Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) is a non-profit professional theatre located in Lowell, Massachusetts, USA. Known for its productions of contemporary work and world premieres, the company presents a September - May season of seven plays at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre in the historic Liberty Hall, a 279-seat theatre located adjacent to the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. MRT is the only professional theatre company in the Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and one of three League of Resident Theatres (LORT) members in Massachusetts.[1]
MRT operates under the leadership of its artistic director Sean Daniels.
History
Merrimack Repertory Theatre was co-founded in 1979 by Barabara Abrahamian, John Briggs and Mark Kaufman, who had met while working at a New Hampshire summer stock theatre (where a young Michael Chiklis, a Lowell native who went on to appear in several MRT productions before moving on to a film career, was appearing in a production of Bye Bye Birdie). They conceived the idea of a professional non-profit theatre company in Lowell and formed the Committee for Legitimate Theatre in Lowell.
The company was incorporated as Merrimack Regional Theatre on February 1, 1979. MRT's first venue was Mahoney Hall at the University of Lowell (now University of Massachusetts Lowell). Its first production, The Passion of Dracula, opened on October 23, 1979. Nancy Donahue assumed presidency of the company. Kaufman and Briggs were the theatre's first producing artistic directors.
Dan Schay was hired as producing artistic director in 1982 and, in 1983, the company moved to its current location at Liberty Hall, changing its name to Merrimack Repertory Theatre. Schay produced MRT's first world premiere (Jack Neary's First Night) in 1987, and has been succeeded by David Kent (1989-2001), Charles Towers (2001-2015) and Sean Daniels (2015–present).
In 2012, the theatre underwent an extensive $750,000 renovation. Improvements included wider seats with more legroom (the overall number of seats was reduced from 309 to 279), a refurbished theatre lobby and concession area, and a larger, more accessible box office.[2] The theatre was named in honor of founder Donahue.
Artistic leadership
Name
Years Served
Mark Kaufman & John R. Briggs
1979-1982
Dan Schay
1982-1989
David Kent
1989-2001
Charles Towers
2001-2015
Sean Daniels
2015–present
Executive leadership
Name
Years Served
Tom Parrish
2005-2011
Steven Leon
2011-2013
Elizabeth Kegley
2013–2017
Notable productions
Bob Hall & David Richmond's The Passion of Dracula (1979, dir. Mark Kaufman), MRT's first production.
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was produced for 11 consecutive seasons, from 1983 to 1993.
Jack Neary's First Night (1987, dir. Joan Courtney Murray), MRT's first world premiere.
The Lowell Trilogy, a set of three works by the playwright Jon Lipsky, ran from 1992 to 1994. The trilogy includes Lipsky's original play Living in Exile (first presented at Boston's TheaterWorks[3]), plus adaptations of Kerouac's Maggie Cassidy (Maggie's Riff) and Haing S. Ngor's Cambodian Odyssey (The Survivor: A Cambodian Odyssey).
Bob Clyman's Secret Order (November 2007, dir. Charles Towers), was the first MRT production to make an Off-Broadway transfer.[4]
The world premiere staged reading of Lowell native Jack Kerouac's only play, Beat Generation (2012, dir. Charles Towers), in partnership with UMass Lowell. (The script had been uncovered in a New Jersey warehouse in 2005.)[5]
Michael Golamco's Year Zero (September 2014, dir. Kyle Fabel), brought several partnerships between MRT and organizations in Lowell's Cambodian-American community (the second-largest in the United States). Among these partners was the Angkor Dance Troupe (subject of the 2004 documentary Monkey Dance), which now regularly uses MRT's performance space in Liberty Hall.[6]
The Lion, singer-songwriter Benjamin Scheuer's award-winning musical memoir (also directed by Daniels), launched its national tour from MRT in August 2015, following runs in New York and London.
