The Church is pleased to host a one night only reading of PIERRE, written by acclaimed writer Keith Reddin, directed by Tony Award winner Doug Hughes and produced by Stop The Wind Theatricals, a new production company, that officially launches with the workshop reading.

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PIERRE, Reddin’s most recent play, is a dark comedy about the life of Herman Melville featuring a Marxist-Leninist book club in Helena Montana, fanatical rare book collectors, deep family secrets, and murder. An epic ride of obsession and love, PIERRE examines what it means to be an artist in America.

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Reddin explains, “While isolating in Sag Harbor during the pandemic, I picked up a used copy of a biography of Herman Melville. As I read it I felt a deep connection with his writing, his passions, his sorrows and the challenges of growing older as a creative person. PIERRE the play grew out of Melville's strange, haunting novel of the same name, as well my love of the written word. I wrote it to explore Melville's boundless curiosity and brilliant poetic imagination. As well as some jokes thrown in."

 

Carol Ostrow, President of Stop The Wind Theatricals, and a long-time resident of Sag Harbor said the pandemic provided crucial context for the play.  “I learned that Keith was using this dark time to turn inward and he focused his attention on Herman Melville, an iconic author with strong ties to our village.  After seeing his first draft, I knew we had a play that deserved to start its theatrical life in Sag Harbor.  And what better place than The Church, which already claims Melville as one of its own?” Herman Melville’s is one of twenty Sag Harbor artist-saints whose portraits line the windows of The Church, this series was conceived by artist and The Church co-founder Eric Fischl.