Merrimack Repertory Theatre (MRT) mission is to create remarkable new and contemporary plays that bring joy to our art form while engaging, entertaining, and enriching our community. Celebrating its 45th Season, MRT is among the nation’s top regional theatres, offering a multi-show season, educational programming, community engagement, and new play workshops. Each production is performed in the intimate 279-seat Nancy L. Donahue Theatre in historic Liberty Hall of Lowell Memorial Auditorium. MRT offers $5 preview nights, $10 Lowell nights, and discounts for educators, veterans, students, and others.
DISHWASHER DREAMS
Written and performed by Alaudin Ullah
Directed by Chay Yew
February 28 – March 17, 2024
From Bangladesh to New York City, from graffiti crews to baseball games, courageous honesty to emotive humor, Dishwasher Dreams explores the complicated realities of dreams we make for ourselves. When Alaudin sets out to become a film actor in Los Angeles, his Bangladeshi family can’t understand. Driven by laugh out loud writing and accompanied by tablas percussion, Ullah’s edifying and dynamic tour-de-force explores the humor and complexity of the American Dream through a deeply personal story.
THE PORCH ON WINDY HILL
Written by Sherry Stregack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse and David M. Lutken
Conceived and Directed by Sherry Stregack Lutken
April 3 – 21, 2024
A bi-racial Korean classical violinist, Mira, and her music history grad-student boyfriend, Beck, escape months of Covid-isolation to the mountains of North Carolina. Their journey takes a surprising turn when they meet Edgar, and Mira faces a flood of memory, pain, hope, and discovery that follows. A moving, modern American play about family- with enough music for a real ‘hoot ‘n’ holler’ as the cast- Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse, and David Lutken perform a dozen traditional and bluegrass gems. The quintessentially American melodies running through The Porch on Windy Hill illuminate a young woman’s complex, contemporary tale of healing.
SPIRITUS/VIRGIL’S DANCE
Written and performed by Dael Orlandersmith
Directed by Neel Keller
May 8 – 26, 2024
In this exploration of the realities of death through the eyes of a watchful and troubled individual, we meet Virgil- a kid who used to hang out in cemeteries with friends. As an adult, Virgil wonders: what does it mean to live a fulfilled life? Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance is an extraordinary meditation on finding purpose in the midst of the ordinariness of daily life.
