About Over the River and Through the Woods

The Play

Nick is a single, Italian-American guy from New Jersey whose parents have retired and moved to Florida. That doesn’t mean his family isn’t still in Jersey. In fact, he sees both sets of grandparents for dinner every Sunday. But then he gets offered his dream job. The job he’s been waiting for – marketing executive – would take him away from his beloved, but overwhelming grandparents. When he tells them they begin a series of schemes to keep Nick around. How could he betray his family’s love to move to Seattle, for a job, wonder his grandparents? Well, Frank, Aida, Nunzio & Emma have a plan but we won’t give the ending away here.

The Playwright

Joe DiPietro
Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Musical. His other plays and musicals include I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (the longest running musical revue in off-Broadway history); The Toxic Avenger and The Thing About Men (both winners of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway musical,); the much-produced comedy Over the River and Through the Woods; The Art of Murder (Edgar Award winner for Best Mystery Play) and the Broadway musical All Shook Up. His drama Creating Claire debuted at George Street Playhouse in 2010. His work has received thousands of productions across the United States and around the world.

The Director

Pamela Halstead

Pamela recently completed her tenure as the Artistic Director of Lunchbox Theatre (Calgary, AB) and is the former Artistic Producer of Ship’s Company Theatre (Parrsboro, NS). In her 10 years between these two companies she directed and/or produced over 60 productions, the majority of them premieres of new works. Pamela is Artistic Adviser to Valley Summer Theatre (Wolfville, NS), Artistic Producer of DMV Theatre (Halifax, NS) and the PERFORM! Coordinator for Theatre Nova Scotia. Recent credits include: directing Mass Appeal for Valley Summer Theatre and The Net for Theatre New Brunswick, directing and dramaturging the world premieres of Never A Syllable for Onelight Theatre and Bingo Ladies for Lunchbox Theatre, and producing White Rabbit, Red Rabbit for DMV Theatre. She also returned recently to Lunchbox to curate and coordinate the 27th Suncor Energy Stage One Festival. In 2013, Pamela was awarded the inaugural Evans Award at the Calgary Critics’ Awards for her contribution to the vibrancy of the Calgary theatre community. She recently returned to Nova Scotia and is thrilled to be back living by the sea.