| Celebrate the life and work of one of the South’s greatest writers in this once-in-a-lifetime theatrical event. Return to a small town in eastern North Carolina and the Avery family that captivated audiences in Triad Stage’s second season. In honor of Reynolds Price, we present the entire New Music trilogy in a special two-part extended run—Part I: August Snow and Night Dance and Part II: Better Days. See the two parts separately or see them together during weekend marathon performances on February 25, February 26, March 10 or March 11. |
New Music
Part II: Better Days
A Family Trilogy
by Reynolds Price
directed by Preston Lane
February 21 – March 18, 2012
Come home.
Thirty years after the events in Night Dance, friends and visitors gather to comfort Neal and Taw after the death of Neal’s mother, Roma. Their son, on leave from Vietnam, seeks a destiny beyond his family’s roots. When Roma’s will reveals a startling surprise, conflicting desires threaten to leave everyone in a state of uncertainty, and they must find enormous courage to meet the future in a swiftly changing world.
"You haven't seen anything remotely like New Music anywhere this season... [It] breaks ground, celebrates a master of Southern literature and, perhaps even more important in the long run, redefines modern regional theatre."
–Lynn Jessup, CVNC
"Price's vigorous, vivid writing takes us on quite a journey and this production proves something I've known from long experience: The night skies aren't empty above small towns. Neither are the people who live in them. New Music provides a nuanced, vibrant reminder."
–Byron Woods, Indy Week
The New Music trilogy is presented in collaboration with Greensboro Public Library's "One City, One Author" program.
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*New Music, Part II: Better Days is presented as a special event and is not included in 2011-2012 Season Pass packages. However, Season Passholders have the exclusive opportunity to order advance Flex Tickets to Better Days at the reduced rate of $15 each with their Season Pass purchase or renewal.
On a snow drenched, blizzard cold Saturday afternoon in Chicago during a disappointing first year in college, I wandered into a bookstore and picked up a copy of a novel named Kate Vaiden. Several hours later, I stopped reading long enough to buy the book and head back to my dorm room. Winter snow and cruel wind was completely forgotten in the words that brought me right back home to North Carolina.
I will never forget the discovery of that book and its amazing writer, Reynolds Price. Although he was from the other side of my home state, I recognized something familiar in his stories and characters and I quickly began to devour more of his fiction, non-fiction and poems. Years later, I was delighted to discover his plays. As a young actor, I used a monologue from August Snow at auditions, and when I shifted my focus to directing, I eagerly anticipated the opportunity to direct the play.
My chance came here at Triad Stage in our second season. That production of the play was one of the dream productions where the entire company fit together, seamlessly celebrating in our collaboration. When Reynolds Price himself came to see the play (more than once) and proved to be as generous and as kind as any gentleman could ever be, I made the promise that we would stage the entire New Music trilogy.
I meant every word of that promise, but somehow I hadn’t got around to it. Budgets, season selections and time kept pushing back the idea of the trilogy. The sadness and loss on hearing of his passing last year was compounded by the regret that I would never be able to share a complete production of New Music with a writer who gave me so much pleasure in his words.
I am thrilled now to present all three plays as a tribute to a deeply gifted writer, a legendary teacher and a North Carolina native son. I welcome you to a world of family ties, desperate hopes and bitter losses in this intricately woven story of three decades in a particular place filled with such compelling people. The New Music trilogy is one of the most audacious pieces of American theater from the last 25 years and it deserves to be recognized as an American classic.
To return to the story of the Avery family is an honor and to share it with our audience is a celebration of Triad Stage’s core values to foster a Unique Southern Voice. Welcome home.
