In the parish hall at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Greenport, the kitchen of a South Carolina family home is slowly coming to life.
The doors of a junked refrigerator from the town dump have been rebuilt into a 1970s-style appliance. Cabinet drawers from playwright James Pritchard’s own basement have been screwed into place and painted avocado green. Before opening night, actor and painter Stuart Whalen will finish the “view” outside the kitchen window — a hand-painted backdrop that adds depth to the cramped onstage room. It’s a homemade set for a homemade story.
This weekend, Northeast Stage opens “Lessons from Hollywood,” a new comedy-drama by Pritchard, a longtime North Fork playwright and actor. The show is set in Hollywood, S.C., where a 50-year-old gay widower returns home from New York City to spend the holidays with his conservative family in the late 2000s. Old grudges, unresolved conversations and the dawning realization of a parent’s mortality all come to the Christmas dinner table.
Director Mark Heidemann (above, right) was recruited by Pritchard to bring the script to the stage with a company made up entirely of East End stage actors: Kevin Shea, Linda Pentz, Stuart Whalen, Lauren Maugeri and Alex Sguazzin. Pritchard himself has been deeply involved in the ecosystem of local writers and performers for years.
For Heidemann, who has acted and directed across the East End, the chance to mount a full-length premiere written by a neighbor, at a time when many community theaters are leaning on familiar titles and jukebox musicals, felt like a rare opportunity.
He remembers receiving the script and sitting down at home with his wife, Erika, drinks in hand, to read it aloud. By the end, they were both sold on the new play. With local talent on hand, from actors to carpenters to painters, plans to pursue a full production got underway.
“This is a perfect opportunity,” Heidemann said. “It’s a holiday show, more for adults than for kids. And it offers something different from all the Christmas stuff that you see.”
That “something different” is a story about family tensions. The protagonist left the South decades earlier and rarely returned. Now, when he walks through the door, the emotional baggage he thought he’d left behind is waiting exactly where he dropped it. The decorations are over the top, but the real weight in the room is the question of how long the family has to get honest before time runs out.
Heidemann sees that as universal territory — grown children navigating aging parents, old wounds that never quite heal and families trying to reach across political and cultural divides. In a season when stages from Mattituck to the South Fork are filled with “festive fun stuff,” he said he’s proud to stage a holiday show that feels closer to life as people actually experience it.
The cast has thrown itself into the project. Many of the actors have worked together in past productions at local companies; others are returning to the stage after time away. Heidemann describes them as a tight-knit group that has embraced the risk of building an entirely new production for a playwright they know personally. The sense of family Pritchard writes about is mirrored, in a healthier way, in the rehearsal process.
The new production arrives at moment of major transition for Northeast Stage.
For more than 40 years, co-founder Amie Sponza (above, left) has been the driving force behind the company, shepherding its shoestring budget, fundraising and keeping its summer Shakespeare in the Park tradition alive. She describes herself as having been “the gas in the engine” since her twenties, when she launched the theater with a small group led by Tony-winning actor Peg Murray. Over the decades, Sponza stayed when others moved on, writing grants, organizing shows and cultivating partnerships that allowed Northeast Stage to produce ambitious work without owning its own building.
Holy Trinity, she said, has been “very kind” about rent and storage, letting the company leave sets and equipment in place between shows, lending the kind of institutional support that makes it possible to take chances on new work.
Recently, though, Sponza has been thinking about succession. She has a new grandchild and wants the company to outlive her. That’s where Corchaug Repertory Theatre comes in.
Founded by Colin Palmer and Christian Lepore, Corchaug Rep built a reputation through original one-act festivals and productions across the North Fork. But with Palmer preparing to leave the region, the company faced a choice: close or find a way to keep its momentum alive.
Sponza and Heidemann had already been in discussions about a merger of the two companies. The idea was good but the timing wasn’t right, Sponza said, so she suggested they “let it simmer” while both groups assessed their long-term goals.
This year, the pieces fell into place. Corchaug wanted a nonprofit structure; Northeast Stage had one. Northeast Stage had Shakespeare in the Park and decades of experience; Corchaug brought younger leadership and a commitment to new writing.
The merger was also an opportunity to retire the Corchaug name, which had been questioned. Heidemann said the word refers to a people, not a place, and the company had no Native American members. Though there was only one complaint, the group felt the concern was valid.
Now, under the Northeast Stage banner, Heidemann and Lepore serve as co-chairs of a newly constituted board that includes Tom Gregory and members in their mid-20s, like Nick Auletti and Julia Cappiello, alongside veteran hands. Auletti has been learning grant writing from Sponza and is slated to direct next summer.
Heidemann sees that generational shift as essential. New voices, he said, need a seat at the table.
Sponza isn’t stepping away. She plans to advise, mentor and connect the new board with the network she’s built, and jump into a role onstage if needed. But she said she’s delighted to see a new generation taking the reins.
The decision to start this new era with a locally written holiday play was intentional, according to Heidemann and Sponza. Murray, they note, spent her later years adapting Shakespeare, writing original works inspired by Mark Twain and Walt Whitman, and experimenting with political allegory. Sponza said that Northeast Stage has always been strongest when it balances the classics with new voices.
Heidemann hopes “Lessons from Hollywood” is a step toward more of that. The company is already sketching out its first full season under the merged board and is considering folding Greek tragedies into next summer’s outdoor programming.
For now, the focus remains on that cluttered Southern kitchen at Holy Trinity — the playwright who repurposed drawers from his basement, the actors who have worked together for years, the costume fittings and the volunteers adjusting borrowed lights. It’s a lot of work for a community show in a church hall, but to Heidemann, that’s exactly why it matters.
He believes local audiences are ready to “go see something else… something brand new,” especially when it is written, built and performed by their neighbors.
The show runs this weekend and next, with performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 5-7 and Dec. 12-14. Friday and Saturday shows start at 7 p.m., and the Sunday matinee begins at 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the door or at northeaststage.org.
