The following announcement was provided by the Umbrella Stage Company:
The Umbrella Stage Company returns to live theater for the 2021/2022 season with a fresh, intimate staging of Audrey Cefaly’s romantic comedy, The Last Wide Open.
Starring Watertown actress Rebecca Shor, with Ethan Butler and Kayla Shimizu, the play tells the story of Lina, a young waitress, and Roberto, an Italian immigrant, who have been working together for years but rarely talk. If they do talk, it’s from a distance or gets lost in translation. But when a late-night thunderstorm finds them alone in the restaurant at closing time, they find their lives intersecting in surprising and mystical ways. Over wine and conversation, they test the waters of happiness and intimacy.
Directed by the award-winning Nancy Curran Willis, the show has been called “a love song in three movements that imagines how the universe conspires to bring us together.”
The purposefully modest cast size is consistent with The Umbrella’s plan to help ease audiences back into live theater with Covid safety in mind. Seating is capped at half-capacity to allow for distancing – both from other audiences members and from the performers. Other COVID safety measures include mask requirements, requiring proof of vaccination or negative test results, and meeting union-mandated rules for maintaining The Umbrella as a “fully vaccinated workplace.”
The rest of the season will build modestly from there – forgoing the large casts of previously planned musical spectacles such as War Paint in favor of smaller, diverse and lesser known productions, including a world premiere commission.
The Last Wide Open runs in the Main Stage Theater144 at 40 Stow Street, Concord, from Sep. 24 – Oct. 10. Performance times are 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, with 3 p.m. matinees on Sundays. See http://TheUmbrellaStage.org