will hold a reading of Mary Chase鈥檚 classic comedy 鈥淗arvey,鈥 directed by associate artistic director Melissa Crespo and featuring a cast comprised entirely of local actors, including 黑料不打烊 Department of Drama faculty members and 黑料不打烊 Stage artistic director Robert Hupp.
鈥淗arvey鈥 will be presented in the Archbold Theatre at 黑料不打烊 Stage, 820 E. Genesee St., 黑料不打烊, New York, on Sunday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are free of charge and must be reserved in advance at .
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which tells the story of a good-natured man whose best friend is an invisible six-foot-tall rabbit, served a major inspiration for playwright Eboni Booth鈥檚 鈥淧rimary Trust,鈥 which will Jan. 22 through Feb. 9 in the Archbold Theatre.
鈥淚t鈥檚 wild how similar and uniquely different Harvey and Primary Trust are from one another,鈥 Crespo says. 鈥淭he first won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945, while the second won in 2024. Both plays deal with kindness and the importance of community care. I hope theaters around the country are encouraged to produce both plays in conversation with one another. It鈥檚 especially exciting to have a cast of local actors perform in 鈥楬arvey鈥 on top of the 鈥楶rimary Trust鈥 set, which happens to be set in Central New York.”
鈥淗arvey鈥 premiered on Broadway in 1944 and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1945. The playwright adapted her own script into an Oscar-winning film in 1950, starring Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd. 鈥淗arvey鈥 was last seen on Broadway in 2012, starring Jim Parsons, for which he received a Tony nomination.
Elwood P. Dowd insists on including his friend Harvey in all of his sister Veta鈥檚 social gatherings. Trouble is, Harvey is an imaginary six-and-a-half foot-tall rabbit. To avoid future embarrassment for her family鈥攁nd especially for her daughter, Myrtle Mae鈥擵eta decides to have Elwood committed to a sanitarium. At the sanitarium, a frantic Veta explains to the staff that her years of living with Elwood鈥檚 hallucination have caused her to see Harvey also, and so the doctors mistakenly commit her instead of her mild-mannered brother. The truth comes out, however; Veta is freed, and the search is on for Elwood, who eventually arrives at the sanitarium of his own volition, looking for Harvey. But it seems that Elwood and his invisible companion have had a strange influence on more than one of the doctors. Only at the end does Veta realize that maybe Harvey isn鈥檛 so bad after all.
