Penguin Rep Theatre, under the leadership of Joe Brancato, founding Artistic Director, and Andrew M. Horn, Executive Director, announced its 2025 season – the nonprofit professional company’s 48th in Stony Point, New York – will feature four mainstage productions, including three world premieres.

The company will also transfer its acclaimed production of Gene & Gilda to Off-Broadway this summer. By Penguin’s playwright in residence Cary Gitter, the play had sold-out runs in Stony Point when it premiered in 2023 and at New Jersey’s George Street Playhouse this past winter.

The season at Penguin’s intimate venue in Rockland County officially kicks off June 6 with Miracle on South Division Street, a comedy by Nyack resident Tom Dudzick.

16 years after the play was developed and originally produced at Penguin (under the title Our Lady of South Division Street), “the Miracle comes home,” says Mr. Brancato who will direct the revival.

“Their neighborhood may be depressed, but not the Nowak family who always thought they were special,” says Mr. Brancato. “That is, until a deathbed confession shakes the family to its very core and their beliefs begin to unravel with heartfelt and hilarious results.”

Following its world premiere at Penguin in 2009, Miracle was published by Playscripts Inc. and subsequently produced in 27 states, Canada, India, Israel, and South Africa.

Performances of Miracle on South Division Street will run through June 29.

From July 11 through July 27, the company transports us to Hell’s Kitchen when it premieres Son of Zeus, a new play written and performed by Jimmy Georgiades, the Greek-American son of a single mother who worked as a belly dancer. “It’s A Bronx Tale meets Zorba the Greek,” says Mr. Brancato, “a captivating story about family lost, family found, and the challenges of living up to – or letting go of – expectations.”

Son of Zeus will be directed by playwright, lyricist and actress Gretchen Cryer, who, with Nancy Ford, created the successful stage musicals I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking it on the Road and The Last Sweet Days of Isaac.

Next up, from August 15 through September 7, is the world premiere of Castling written by Anthony T. Goss and directed by Daniel Boisrond. In this heartwarming new comedy, workers at a local tire shop play chess as part of their daily morning ritual. But when their longstanding workplace becomes the target of a business takeover, they must scramble to avoid being put in the ultimate checkmate.

The mainstage season concludes with the world premiere of John J. Wooten’s Flawless, which is described by Mr. Brancato, who will stage the play, as “a striking and humorous new work about the impending intersection of technology, creativity and chemistry.” A writer and a software designer battle to create the next great play. But will their flirtation with artificial intelligence (AI) lead to theatrical success?

Flawless will be presented from September 26 through October 19.

Performances of mainstage productions are scheduled at Penguin Rep Theatre, a repurposed hay barn, located at 7 Crickettown Road. “The converted barn, circa 1880, has never been more inviting” (The New York Times). Says Mr. Horn, “It’s theatre so close you can feel it, with comfortable upholstered seats and no seat more than 30 feet from the stage.” The theatre is air conditioned, handicapped accessible, and has plenty of free parking.

Performances will take place: Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m., select Friday matinees at 2:00 p.m., select Friday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m.

Season tickets are on sale now. Prices for the mainstage season start as low as $160 for the four plays, a savings of nearly 25% off the cost of individual tickets.

“The very best seats in the house go to subscribers before single tickets go on sale,” says Mr. Horn.  For no additional charge, he says, patrons can select a value-added subscription series that includes post-performance discussions among the artists and audience, coffee and cake with the cast, and pre-show tastings supplied by local restaurants.

An additional incentive to purchase season tickets, says Horn, “is to dine out at a discount, with select restaurants offering special benefits to Penguin subscribers.”

Individual tickets go on sale May 9. Tickets are priced at $52. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more and young people (30 and under). 

New this season is the introduction of Cheap Thrills Fridays – June 6, July 11, August 15 and September 26 at 7:30 p.m. – when tickets are $26, half the regular price, and Posa Posa Pizza Fridays – June 20, July 25, August 29 and October 10 – when audience members are invited to arrive early and enjoy a slice supplied by the popular Nanuet restaurant.

