At the Wedding

Valley Players proudly present Bryna Turner’s riotous, moving comedy *At the* *Wedding*. The show goes up October 1–4 as a picnic-theater performance on the beautiful grounds of the Amherst Woman’s Club (rain dates October 8–11). Half of the production’s net ticket revenue will be donated to Out Now, a local nonprofit organization supporting LGBTQ+ youth in the Valley. Tickets are on a pay-what-you- can scale.

*At the Wedding* features Joanna Nix (Carlo), Kate Stango (Carly), Ali Shafi (Victor), Terrance Fables (Eli), Kimberly Salditt-Poulin (Maria), Cici Drzik (Leigh), and Blue Jordan (Eva). The show is directed by Joe Van Allen and produced by Matteo Pangallo, with stage management by Anna Morrissey, costumes by Lynn Meixler, technical direction by Kevin Tracy, assistant technical direction by Ana Steiner, and intimacy coordination by C. R. Rose, and supported by a grant from the Emily List Fund for Performing Arts Therapy. The show runs approximately 70 minutes.

Winner of the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation’s Theatre Visions Award, New York Times Critic’s Pick, and New York Times’ Best of 2022 Unforgettable Theatrical Moments, *At the Wedding* follows Carlo as she arrives, unexpectedly, at her ex- girlfriend’s wedding, carrying heartbreak, bitterness, and an undeniable longing. Set just outside the reception itself, the play lingers in the liminal spaces of a familiar tradition, where Carlo and the other guests orbit the celebration and each other.

“Brutally hilarious,” praised TheaterMania, and New York Theatre Guide described it as “bitterly funny” in its “wisecracking and wisdom-sharing about the unbreakable bond between love and pain.” The New York Times found the play “fresh and trenchant,” with plenty of comedy and that “reshapes the wedding genre for our time, inviting new characters to the party.”

The director for the Valley Players’ production, Van Allen, explains, “Our vision centers on the shift from standing outside the celebration to finding connection, even in the margins. *At the Wedding* reveals a community deeply human in its messiness, tenderness, and desire to belong. The play reflects the reality that these lives and experiences have always existed within and alongside our most familiar traditions. In doing so, it creates space for audiences, particularly those who are underrepresented, to see themselves not at the edges of the story, but at its center.”