PITTSBURGH PREMIERE
Jenny Stafford’s SECRET HOUR, winner of the 2021 Next Act! New Play Summit, is a delicious and visceral look into the secrets we keep from ourselves and those closest to us. It's an unveiling of characters at their rawest and most vulnerable moments. This is the kind of storytelling that live theater was made for: to examine the human condition and connect us to who we really are.
Thirty-five-year-old Kate is a professor of Ethics, with only one rule for her students — do not lie to her. She asks her students to answer the question, “Is your highest ethical responsibility to yourself, or to other people?” However, as Kate and her husband struggle to have a baby, she finds herself unable to answer it as she faces an ethical dilemma of her own. What happens when an unexpected event reveals Kate's deepest, darkest secret?
“SECRET HOUR is a masterly, thoroughly involving theatrework; rich in humor and compassion for characters who ring with the authenticity of life.” —The Berkshire Eagle
A TRULY AUSPICIOUS DEBUT
FOR ENSEMBLE ACTORS THEATER!
This top rate show is not to be missed. It’s thought provoking on a deeply philosophical level as it addresses ethics, truth, authenticity and our relationships with ourselves and others.
It is entertaining, quirky, engaging, and extremely funny at times.
LONNIE JANTSCH, 'BURGH VIVANT
THE CAST & CREATIVE TEAM
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JORDAN MOORE
Leaf
JOSEPH MARTINEZ
Ben
JAIME SLAVINSKY*
Kate
OVIS MANGUM
Doctor
Actor appears courtesy of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors & Stage Managers in the United States
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EUGENE BANKS
Understudy, Ben
BRANDI WELLE
Understudy, Kate
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LINDSEY DIBATTISTA
Understudy, Doctor
CHRIS CLAVELLI
Director
JENNY STAFFORD
Playwright
BROOKE ECHNAT, Assistant Director | ASM
REMY PORTER, Assistant Director | Lighting Designer
SARAH ALLEN, Production Manager
JUSTIN ZENO, House Manager
ensemble actors theater is a professional resident theater company that serves as an incubator for student actors to develop their craft while working alongside Actors' Equity Association (AEA) members and seasoned professionals.
eat embraces the conviction that live theater remains a vital part of community development. Theater, indeed, holds a mirror up to society through visceral storytelling that encourages conversations and engages its audience in new dialogues, thereby serving as a catalyst to foster empathy and create equity as it celebrates the rich cultural diversity of the community it serves.
Those are some lofty goals and big fancy words all to say that storytelling is still a powerful means of bringing people together. Whether it's a play that highlights a serious issue pulled from the current headlines or one that makes the audience laugh till it hurts, live theater will always be a way for the community to share what it means to be human with one another.
eat is theater that feeds your soul.