Lauren Gunderson's I and You (October 2015, dir. Sean Daniels), which follows two teenagers on one night as they work through a school assignment on Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, was praised by The Boston Globe, which called it "Funny and moving by turns... suffused with a warmth that does not cloy, an intimacy that does not stifle, and a wit that connects it all together."[7] The production ran Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theatres in January 2016.[8]
Sean Daniels’ The White Chip (January 2016, dir. Sheryl Kaller), a dark comedy stage memoir about the MRT artistic director's recovery from alcoholism, produced by the five-time Tony nominee Tom Kirdahy. Free admission was offered to individuals in recovery from addiction, sponsored by the local recovery organizations Lowell House, Megan's House and Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery.[7]
11-year production history
2006-07 season
Augusta by Richard Dresser, directed by Charles Towers
Aunt Dan & Lemon by Wallace Shawn, directed by Melia Bensussen
Completely Hollywood (abridged) by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, directed by the Reduced Shakespeare Company
Trying by Joanna McClelland Glass, directed by Kyle Fabel
Dinah Was by Oliver Goldstick, directed by Charles Towers
Syncopation by Allan Knee, directed by Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill
Secret Order by Bob Clyman, directed by Charles Towers
2007-08 season
The Pursuit of Happiness by Richard Dresser, directed by Charles Towers
Tunney/Shakespeare in Six Rounds by David E. Lane (world premiere)
2 Pianos 4 Hands by Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt, directed by Richard Greenblatt
The Missionary Position by Keith Reddin, directed by Tracy Brigden
A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee, directed by Charles Towers
The Four of Us by Itamar Moses, directed by Kyle Fabel (world premiere)
2008-09 season
The Fantasticks by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, directed by Jonathan Silverstein and John Bell
Skylight by David Hare, directed by Charles Towers
A View of the Harbor by Richard Dresser, directed by Charles Towers
Tranced by Bob Clyman, directed by Charles Towers
Bad Dates by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Adrianne Krystansky
A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill, directed by Edward Morgan
2009-10 season
Flings & Eros by the Flying Karamazov Brothers, directed by Paul magid (world premiere)
The Seafarer by Conor McPherson, directed by Charles Towers
Heroes by Gerald Sibleyras, adapted by Tom Stoppard, directed by Carl Forsman
Fabuloso by John Kolvenbach, directed by Kyle Fabel
Black Pearl Sings! by Frank Higgins, directed by Benny Ambush
The Last Days of Mickey & Jean by Richard Dresser, directed by Charles Towers (World Premiere)
The Blonde, the Brunette and the Vengeful Redhead by Robert Hewlett, directed by Melia Bensussen
2010-11 season
The Complete World of Sports (abridged) by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, directed by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor
Four Places by Joel Drake Johnson, directed by Charles Towers
Beasley's Christmas Party by C.W. Munger, directed by Carl Forsman
Going to See the Kid by Steven Drukman, directed by Alexander Greenfield
The Making of a Great Moment by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, directed by Sean Daniels
Women in Jeopardy! by Wendy MacLeod, directed by Sean Daniels
Chill by Eleanor Burgess, directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian
My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend, Conceived and performed by Charissa Bertels, book and lyrics by Christian Duhamel, music and lyrics by Edward Bell, directed by Sean Daniels
Artistic development and patriot program
In 2015, Merrimack Repertory Theatre launched the Patriot Program, an artist residency program conceived by Artistic Director Sean Daniels. The MRT Patriots are a group of 69 theatre artists and professionals, from across the country, with access to short-term residencies at MRT throughout the year. The MRT Patriots use MRT resources and housing while developing new work for the stage.[9]
Education and community engagement
MRT offers student matinees (daytime performances available only to student groups). Many of these groups are eligible for grant funding through the Partners in Education program.
MRT has offered a summer youth theatre program called Young Company (originally Young Artists at Play) since 1997. Young Company was suspended for summer 2015, but was set to resume in July 2016 and to focus on participant-generated work. The program was to extend beyond the summer, with year-long student participation in workshops and open rehearsals at MRT.
In 2015, MRT launched the Cohort Club, an audience engagement program modeled after a similar initiative at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York. The Cohort Club is composed of community members who are given access to a show's entire rehearsal and production process, and are then asked to write about their experiences in a format of their choice.
Other programs include post-show discussions and open-invite receptions before and after select performances.
Selected awards
1989 - Boston Drama Critics Award for production of Waiting for Godot.
1990 - New England Theatre Award for Excellence.
1990-94 - Four Boston Drama Critics Awards for Filumeni.
2005 - Harold Pinter's The Homecoming named to the Best of 2005 list of the Boston Globe, Boston Phoenix, Boston Courant, Edge Boston and Lowell Sun.
2008 - A Delicate Balance received seven Independent Reviewers of New England Awards, including best production and best director for the artistic director Charles Towers.
2009 - Bad Dates won the Elliot Norton Award from the Boston Theatre Critics Association for Outstanding Solo Performance.
