October 15th to October 31st

“Though it sometimes looks like a rich man will never help the poor; whereas the poor people will give away everything they has to help somebody who ain’t got nothing. That’s how it looks to me. Don’t seem like it ought to be that way, but I reckon the rich ain’t got no time to fool with us poor folks.”

― Erskine Caldwell, Tobacco Road

Jack Kirkland's theatrical adaptation of Erskine Caldwell's Fable of the Deconstruction "Tobacco Road" wields the same power on stage when the production premiered at the Masque Theatre in New York City in 1933. The production went on to become one of the longest-running plays in history, running for a staggering 3,182 performances. As of December 2024, it was still the 21st longest-running Broadway show in history, as well as being the second-longest running non-musical ever on Broadway.

In a rural Georgia farm county just outside of Augusta, a landscape once defined by the vibrant hues of tobacco fields and the sprawling grandeur of 19th century cotton plantations, a stark reality had taken root by the 1930s. Decades of relentless cultivation, coupled with unsustainable farming practices, had leached the vitality from the soil, leaving behind a parched and unproductive earth. This environmental degradation cast a long shadow, deepening the economic struggles of families who had long depended on the land for their livelihood. Among these, the Lester family, once prosperous sharecroppers, found themselves ensnared in a cycle of poverty that had, by the third generation of their descendants, the Jeeter family, become an almost insurmountable inheritance. Their story, set against the backdrop of a struggling agricultural economy, serves as a poignant illustration of how ecological depletion and intergenerational economic hardship can trap families in a cycle of destitution.

Jeeter Lester, the patriarch, lives in squalor with his wife Ada, their two children, 16-year-old Dude and 18-year-old Ellie May, and his mother. Ada is suffering from pellagra and Ellie May has a harelip Jeeter and Dude are thin and emaciated, and the family wears tattered clothing. This bleak setting reflects the life and times of post-Depression Americans and the cost of conditions brought on by, both external and internal, the 20th century industrial and white-collar job growth of the United States. These factors, no call for cooperative farming and the systematic generational over-farming of fields left a desolate, impoverished and defeated Lester family to vainly cling onto a dream long past. 

Ensemble includes Robert Insana as 'Lester Jeeter', Kaylie Horowitz as 'Ada Jeeter. Danette Pawlowski portrays the fiery and lusty Sister Bessie who has her eyes on the younger 'Dude Jeeter'. The two Jeeter sisters 'Elle Mae' and 'Pearl' feature the ART/WNY debut of Emily C McDonnell and Sadie Everhart. Rounding out the cast is Mark Tramont as 'Captain Tom', Ian F. LaLonde 'Banker/Peabody' and Margo Davis as 'Grandma Jeeter'. Directed by two-time Artie Awarded nominated Matthew LaChiusa. An intense Americana story that joins a Post 20th-Century list of The Fables of The Deconstruction. 

Showtimes and days:

Thursday and Friday @ 7:30 pm 

Saturday @ 5:00 pm

April 8th to May 1st, 2027

Artie Award winners, writer Matthew LaChiusa, and Musical Director, Billy Horn's, story, lyrics and power-punk music adaptation of "Three Penny Opera" entitled Die Dreigroschen Rockoper. 

This tricked out completely revised production has LaChiusa translating the original book with lyrics from the Public Domain version of Brecht's "Three Penny Opera", then writing a completely different narrative (and ending *hint hint*) on Brecht's longstanding burlesque standard. With composer (and Rock God) , Billy Horn, both have reconstructed a wild-ass revised story and created a modern power-punk-pop musical. This is not your Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife" swinging, feel good time, version cleaned up for your Aunt Nancy and the Disneyites. 

This is a raw and timely production that is needed in times like these. 

Showdates and Times

Thurs/Friday @ 7:30 pm / Saturday @ 5:30 pm