by Annie Baker
Directed by Ed Faver
January 16 - February 1
The play is set in the fictional small town of Shirley, Vermont, where Phyllis, a college campus organizer for Body Awareness Week (whose topics range from a dance troupe of refugee Palestinian children to an eating disorder seminar) lives with her partner Joyce, a high school social studies teacher, and Joyce's 21-year-old son Jared, from a prior marriage. Jared shows several symptoms of Asperger's syndrome, but he refuses to see a therapist for treatment. Their houseguest is a middle-aged photographer named Frank Bonitatibus, whose artistic photos of nude women offend Phyllis. Frank's presence exacerbates the already existing tension between the three of them, and when Joyce agrees to pose for one of Frank's pictures, this threatens her relationship with Phyllis. Meanwhile, Jared, a self-described autodidact who works at McDonald's until he successfully tries to get fired because he hates his co-workers, asks Frank for advice on how to attract women.