Dear Friends,

After eighteen months apart, it is our extreme pleasure to welcome you back into our theatre for the start of our three-show 2021/2022 season. Words cannot express our gratitude for your support over the last year and half – your patience, understanding and flexibility have been invaluable as we navigated a course for a safe return to the theatre.

While 2020 was challenging in many ways, the creativity and resiliency of Playhouse artists, staff and audiences never ceased to amaze us. We built a new model for theatre in a digital landscape, commissioning and launching 14 new Digital Without Walls pieces; we hosted such live online events as our Spring Fundraiser and the monthly Coffee with the Playhouse series; and our Learning and Engagement team created a wonderful set of online education tools to help keep the arts alive during remote learning.

As we return to the theatre, it’s entirely fitting that we open with a new Playhouse-commissioned work by Charlayne Woodard, a stellar artist whose relationship with the Playhouse dates back to 1986, when she appeared in the world premiere of Shout Up a Morning. She has graced our stages numerous times in the years since, including in two solo works of her own creation. We’re also delighted to welcome the play’s co-directors, Patricia McGregor and Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, two visionary local artists making their Playhouse mainstage debuts.

The mother and daughter at the heart of The Garden are two very strong women whose love for each other is complicated by history – that of their family and of our country. Their relationship is equal parts tenderness and tension, compassion and competition. But if The Garden illustrates how the unacknowledged past can poison the present, it also shows us that there is a path forward to grace and forgiveness. While it’s true that we reap what we sow, and that the occasional snake can lurk under the leaves, gardens – if tended and nurtured properly – are also places of rebirth, replenishment and sustenance. Your presence here tonight is a testament to that spirit of rebirth, and we are deeply grateful to have you with us on this journey.    

CHRISTOPHER ASHLEY  
The Rich Family Artistic Director                              
of La Jolla Playhouse

DEBBY BUCHHOLZ
Managing Director                              
of La Jolla Playhouse