Photo by Henry McGill
(RED BANK, NJ) -- Two River Theater has announced its 2024-2025 Season, featuring a stellar lineup of exceptional productions and captivating artists. It's a nice blend of classics, recent work, and a World Premiere.
The season will commence in September with American Mariachi, a moving comedy full of humor, heart, and joyful live music, directed by James Vásquez (Two River's smash hit Hair), and written by José Cruz González. This is followed by Two River's most popular education program, A Little Shakespeare, with the bewitching tale of The Tempest, adapted and directed by Noelle Marion (Cinderella, Spamalot). The stylish thriller, Dial M for Murder, from Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher (Scotland Road, Wait Until Dark) and directed by Drama Desk Award nominee Jenn Thompson (Abundance, Lost in Yonkers) will close out the winter, bringing an exhilarating new take to the tale that inspired a Hitchcock classic.
The season continues in the spring with the world premiere of ¡VOS!, an exhilarating quest for justice, family, and home, written by Christina Pumariega (Joan Dark, Lei Chiede/She Asks), in her playwriting debut. Concluding the 2024-2025 season will be The Price, one of Arthur Miller’s (Death of A Salesman, The Crucible) most personal plays, directed by longtime Two River collaborator, Brandon J. Dirden (August Wilson’s Radio Golf, Wine in the Wilderness).
“Planning a season is like putting together a great dinner party,” says Artistic Director Justin Waldman. “To curate a beautiful and fulfilling event, one needs to combine fabulous ingredients, a spice of variety, and a diverse and fascinating guest list. Each course should be an entirely new experience, served with love and bound together by true pride in execution. For Two River’s 2024-2025 Season, we journey from the joyous founding of an all-female Mariachi band to a poetic enchanted isle to a deft and stylish fresh take on a beloved Hitchcock thriller to a stunning world premiere debut to the towering work of a theatrical giant. It is a meal that aims to nourish the spirit with music, laughter, taut mysteries, and profound questions. It is our great pleasure to invite you – our wonderfully diverse Monmouth County community - to join us for this theatrical feast. For theater is an open table where all are welcome and it is Two River’s great joy to bring people together.”
Subscriptions to the 2024/2025 season are now available! Two River Theater is currently offering both 3-play and 4-play packages. Renewing subscribers are encouraged to complete their renewals before June 30th in order to keep their seats. Click here or call 732.345.1400 to purchase subscription tickets. Single tickets for America Mariachi will go on sale this summer. A Little Shakespeare: The Tempest is not part of the subscription series.
TWO RIVER THEATER 2024/2025 SEASON INCLUDES:
SEPTEMBER 28—OCTOBER 20, 2024 - AMERICAN MARIACHI by José Cruz González; Directed by James Vásquez; Arrangements by Cynthia Reiles Flores. The Joan and Robert Rechnitz Theater. Cousins Lucha and Boli have a plan— start an all-girl mariachi band! So what if it’s the 1970s and no one’s heard of such a thing? So what if they can’t play and have no costumes? So what if their families disapprove? They are on a mission to find some bandmates and make their mariachi dreams come true. Directed by James Vásquez (Hair at Two River), American Mariachi is a moving comedy full of humor, heart, and joyful live music!
JANUARY 24 – FEBRUARY 1, 2025 - A LITTLE SHAKESPEARE: THE TEMPEST by William Shakespeare; Adapted and Directed by Noelle Marion. The Marion Huber Theater. The only thing stronger than Prospero’s magical spells might be the power of love and forgiveness. Back for its 12th year, Two River’s most popular education program transports you to an enchanted island where anything is possible. A Little Shakespeare presents an abridged version of the Bard’s bewitching tale, directed and designed by theater professionals and performed and supported backstage by high school students.
FEBRUARY 15 – MARCH 9, 2025 - DIAL M FOR MURDER; Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher; From the Original by Frederick Knott; Directed by Jenn Thompson. The Joan and Robert Rechnitz Theater. Is there such a thing as the perfect murder? Planning one might be possible, but pulling it off… that’s another matter. Having discovered his beautiful — and very wealthy — wife Margot’s infidelity, Tony has plotted his revenge. But the execution of her execution might not go according to design. Playwright Jeffrey Hatcher (Scotland Road, Wait Until Dark) brings an exhilarating new eye to the stylish thriller that inspired a Hitchcock classic.
Dial M for Murder (Hatcher) is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
APRIL 5–27, 2025 - World Premiere ¡VOS! by Christina Pumariega. The Marion Huber Theater. Annie returns to her estranged birthplace of Buenos Aires to undergo IVF treatments from the famed Dr. Cossi. But her motherhood journey brings to light the lives of two women lost to the Dirty War decades ago. Past and present intertwine as four women hunt down their destiny. A World Premiere debut by a powerful new voice, ¡VOS! is an exhilarating quest for justice, family, and home.
JUNE 7–29, 2025 - THE PRICE by Arthur Miller; Directed by Brandon J. Dirden. The Joan and Robert Rechnitz Theater. Siblings duel in one of Arthur Miller’s (Death of A Salesman, The Crucible) most personal plays. Estranged brothers Vince and Walter must clear out the remnants of their gilded upbringing before their childhood home is torn down. As they negotiate the value of their past, they must reckon with the true cost of a more hopeful future. Brandon J. Dirden (August Wilson’s Radio Golf, Wine in the Wilderness) directs this towering story of how we measure the burden of memory.
The Price is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc.
Two River Theater’s 2024/2025 Season Sponsor is Hackensack Meridian Riverview Medical Center.
Two River Theater produces American and world classics, new plays and musicals, programs for young people, and festivals of new work. Each year, we serve over 20,000 students, families and community members through our 4-6 show season, and 40+ events that reflect our diverse community of Monmouth County. Two River produces work on two stages—the 350-seat Joan and Robert Rechnitz Theater, and the flexible 110-seat Marion Huber Theater. In 2020 we expanded our campus to 80,000 square feet with the opening of the Center for New Work, Education and Design. Two River Theater has commissioned and premiered original projects including Be More Chill by Tony Award nominee Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz (the theater’s first Broadway production) and Hurricane Diane by former Playwright-in-Residence Madeleine George (which won an Obie Award for its Off-Broadway run), and in June 2019, Two River was nationally recognized by USA TODAY as one of “10 great places to see a play.” Two River Theater is led by Artistic Director Justin Waldman and Managing Director Nora DeVeau-Rosen.
Two River Theater is supported in part by public support through the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the State of New Jersey and the Monmouth County Board of Commissioners.
Private support includes the Achelis & Bodman Foundation, Citizens Philanthropic Foundation, The Merrill G. and Emita E. Hastings Foundation, Investors Foundation, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, The Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Jersey Coast Family Law, Manasquan Bank Charitable Foundation, Monmouth University, OceanFirst Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, Springpoint Senior Living Foundation, The Stone Foundation of New Jersey, Triumph Brewing Company, UMAMI Girl, Visiting Nurse Association of NJ Health Group, Zynergy Retirement Planning, and many other generous foundations, corporations and individuals.
