Tony Award Winner Heads Cast of Westport Country Playhouse Playreading, “100 Saints You Should Know,” on September 18

Westport Country Playhouse announces 2019 Tony Award winner Celia Keenan-Bolger will head the cast of a Script in Hand playreading, “100 Saints You Should Know,” on Monday, September 18, at 7 p.m. The drama about the challenges of maintaining one’s faith in a modern world is written by Kate Fodor and directed by Maria Dizzia. It was named one of the 10 Best Plays of 2007 by Entertainment Weekly and Time Out New York.

“When Celia Keenan-Bolger told me she wanted to take the Playhouse stage to act in ‘100 Saints You Should Know’ for a Script In Hand evening, I jumped at the chance,” said Mark Shanahan, Script in Hand series curator and incoming artistic director. “Along with a stunning cast and the expert hand of the great Maria Dizzia as director, Kate Fodor’s play will move our audience deeply, digging into issues of identity, hope, faith, loss, and the discovery of a shared, though tenuous, common ground between two lost souls and those who surround them.”

In “100 Saints You Should Know,” Theresa, played by Keenan-Bolger, is a single mother with a rebellious teenage daughter. While working as a cleaner in a church rectory, she begins to rekindle her religious beliefs and searches for validation from the priest.  But the troubled priest, questioning his own faith, suddenly leaves the church and returns home to his protective mother. Theresa tracks him down, ultimately changing both of their lives.

The five-member cast is headed by Celia Keenan-Bolger. She won the Tony Award for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and was a three-time Tony Award nominee for “The Glass Menagerie,” “Peter and the Starcatcher,“ and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Other cast members will be announced soon.

Director Maria Dizzia said, “"I’m thrilled to be bringing this play I love to the Playhouse. I’ve appreciated Kate Fodor's work for so long as an audience member; I could not be more excited to dive into it as a director.”

Dizzia was last seen in the Broadway revival of “Macbeth” with Daniel Craig and starred in the national tour of Heidi Schreck's acclaimed play, “What the Constitution Means to Me.” Other theater credits include “Belleville” (2013 Drama Desk nomination), “Uncle Vanya” at Soho Rep, “In the Next Room” (2010 Tony Award nomination), “Eurydice,” and many more. She made her directorial debut with the Amios Theater Company production of “The Loneliest Number” (2018 NY Innovative Theater nomination) and directed David Thigpen's “Hurricane Party” at Cherry Lane Theatre. She can currently be seen in Paramount+’s series “School Spirits.” Upcoming: The independent film “We Strangers” and Disney+ series “Agatha: Coven of Chaos.”

Playwright Kate Fodor’s plays have been produced by Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, Epic Theatre Ensemble, San Jose Repertory Theatre, London’s Courtyard Theatre, and Chicago’s TimeLine Theatre Company, among others. Her play “Hannah and Martin” received the Kennedy Center’s Roger L. Stevens Award, a Joseph Jefferson Citation, and an After Dark Award. “100 Saints You Should Know” received the National Theatre Conference’s Stavis Award. Fodor is a resident playwright at New Dramatists and a fellow at The Playwrights Center.

Mark Shanahan, Script in Hand curator, was recently named Westport Country Playhouse incoming artistic director for 2023-24. He will assume the position in March 2024. Shanahan is the writer/director of The New York Times Critics’ Pick “A Sherlock Carol” (Off-Broadway Alliance nomination, Best New Play 2021), playing two seasons in New York and annually at London’s Marylebone Theatre. He recently directed his own adaptation of “Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” in partnership with Agatha Christie Ltd., premiering this month at the Tony Award-winning Alley Theatre. He is the author of “A Merry Little Christmas Carol,” “See Monsters of the Deep,” the Off-Broadway and regional hit comedy “The Dingdong,” as well as numerous radio plays as creator of the White Heron Ghost Light series, featuring Christopher Plummer, Judith Ivey, Rhonda Ross, and other notables. Shanahan has directed at stages around the country such as Alley Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Virginia Stage, Arkansas Rep, White Heron, Mile Square Theatre, Hudson Stage, Theatre Squared, Fulton Opera House, Weston Playhouse, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, Florida Rep, Penguin Rep, Merrimack Rep, The Cape Playhouse, and many more. As an actor, Shanahan has appeared on and Off-Broadway (“The 39 Steps,” “Tryst,” “The Shaugraun,” and others) and at many celebrated regional theatres. Shanahan has appeared on the Westport Country Playhouse stage in “Journey’s End” (2005) “David Copperfield,” directed by Joanne Woodward and Annie Keefe, (2005), “Sedition” (2007), “Tryst” (2008), and “Around the World in 80 Days” (2009), and numerous Script In Hand readings. Shanahan is also the creator and curator of Westport Country Playhouse Radio Theater, in partnership with WSHU Public Radio, and served as writer/director of the Playhouse radio adaptation of “A Merry Little Christmas Carol,” and as director of scripts commissioned for the series. mark-shanahan.net.

Stage manager is Megan Smith who has stage managed many Westport Country Playhouse productions and Script in Hand and New Works playreadings since 2005.

Tickets are $25. Running time is approximately two hours, including one 15-minute intermission. The play contains mature language and content.

For full details on the Script in Hand playreading of “100 Saints You Should know,” visit: https://www.westportplayhouse.org/show/script-in-hand-september/

The Script in Hand Playreading Series is supported by Joyce Herganhan and the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

Upcoming Script in Hand playreadings are scheduled on Mondays, November 13 and December 11, titles to be announced. They offer intimate storytelling as professional actors bring the words to life without sets or costumes. For a video on Script in Hand, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2eWDaF-JXA. 

A complete schedule of Playhouse events is available at westportplayhouse.org. All play titles, artists, dates, and times are subject to change.

For Westport Country Playhouse information and tickets, visit westportplayhouse.org or call the box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), Instagram (wcplayhouse), and YouTube (WestportPlayhouse). Westport Country Playhouse is located at 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport.