The Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally had been a longtime supporter of Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor before he died in 2020, so it seems appropriate that his play "Master Class" will be performed as part of the 2024 Mainstage season this summer.
"He was really a friend of the company's," Scott Schwartz, Bay Street Theater's artistic director, said of McNally. "Every year, really, when I was artistic director, he would visit us at least once and see a show. . . . It's a real long-running, deep relationship we've had with him. Of course, we were very sorry to lose him, as the world was . . . but we're really happy to continue to be able to do his work on our stage."
"Master Class," a comedy with music, will begin its run June 25 and conclude July 20. The play follows the opera singer Maria Callas in the latter years of her life, as she contends with her students in a master class in singing.
A 1995 New York Times review of the Broadway opening called it "an unembarrassed, involving meditation on Callas's life and the nature of her art. Such subjects are not easily dramatized, certainly not with this brio."
Lisa Peterson, a recipient of the Gordon Davidson Award for Lifetime Achievement and a two-time Obie Award-winner, will direct the production. It is a return to Bay Street for Ms. Peterson, who previously directed "Romance" at the theater in 2010. Ms. Peterson's recent direction in "Good Night, Oscar," received Tony nominations for scenic and costume designs.
Lead performers in the show have not been announced, but Mr. Schwartz promised they will be "exciting."
The world premiere of "What I Know, Now" was also announced as a bonus show for the summer lineup. The show will run simultaneously alongside "Master Class." The one-woman show written, starring, and produced by Julia Motyka will premiere July 15, with the final showing scheduled for July 20.
Ms. Motyka has won awards for her performances in San Francisco and Denver.
"It's about life. It's about faith. It's about the way we try to find control in the world even though we ultimately can't," Mr. Schwartz said, adding that subscribers to the summer season at the theater receive a discount for the bonus shows, which can "wrap-in" with another production, in this case, "Master Class."
"The week when Julia's show is performing, there will actually be, I think it's like, 12 performances over the course of that week at Bay Street," Mr. Schwartz noted.
The two productions round out the 2024 Mainstage season at Bay Street. "The Subject Was Roses" and "Young Frankenstein" were previously announced.
