Ajax

The Flea presents a festival of plays celebrating A.R. Gurney. Two world-premiere A.R. Gurney one-acts will play simultaneously in the Flea, utilizing both the upstairs and downstairs theaters.

In Ajax, an intrepid student adapts Sophocles’ defining war epic to the amusement of his English professor, a passionate ex-actress, who finds herself entangled with every aspect of the play — including the playwright.

Featuring Members of The Bats
Olivia Jampol, Rachel Lin, Ben Lorenz, & Chris Tabet

BIOS

A.R. (“Pete”) Gurney was born in 1930 in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Williams College in 1952, served as an officer in the Navy, and afterwards attended the Yale School of Drama. For many years he taught literature at M.I.T., but moved to New York in 1982 to devote more time to writing for the theatre. He has won a fair amount of awards during his career, and is now a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and is a 2016 recipient of the Obie Lifetime Achievement Award. Gurney has been married to his wife Molly for 59 years. They have four children and eight grandchildren, and now live in Roxbury, Connecticut and New York City.

Stafford Arima was nominated for an Olivier Award for his direction of the West End premiere of the musical, Ragtime, and he recently directed the Broadway production of Allegiance. Upcoming: Poster Boy (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Selected work includes: Altar Boyz (received the Best Musical Outer Critics Circle Award, was nominated for a Drama Desk for Outstanding Musical), Carrie (Off-Broadway revival; nominated for 5 Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Revival of a Musical and an Outer Critics nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Musical; MCC Theater); The Secret Garden (David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center); Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living In Paris (Stratford Shakespeare Festival); Total Eclipse (TSP Theatre, Toronto); The Tin Pan Alley Rag (nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award as Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical, Roundabout Theatre Company); Candide (San Francisco Symphony); Marry Me a Little (Cincinnati Playhouse); and Abyssinia (Goodspeed Musicals). Arima graduated from York University (Toronto) and is an Adjunct Professor at UC Davis. He serves as Artistic Advisor for the Broadway Dreams Foundation and is a proud member of SDC.

Download Program