“We hate service charges, facility fees, credit card surcharges, and any kind of additional fee,” says executive director Horn, “so we don’t charge them!”

Additional details about the 2025 season, including casting, concerts, readings, and special events, will be announced in coming weeks.

To order tickets or for further information, visit Penguin Rep’s website at WWW.PENGUINREP.ORG or call 845-786-2873. 

ABOUT PENGUIN REP THEATRE

Penguin Rep Theatre (Penguin Players, Ltd.), based in historic Stony Point (Rockland County), New York, is an award-winning nonprofit professional theatre company now in its 48th year of operation.

Producing new plays in an intimate 108-seat venue, Penguin offers the excitement and thrill of experiencing original dramatic works to visitors to the scenic lower Hudson Valley.

Emmy Award winning actress Edie Falco says that “a visit to Penguin Rep is a perfect trip out of the city – a beautiful setting and the theatre rivals what you can see in New York.”

Sarah Jessica Parker invites audiences to experience “incomparable productions of new works” and to “visit fine theatre in a gorgeous pastoral setting only 50 minutes from Manhattan.”

Joe Brancato was a high school English and drama teacher in 1977 when he peered into an abandoned 1880s hay barn and envisioned the space repurposed into a theatre.

48 years later, Penguin Rep – the theatre Brancato started with Francine Newman-McCarthy and runs with executive director Andrew M. Horn – has grown from a summer theatre to become one of the lower Hudson Valley’s most enduring cultural institutions, reaching tens of thousands of theatergoers each year at its home, in New York City and beyond – with its work moving to Off Broadway and to stages across the country and around the world.

Since its founding in 1977, Penguin has presented more than 200 productions – 150 directed by Brancato himself – for more than 400,000 people from the lower Hudson Valley and beyond. And Mr. Brancato has brought together award-winning professional actors – David Canary, Michael Cullen, Tim De Kay, Gregg Edelman, Michael Esper, Barbara Feldon, Tovah Feldshuh, Beth Fowler, Deborah Hedwall, Celeste Holm, Richard Kline, Andrew McCarthy, Lizbeth Mackay, Michele Pawk, and Karen Ziemba, among others – to star in new and noteworthy plays by such playwrights as Lee Blessing, Ronald Harwood, Allan Knee, Arthur Laurents, Warren Leight, Jon Marans, William Mastrosimone, Michael McKeever, Angelo Parra, Lainie Robertson, James Sherman, Elizabeth Swados, and Staci Swedeen.

As it launches its 48th season, Penguin Rep Theatre, dubbed “the gutsiest little theatre” by The New York Times, continues to present a cultural experience that is unique in the region: professional productions of new plays at affordable prices.

As The Journal News wrote: “Somebody forgot to tell artistic director Joe Brancato that he’s crazy to use a little barn plunked down in the Rockland County suburbs to experiment with unusual and challenging plays … I hope everybody keeps forgetting to tell him. The region is more the richer for it.”

“Guided by the skilled hand of Penguin’s artistic director, Joe Brancato, the splendid performers get first-rate support, as always at Penguin, by an excellent design team” (The New York Times).

“Penguin Rep is a place where theatergoers can experience magic time after time” (Lohud.com).

In 2024, Penguin was invited to become a resident co-op company at 59E59 Theatres in New York City, where it has previously presented seven productions, including the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Award-nominee Small and the Audelco Award-nominee Freed.

Penguin Rep Theatre’s 2025 season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

Penguin Rep gratefully acknowledges the additional support of the County of Rockland, Town of Stony Point, Rockland County Tourism, ArtsWestchester, The Barbara & Buddy Freitag Family Fund, Bernard & Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, The Chazen Foundation, Hydro-Quebec Energy Services, The Jacques & Margot W. Kohn Foundation, The Joan Weingarten & Bob Donnalley Gift Fund, Orange & Rockland Utilities, and The Shubert Foundation.