Directed by Sydnie Grosberg Ronga

Nanna, an 88 year-old woman comes back from the dead to settle some unresolved issues with her grandson, but along the way, examines her own history of child abuse and her role in the intergenerational pathology of incest. Part sex comedy, part Greek tragedy, Nanna uses black comedy to examine the intimate turmoil of intergenerational incest, and to find a potential escape from the cyclical prison of abuse.

David Simpatico
Career highlights include: the book/stage adaptation of Disney’s High School Musical; The Screams of Kitty Genovese (Jonathan Larson Award; music by Will Todd); Garden of Light, libretto for choral symphony, with composer Aaron Jay Kernis. His musical adaptation of Twelve Angry Men, music and lyrics by Michael Holland, received its world premiere production in June, 2022 at Theater Latte Da in Minneapolis, directed by Peter Rothstein. His grand opera, The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing, with music by Justine F. Chen, received its world premiere at Chicago Opera Theater in March, 2023, also directed by Peter Rothstein. He is currently adapting Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone, with co-bookwriter Darrah Cloud, and composer/lyricist, Michael Holland. He is also working on That Hellbound Train, a new jazz opera with composer Lisa DeSpain, based on the short story by Robert Bloch. His oratorio adaptation of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, with score by Will Todd, received its first production with Opera Holland Park in London, Dec, 2024.

Tickets: $10 members, $15 not-yet members

This performance will take place at the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts at 34 Tinker St in Woodstock, NY.