July 8 – August 25, 2013
Stanford Summer Theater (SST) celebrates its fifteenth season with an explosion of comedy – comedy with a difference. We meet two great Irish dramatists, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett, in a festival featuring productions of The Importance of Being Earnest and Happy Days. We also offer a free film series on “apocalyptic comedy,” a community symposium on Wilde and Beckett, and a CSP course entitled “Wilde, Beckett, and the Split Visions of Comedy.” 
July 18 – August 11
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm
Pigott Theater, Memorial Auditorium
Click here to purchase tickets for The Importance of Being Earnest
Recognized as one of the funniest comedies in the English language, Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest dazzles with ironic wit, comic invention, razor-sharp subtlety, and bold servings of humor. Wilde’s comic genius creates a world of sheer delight, where manners matter, romance rules, and laughter has the final say.
Directed by Bay-Area legend Lynne Soffer, Wilde’s masterpiece stars SST favorites Marty Pistone (Curse of the Starving Class, Restoration Comedy), Kay Kostopoulos (Under Milk Wood, Electra, The Lover), Courtney Walsh (The Wanderings of Odysseus, Oedipus, Faith Healer), Jessica Waldman and Don DeMico (Curse of the Starving Class), as well as new company members Austin Caldwell, Ruth Marks, and David Raymond.
The Importance of Being Earnest is stylish comedy at its best. Join us!
August 15 – August 25
Thursdays – Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm
Nitery Theater, Old Union
Click here to purchase tickets for Happy Days
We follow Wilde’s romantic comedy of manners with Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, an extraordinary comedy of wasting away. The irrepressible Winnie sits buried to her waist in a mound of sand, trying to engage her slightly more mobile husband, Willie. In spite of growing trials and tribulations, Winnie carries on bravely, foolishly, winningly. Why is this so funny? How can Beckett make us laugh in spite of ourselves, succumbing to that “brief gale of laughter when we happen to see the old joke again?”
Beckett delivers a theatrical experience unparalleled in its comic precision and deep humor. SST veteran Courtney Walsh (The Wanderings of Odysseus, Oedipus, Faith Healer) takes on the demanding role of Winnie, with Don DeMico as Willie, in a production that travels to Paris and Montpellier, France in the fall.