“HEART RENDING AND HUMOROUS… a vigorous cast pump[s] new life into a venerated old show… BRAVO!” — Theatre Notes

“WOW!… GROUNDBREAKING… there’s something particularly special about John Farmanesh-Bocca’s revolutionary restaging of a classic. At seventy years of age, Picnic has never felt so fresh and new.” — Stage Scene LA

“EXCEPTIONAL…a refreshing and meaningful rendition” — Glamgical

“SPARKS FLY… consistently deliver[s] the longing, the dissatisfaction and, yes, also the sensuality.” — Broadway World

“AN EXCITING STAGING… rings with currency and relevance.” — Showmag

“JOYFUL…  in this production [Picnic] has been given new life and new meaning in its exploration of black identity, love, and class relationships.” — US Theater, Opera, and Performance

Stage Scene LA Award Winner for 2022-23:

○       OUTSTANDING REVIVAL OF A 20TH-CENTURY PLAY

○       OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN MULTIPLE PRODUCTIONS - Sydney A. Mason

○       OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A REVIVAL OF A 20TH-CENTURY PLAY - Monti D. Washington

○       OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE IN A REVIVAL OF A 20TH-CENTURY PLAY - Symphony Canady, Rogelio Douglas III, Mattie Harris Lowe, Erika L. Holmes, Sydney A. Mason, Caitlin O’Grady, Derrick Parker, Yolanda Snowball, Rosemary Thomas, Ahkei Togun, and Monti D. Washington

○       OUTSTANDING DIRECTION OF A REVIVAL OF A 20TH-CENTURY PLAY - John Farmanesh-Bocca

○       OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY OF A PLAY - John Farmanesh-Bocca and Brianna Price

Closeted and dogged by an acute sense of failure for most of his life until he ended it, William Inge wrote some of the great lyrical plays of the American mid-century, and Picnic was his masterpiece, his playground and, quite possibly, his fantasy. 

Sensual, passionate and delightfully funny, Picnic is a timeless American classic about the line between restraint and desire. When a handsome young drifter named Hal arrives in a small Midwestern town, his combination of uncouth manners and titillating charm sends the women reeling, especially the beautiful Madge. What follows is an achingly true depiction of their struggle to find something of their own value in the midst of adult pettiness and despair.

In 1953 Picnic won both the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Circle Award. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Written by William Inge
Directed by John Farmanesh-Bocca
Costume Designer Mylette Nora
Scenic Designer Frederica Nascimento
Lighting Designer Chu-Hsuan Chang
Sound Designer John Farmanesh-Bocca, Jeff Gardner, Adam Phelan
Properties Designer Jenine MacDonald
Choreographers Briana Price, John Farmanesh-Bocca
Scenic Artist Chris Bell
Stage Manager Terrance Stewart
Produced in Association with Isabel & Harvey Kibel

CAST

Symphony Canady
Rogelio Douglas III
Mattie Harris-Lowe
Erika L. Holmes
Sydney A. Mason
Caitlin O’Grady
Derrick Parker
Yolanda Snowball
Rosemary Thomas
Ahkei Togun
Monti D. Washington

A Note from John Farmanesh-Bocca, Director of “Picnic”

September 2, 2020

To me, William Inge’s romantic masterwork PICNIC is a potent mix of deeply human juxtapositions—love and family, morality and longing, fortune and desperation, idealism and reality, frailty and resilience, fear and courage, prejudice and acceptance, small towns and big cities—Essentially, it’s about America.

I was eager to tell a story about America—an idea still struggling to live up to its promise, searching for its soul. To me, it seemed that the American story was deeply embedded in the Black American experience. A country built largely on the skills and forced labor of its generationally deep residents.

I wasn’t sure if it would work, I was loathed to change a word of text, but it turned out, not a single word needed to be adjusted. The play, in the hands of a black cast, rang like a bell. Rather than narrowing the scope, it only expanded the scope of the story of America, inviting us to celebrate how unique and similar our human experiences are.

This sweet story of innocence, explores the enormous question of identity; identity of self and the Country we live in.