A Note From Jill

Friends,

There are so many times over the years, I have wished that all of you who sit in the audience could actually be in the rehearsal room with me. This season I have found myself thinking about this a lot. Over the last couple of months, I have had the incredible privilege and delight to direct 8 high school seniors (and 1 extraordinary freshman!) in their final Play Group Theatre (PGT) theatrical adventure. This one is especially poignant, because it is my final journey as a PGT mom, as well.

So many of you have watched the class of 2018 grow up together on our stage – in fact, they are the final PGT generation to remember life before this building! You have watched them go from being the babies to the big kids to the young adults they have now become – from literal munchkins to tackling Shakespeare and Thornton Wilder and Arthur Miller. Their ideas, their voices, and their bonds of friendship have inspired all of us.

In rehearsal, they are curious, tenacious and downright hilarious. They have spent hours in rehearsal together every week for so many years – they know each other so well! So they work hard to surprise each other and raise the bar for one another. They push each other’s buttons in all the right ways. And while you aren’t all sitting in rehearsal with us, I think you get a glimpse of that process in the product…which is nothing short of magical.

We all get one more chance to see the class of 2018 in action before we proudly send them out into the world. And, in their final performance, we get to see them as children once more! In Spelling Bee we are reminded of their whole PGT journey – how they came to an unfamiliar place because of something they loved to do….they met new people and encountered new ideas, growing up along the way. And they have all been forever changed because of it.

Please come and celebrate the joys and accomplishments of another magnificent PGT graduating class – don’t miss Spelling Bee!  Info >>

And thank you to all the PGT parents, students, alumni and friends who have helped me and Steven raise our daughters in this remarkable, one-of-a-kind community! You have all had a hand in shaping the women they have grown into!

Jill

p.s. And those of you who made the big move into NoBro with us will laugh when you see our gym-turned-theatre turned right back into a gym for this show! I have to look twice every time I walk into the theatre these days, it is like traveling back in time! You won’t want to miss it!

Jill Abusch is the co-founder and artistic director of the Play Group Theatre, a White Plains-based theater school. As artistic director, Abusch has guided the PGT programs from their inception. She has taught a variety of classes and has gone into schools and camps to train teachers on the use of drama in the classroom.