Mothers & Sons
MAY 8 - JUN 6, 2015 Buy Tickets NowWritten by Terrence McNally
Directed by Paul Daigneault
Scenic Design by Erik D. Diaz
Costume Design by Charles Schoonmaker
Lighting Design by Jeff Adelberg
Sound Design by David Remedios
Production Stage Manager
Dawn Schall Saglio
A 2014 Tony Nominee for Best Play, Mothers & Sons is a timely and touching new play that explores our evolving understanding of what it means to be a family. Funny, provocative, and poignant, this acclaimed drama follows Dallas matriarch Katharine Gerard on an unexpected visit to New York to meet with her late son’s former partner, who is now married to another man and raising a young son. Forced to consider the life her own son might have led, Katharine must now come to terms with her own life choices and how society has changed around her.
Featuring:
Nancy E. Carroll*… Katherine Gerard
Michael Kaye*… Cal Porter
Nile Hawver*… Will Ogden
Liam Lurker … Bud Ogden-Porter
-
Who's Who
Cast & Crew
NANCY E. CARROLL* returns to the Speakeasy where she appeared in Other Desert Cities, The Savannah Disputations, The Women, Company, A Man Of No Importance. She spent a season touring with the Druid Theatre of Galway appearing as Mammy in The Cripple of Inishmaan (US/Ireland) and the Old Woman in Big Maggie (Ireland). Her other credits include: Broadway: Present Laughter; Off Broadway: Balancing Act; Regional: The Seagull, Rapture Blister Burn, Good People, Luck of the Irish, Prelude to a Kiss, Brendan, She Loves Me, The Rose Tattoo, Dead End (Huntington Theatre); Our Town, She Loves Me (Williamstown); Trad (Tir Na); 4000 Miles, North Shore Fish, Breath of Life, Doubt, Happy Days, My Old Lady, Collected Stories (Gloucester Stage); The Year of Magical Thinking, The Glass Menagerie (Lyric Stage); The Clean House, Frozen, Sweeney Todd, Kindertransport (New Repertory Theatre); Bailegangaire (Súgán Theatre); Homebody/Kabul (Boston Theatre Works); Humble Boy, Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale (Publick Theatre); Auntie and Me (Merrimack Repertory); The Pain & The Itch (Company One); Buried Child, The Unexpected Man (Nora Theatre). She received Elliot Norton Awards for Miss Erickson in Present Laughter, the Woman in Brendan and Mommo in Bailegangaire. Recent TV/Film credits include HBO’s Olive Kitteridge and Spotlight for Dreamworks.
PAUL DAIGNEAULT (Producing Artistic Director) was the recipient of the 2014 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence by the Boston Theater Critics Association. Since founding SpeakEasy in 1992, he has produced over 100 Boston premieres. SpeakEasy directing highlights include: The Color Purple; In the Heights; Xanadu; Next to Normal; Nine; Body Awareness; The Great American Trailer Park Musical; [title of show]; The Savannah Disputation; Jerry Springer – The Opera; The New Century; Some Men; Zanna, Don’t!; Parade (2008 Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Director, Midsize Company); Almost, Maine; Caroline, or Change; Take Me Out; Company; A Man of No Importance (co-production Súgán); Bat Boy: The Musical (2003 Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Director, Small Company); Passion; A New Brain; Violet; Songs for a New World; Floyd Collins; Jeffrey; and Love! Valour! Compassion! Regional credits: Grand Hotel and Nine (The Boston Conservatory and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music); Rent, City of Angels, Sunday in the Park with George, and Merrily We Roll Along (The Boston Conservatory); and Into the Woods, Urinetown, and Blue Window (Boston College). Paul is also on the faculty at The Boston Conservatory where he teaches musical theatre and directing. He has also been honored with the Boston College Arts Council’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Achievement in 2007, and served as the 2011-2012 Rev. J. Donald Monan S.J. Professor in Theatre Arts. Outside the theatre, Paul serves on the Boards of the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center and the ICU Patient & Family Advisory Council at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
NILE SCOTT HAWVER* (Monty) returns to SpeakEasy after playing Will Ogden in last season’s Mothers and Sons. Other local credits include productions at Central Square Theater, The Wilbury Group, Huntington Theatre Company, and Commonwealth Shakespeare. National: Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and many more. He holds a BFA from the University of Rhode Island, and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Nile is a proud member of Actor’s Equity, a lucky boyfriend of Maggie, and a grateful actor for another opportunity to work with SpeakEasy Stage. nilehawver.com | nilescottshots.com
MICHAEL KAYE* is thrilled to be returning to SpeakEasy for a second time with this production. His fist SpeakEasy show was Clybourne Park. Some of Michael’s regional theatre credits include appearances at the Huntington Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Lyric Stage, New Repertory Theatre, Boston Playwrights Theatre, and Boston Center for American Performance. He was most recently seen in the BPT’s production of Uncle Jack. Michael is an Assistant Professor of Acting at The Boston University School of Theatre, where he received both a BFA and MFA in Acting and Theatre Education respectively.
LIAM LURKER (Bud) is pleased to make his SpeakEasy debut in Mothers and Sons. He started his stage career with Boston Ballet in the world premiere of choreographer Jorma Elo’s Awake Only in the 2012 Fall Program. He has also performed in three productions of Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker. Liam began his theater training under actor and instructor Danny Bolton at Wheelock Family Theatre in Boston; musical and stage performance training with Cambridge Revels; and has also studied acting with Boston Casting.
VICTORY PROGRAMS NIGHT/ PANEL DISCUSSION

Join us on Friday June 5th for a special post show talk featuring Larry Kessler, a founding member of AIDS Action Committee, now the Boston Living Center Program Director for Victory Programs. Use the code VPI10 to have $10 of your ticket price donated to Victory Programs. ABOUT VICTORY PROGRAMS Victory Programs is a Boston-based […]
read moreMOTHERS & SONS Special Events

Talkbacks, discussions, and special events surrounding our production of MOTHERS & SONS.
read moreAndre’s Mother

MOTHERS & SONS opens with a monologue: a middle-aged man tells an older woman about the view from the window they stand in front of. The man, Cal, jokes about joggers and his family. The woman, Katharine, says nothing. As it turns out, this type of exchange is not that unusual for these two characters, since […]
read morePlaywright Terrence McNally

Even at age 76, Terrence McNally keeps busy. He’s had two shows on Broadway in the past season alone: a star-studded remount of It’s Only a Play and the musical The Visit, for which he received a Tony nomination for Best Book. At the same time, he is preparing for the July publication of his […]
read moreMothers & Sons Photos

Production Photos Click images below to view full size. Then right-click and “Save As” to download high-resolution versions. Please see captions for actor identification. All photos by Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo.
read moreMeet Scenic Designer Erik D. Diaz

On the surface, it would seem like the scenic design for MOTHERS & SONS wouldn’t hold a lot of surprises. The play takes place in only one setting, which the script describes as “a desirable apartment on Manhattan’s Central Park West with a maximum view of the park.” But for IRNE Award-winning Scenic Designer Erik […]
read more