Performance - Pru Payne

SpeakEasy Stage Company will present the East Coast Premiere of Pru Payne by Pulitzer Prize nominee and Newton, MA native Steven Drukman.  

Pru Payne tells the story of Prudence “Pru” Payne, a sharp-tongued intellectual and critic who recently signed on to share her extraordinary life in an eagerly awaited memoir. But when Pru’s memory starts to fade, her son sets her up in a state-of-the-art care facility, where love takes hold just as the world she once knew begins to slip away. With wit, verve, and above all, heart, Drukman’s deeply emotional and funny play explores questions of memory, identity, and connection.   

Emmy-winner Gordon Clapp (NYPD Blue) and renowned Boston actor Karen Mac Donald head an all-star Boston cast that includes Marianna Bassham, De’Lon Grant, and Greg Maraio. (Full bios on SpeakEasy’s Pru Payne Page.

Pru Payne will be directed by SpeakEasy Founder and Artistic Director, Paul Daigneault, the first of his two final productions before stepping down as the company’s leader in June 2025. A New England-based freelance director, producer, and teacher, Daigneault received the 2024 Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director (Large Theater) for The Band’s Visit and the 2014 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, both presented by the Boston Theater Critics Association. Since founding the award-winning SpeakEasy Stage Company in 1992, Daigneault has produced more than 160 Boston premieres.

The SpeakEasy design team for Pru Payne includes Christopher Swader and Justin Swader (scenic design); Charles Schoonmaker (costumes); Aja Jackson (lighting); Nathan Leigh (sound), and Emme Shaw (props). Jesse Hinson is the Intimacy Coordinator.

Ross Gray is Production Stage Manager. Charlie Berry is the Assistant Stage Manager.  

Pru Payne runs five weeks, from Oct. 18 – Nov. 16, 2024, in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, in Boston’s South End.

Tickets start at $25, with discounts for students, seniors, and people under 35. Tickets and more information are available through BostonTheatreScene Audience Services at 617.933.8600 or online at www.SpeakEasyStage.com. Estimated run time is 90 minutes with no intermission.

Pru Payne had its World Premiere at the Arizona Theatre Company on March 3, 2023. The production was directed by Sean Daniels. The play was the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

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