made Shakespeare Famous by Nicholas Minella. McGarry was first seen at the Steeple in his acclaimed performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol last December. With Burbage, Neil returns in “a part he was born to play” (Paul Babin, Cape Cod Times.).
The play tells the rarely told story of Richard Burbage, the renowned Elizabethan actor who first performed many of Shakespeare’s leading roles, and brought to life such iconic characters as Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III and King Lear. Burbage will be presented once only locally at the Steeple, Friday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Your Theatre’s season continues with The Hiding Place, a quirky romantic comedy from Jeff Whitty, (Tony-winning writer of the musical hit Avenue Q). Directed by James Sanguinetti, this show satirizes the world of art, letters, and theatre in mid ‘90s Manhattan, while dramatizing the thwarted passion that lies in the hearts of artists everywhere.
A scene from The Play That Goes Wrong, by Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields performed by Your Theatre, Inc., in May. Photo courtesy of David Silvia.
“Charming and funny,” said Backstage, while the Los Angeles Times called the play “a diverting portrait of people who tell themselves lies in pursuit of truth on the page.” Performances are two weekends November 8-17.
Join us for what we hope will become a New Bedford holiday tradition when Neil McGarry presents a performance of his IRNE Award winning solo show Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for one local performance only, Friday, December 20 at The Steeple. Armed only with a bare stage, a few props, and Dickens’ glorious words, McGarry delivers the perennial holiday classic in a tour de force that has left audiences riveted from Boston to Prague. Joyous, captivating, and witty, McGarry’s A Christmas Carol is a fully staged, full-throated leap into Dickens’ most famous story, delivered with a simplicity that disarms and touches the heart.
In 2025, Your Theatre offers three more shows, January’s Red by John Logan, directed by Suzanne J. Houbre, March’s Wonder of the World by David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by James Sanguinetti and May’s Admissions by Joshua Harmon, directed by Eric R. Paradis. More specials, original plays and director’s showcases are also in the works.
For Your Theatre’s full season details and tickets, go to yourtheatre. org/wp/season-schedule/
For information about New Bedford Festival Theatre’s Nunsense, go to https://nbfestivaltheatre.com/
Information about Neil McGarry’s shows at the Steeple will be available at https://steepleplayhouse.org/
For more information about Neil McGarry, check out neilmcgarry.com/
For more information about Ken Ludwig, go to https://www.concord theatricals.com/a/323/ken-ludwig
For other inquiries call the box office at 508-993-0772
Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concord theatricals.com
Admissions is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com
See you at the Steeple!!!
The Steeple Playhouse is a community arts center with Your Theatre, Inc. as its resident community theater group and is located at 159 William St, New Bedford, MA. A prominent downtown New Bedford landmark, the steeple appears on the city seal. Built in 1829 as the First Baptist Church, it came to be known as the “Birthplace of Robert’s Rules of Order”. After the 2017 purchase of the building, Your Theatre, Inc worked with a local preservation organization, Waterfront Historic Area LeaguE (WHALE), to renovate the historic space and turn it into a fully functional community arts center called The Steeple Playhouse.
The facilities include a flexible theater which will seat up to 160 as well as a black box theater on the lower level. Wheelchair accessible, The Steeple Playhouse is open for outside rentals. We are another vital catalyst in New Bedford’s continued cultural renaissance. More information at www.Steepleplayhouse.org
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