"Nothing is forever. There's much I want to do with my life while I'm still old and gray," said Horovitz in a release. "It's taken a long, long time for Gloucester Stage to stand on its own, artistically and financially. It finally seems to be the right moment for both of us to start new adventures."
The Massachusetts company will send off their leader with starry special presentations this summer including Jill Clayburgh reading Wendy Wasserstein's The Sisters Rosensweig, Judith Ivey performing the Irene O'Garden solo Women on Fire and Peter Boyle joined by daughter and sister, Lucy Boyle and Alice Duffy, in a reading of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. (Dates and information available at the website.)
Horovitz is the author of Park Your Car In Harvard Yard, The Widow's Blind Date, North Shore Fish, My Old Lady, Free Gift, Stations of the Cross and Lebensraum — which all received world premieres at Gloucester Stage. His latest work, The Secret of Madame Bonnard's Bath, will debut there in August.
The playwright also has further plans, off the stage: "I'm going to direct a couple of films I've written. One's set in France, the other in Latvia. I'm also going to spend six months in St. Andrews, Scotland, during 2007, writing, teaching at University of St. Andrews, and doing some much-needed work on my short-game."
Though his homestage will never be far from his thoughts. "Gloucester Stage will always be my artistic home. I'll now have the title Founding Artistic Director, which, simply said, means I'll be hands-off, and my successor will be hands-on. He or she will choose and direct each new season, and I'll be in touch with gentle advice, as well as with my own new work and with new work from playwright-friends. Gloucester Stage's mission will not radically change. We'll always be dedicated to serious, new writing - to work that reflects life as it's lived on our little spot on the planet Earth. For 27 years, Gloucester Stage has been at the center of my life. It is only stepping to an edge. It's a happy, exciting time. Change really is opportunity. Hopefully, Gloucester Stage will be my legacy, what I leave behind me — in a place I dearly love." The upcoming season at Gloucester includes Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (June 15-July 2), Samuel Beckett's Happy Days (July 6-July 16), Arthur Miller's The Price (July 20-Aug. 6), Israel Horovitz's The Secret of Madame Bonnard's Bath (Aug. 10-27), Barry Wyner's musical Calvin Berger (Aug. 31-Sept. 17). The fall will bring Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett's The Diary of Anne Frank adapted by Wendy Kesselman (Sept. 21-Oct. 8) and Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows adapted by Alan Bennett (Nov. 30-Dec. 17).
For more information on the Gloucester Stage, visit gloucesterstage.com.
