CONCORD, MA—This December, The Umbrella Stage Company is proud to be the first professional to company to bring to local audiences this newest musical, magical adaptation of Natalie Babbitt's classic children tale, Tuck Everlasting, which also inspired a 2002 Disney film.
Recently on Broadway, the show tells the story of 11-year-old Winnie Foster (played by Madi Shaer), who yearns for a adventure beyond her wrought iron fence in Tree Gap, New Hampshire in 1893. When she stumbles upon the Tuck family and their secret to everlasting youth, she faces the extraordinary choice of returning to her ordinary life or continue with the Tucks on their infinite journey.
"For decades American schoolchildren studied the original novel and it is still taught to 4th and 5th graders today," observes Elliot Norton Award-winning director Nancy Curran Willis. "Tuck Everlasting deals with some very adult concepts of time, loss, growing up, death, love, loyalty, and family. Yet, the musical takes the audience on a magical, mystical, memorable journey suitable for the entire family."
Tuck Everlasting was selected for the season, says Brian Boruta, The Umbrella Stage Co. Producing Artistic Director, to provide substantive "family entertainment...that's not exactly holiday-themed, but a little outside the box.”
Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and cosponsor of the production at The Umbrella, calls Babbitt's story "the equal of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web and perhaps even a couple of Emily Dickinson’s postcards from eternity."
The show features Madi Shaer as Winnie, Max Charbonneau as Jesse Tuck, Rebekah Turner as Mae Tuck, Anthony Pires, Jr.* as Angus Tuck, Sean Mitchell Crosley as Miles Tuck, Robert Saoud* as Man in the Yellow Suit, Matthew Zahnzinger* as Constable Joe, Timmy Chase as Hugo, Jess Andra as Mother, and Cathy Merlo as Nana. Directed by Nancy Curran Willis, with Music Directed by Matthew Stern, Choreography by Lara Finn, Scenic Design by Janie Howland, Lighting Design by SeifAllah Sallotto-Cristobal, Sound Design by Elizabeth Havenor, and Costume Design by Brian Simons.
More About Nancy Curran Willis & The Umbrella Stage Company
Willis has directed 7 shows for The Umbrella including the multi-award-winning Angels in America Parts I & II. With 30 years of directing experience, she has earned awards including the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Direction, ArtsImpulse, and many EMACT DASH Awards. The Umbrella Stage Company is part of the expansive Umbrella Arts Center (formerly Emerson Umbrella), a multifunction 501(c)3 nonprofit arts organization founded in 1983 in Concord, MA. Its expanded, six-show season will alternate between a 344-seat mainstage and flexible 100-seat blackbox – the first season to be staged in The Umbrella’s brand-new, state-of-the-art, multi-theater performing arts facilities at 40 Stow Street.
Season, Flex Pass, Group and Individual tickets are available. Discounts for students, military families and groups. Learn more at TheUmbrellaStage.org . See the complete schedule of dates and showtimes.
