ICTC Announces 31st Season, Return to In-Person Performances
Trio of Comedies will take The Andrews Theatre stage beginning in January
The Irish Classical Theatre Company is proud to announce its 2021-2022 season: a trio of comedies featuring ICTC favorites to celebrate the return to live, in-person performances. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett will open the season in January, followed by Sarah Ruhl’s Stage Kiss, and, back by popular demand, a remount of March 2020’s The Onion Game by Bryan Delaney, ICTC’s Playwright-in-Residence.
“We are thrilled to return to our home at The Andrews Theatre for a season of live, in-person performances,” said Kate LoConti Alcocer, ICTC’s Executive Artistic Director. “We are incredibly grateful to our patrons and donors for supporting us through our virtual Season and can’t wait to celebrate with three plays that capture the comedic spirit, and maintain our commitment to classic, quality theatre.”
The 2021-2022 Season:
Waiting for Godot – January 14, 2022 – February 13, 2022
Directed by ICTC Executive Artistic Director Kate LoConti Alcocer
The absurdist plight of Beckett’s lovable tramps brought the O’Neill Brothers to WNY and inaugurated the ICTC. Now highlighting our triumphant homecoming to The Andrews Theatre, we return to the classic play that began it all, as Brian Mysliwy’s Estragon plays opposite ICTC Artistic Director Emeritus Vincent O’Neill’s Vladimir. Executive Artistic Director Kate LoConti Alcocer directs a stellar cast, sure to take several comedic turns as they journey toward the heart of the human condition.
Stage Kiss – March 25, 2022 – April 24, 2022
Directed by ICTC Associate Director Fortunato Pezzimenti
Two actors and ex-lovers find themselves starring opposite each other in an off-off-Broadway 1930s melodrama. It doesn’t take long for the lines between life and art to blur, while the farcical antics of the play-within-a-play make for an unforgettable romantic comedy by award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl. Directed by ICTC Associate Director Fortunato Pezzimenti, Kate LoConti Alcocer returns to the Andrews Theatre stage for the first time as ICTC’s Executive Artistic Director.
The Onion Game – June 3, 2022 – June 26, 2022
Directed by ICTC Associate Director Greg Natale
Stan Klimecko and Company return to finish the run of our “Wildly Satisfying” March 2020 production! Onion and Pearl are miserably married. Their children, Ogie and Milly, are displaying increasingly strange behavior. As Onion writes the Great Irish Novel and Pearl covers the house in beads, they secretly plot each other's ruin. The Onion Game, by ICTC’s Playwright-in-Residence Bryan Delaney, author of The Cobbler and The Seedbed, launches a hilarious assault on the hollow aspirations of modern life. Winner of the King’s Cross New Writing Award in London, this is a grotesque black comedy of treachery, revenge, literature... and onions.
As for any adjustments to the theatre-going experience, the ICTC staff is keeping informed of current guidelines and will update patrons as concrete decisions are made. Tickets for the 2021-2022 Season will be available to purchase online or by phone in September 2021.
In 1985, two Dublin-born brothers, Vincent and Chris O’Neill, internationally acclaimed actors and former members of Ireland’s celebrated Abbey Theatre, found themselves in Buffalo, New York performing Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in the dining room of a local hotel. They were enthusiastically embraced by Western New York audiences and critics and, together with fellow Dubliners Josephine Hogan and the late Dr. James Warde, formed the Irish Classical Theatre Company. Performing on various rented stages until a permanent home was established at the Calumet Arts Café, ICTC became the fastest growing theatre in the region and led to the building of its new home, The Andrews Theatre, which opened its doors in January of 1999 in Buffalo’s Theatre District.