1. Sweet
and Sad
By Richard Nelson
Directed by Weylin Symes
May28–Jun20
STARRING
Joel Colodner*
Laura Latreille*
Karen MacDonald*
Paul Melendy*
Bill Mootos*
Sarah Newhouse*
Cast pictured on front, left to right
SCENIC DESIGNER Crystal Tiala
COSTUME DESIGNER Russ Swift
LIGHTING DESIGNER Gail Buckley
SOUND DESIGNER David Wilson
APPROXIMATE RUNNING TIME
1 hour 40 minutes
Some strong language
Tickets $28
Age25&Under: Tickets $1
Day of show only / Cash only /
No reservations / Limited availability
Group Sales
Call the Box Office: 978.281.4433
KEY DATES
MAY 29—Post-show
* Opening Night Party—
Meet the cast and crew!
JUN 6 —2 PM
]¢ Pay What You Wish
TALK BACKS— Post-show
Tb Following the Sunday
MAY 31 /JUN 7 / JUN 14
matinees
NEVERDARK
Free events to enhance your enjoy-
ment of Mainstage productions:
JUN1—7:30 PM
FILM: The 25th Hour
Location: Cape Ann
Community Cinema
JUN16—7:30 PM
READING: 110 Stories
Location: Gloucester Stage
A multi-hued range of voices
chronicle the shock and loss suffered
in September 2001, from a stunning
lineup of 110 writers who represent
New York at its most imaginative.
About the Playwright
Richard Nelson is an award-winning playwright who has written more than
30 plays and whose work has been honored by the Tony Award, the Obie
Award, and Drama Desk Award, among others. Between 2010 and 2013,
Nelson wrote and directed a series of four plays about the Apple Family,
each set in the family’s home in Rhinebeck, New York. Each play focuses
on a significant moment in contemporary American history.
Sweet
andSad
By Richard Nelson
Directed by Weylin Symes
Presented in Collaboration with Stoneham Theatre
MAY28–JUN20SPONSORED BY JOHN AND MOLLIE BYRNES
TICKETS $28
BOX OFFICE: 978.281.4433
gloucesterstage.com
267 East Main Street, Gloucester, MA
Look Inside! 
267EastMainStreet
GloucesterMA01930
JonWojciechowski,ExecutiveManagingDirector
RobertWalsh,InterimArtisticDirector
WED THU FRI SAT SUN
28 MAY
7:30 PM
Preview
29
7:30 PM *
Opening Night
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3 JUNE
7:30 PM
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2 PM
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14
2 PM
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19
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20
2 PM
7:30 PM
* Member of
JOEL COLODNER* LAURA LATREILLE* KAREN MacDONALD* PAUL MELENDY* BILL MOOTOS* SARAH NEWHOUSE*
NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE

2. In 2010, New York’s famed Public
Theater commissioned Tony-Award winning
playwright Richard Nelson to write an
American epic detailing monumental public
moments reflected in the private lives of an
ordinary family. The four-part play series he
wroteanddirected, The Apple Family Plays:
Scenes from Life in the Country, are a
funny, moving, and deeply touching portrait
of modern life.
Gloucester Stage has partnered with nearby
Stoneham Theatre to produce the four Apple
Family plays over a two-year period. The
second play of the series, Sweet and Sad,
opens on May 28 in Gloucester.
“Think of it not as coming to see a play,” says
Weylin Symes, director of the production.
“Think of it as coming home. The Apple Family
is much like our own families and you will
see yourself and your siblings up on that stage.”
Symes leads a talented cast of well-known
Boston actors who, over the course of the play,
debate politics, tease one another, expose
some raw wounds, and share a laugh or two
over a late afternoon supper. Sweet and Sad
is set on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 and
the family—five Baby Boomers and an elderly
uncle—has gathered for a meal in one sibling’s
Rhinebeck, New York, home before heading
to a local memorial service.
“The magic of this play is in its intimacy,”
Symes says. “That will be especially true at
Gloucester Stage, where the audience sits on
three sides of the stage. You’ll want to reach
out and help yourself to a slice of pie.”
Family gatherings are often the most inter-
esting moments of life. And some of the best
debates take place across the dining table. In
his review of Sweet and Sad, New York
Times critic Ben Brantley noted, “Mr. Nelson
has a peerless grasp of the perils of family
intimacy. No one else, after all, has the power
to hurt you the way a close relative can.”
Symes adds, “I think it’s
interesting that Nelson
set each play around
a dining room table.
Laughing, arguing, and
sparring about politics
over a good meal is
one thing we all have in
common.”
Playwright Nelson describes his plays simi-
larly, “In times like our own when human
voices seem more disembodied than ever,
when words seem pulled from their mean-
ings and turned into rants and weapons, the
theater can, I believe, be a necessary home
for human talk. That is, a place where human
beings talk about their worries, confusions,
fears, and loves, and where they also listen.”
The Apple Family Plays earned Nelson a Drama
Critics’ Circle Award and Sweet and Sad
has garnered an Obie Award for outstanding
play. The four-part series just launched a five-
week European tour.
“The noise, the joy, and the undercurrents of
tension that only family ties can breed,” Symes
says. “Pull up a chair and join us.” Gs
ABiteof
theApple
Richard Nelson is the
critically acclaimed
author and play-
wright of the film,
Hyde Park on Hudson,
the Tony Award-
winning musical
James Joyce’s The
Dead, and numerous
radio plays, screen-
plays, theatre plays,
and musical scores.
Each of the Apple Family Plays
premiered on the day in which
the play is set. Sweet and Sad
debuted on September 11, 2011.
TheAppleFamily
PlayCycle
EachAppleFamilyPlayisa
uniquetheatreexperienceand
maybeenjoyedindividually.
ThatHopey
ChangeyThing
2010 Midterms
Election Night
SweetandSad*
10thAnniversaryof
September11,2001
Sorry
2012Presidential
ElectionNight
RegularSinging*
50thAnniversary
ofJohnF.Kennedy’s
assassination
* GloucesterStage
performances
ARRIVE EARLY!
Our doors open an
hour before curtain!
Enjoy our newly
renovated lobby with
interactive displays,
learn more about
the performance, and
sip craft beer, wine,
or locally-sourced
coffee while chatting
with other patrons
and theatre staff.