JIB Productions is delighted to announce the March (re) opening of its celebrated lunchtime playreading series, Play With Your Food (PWYF)!  After two long years and multiple virtual and outdoor performances later, Play With Your Food is convinced there’s no place like home – unless, of course, it’s a NEW home in Westport. When Play With Your Food takes to the stage beginning March 16, audiences in Westport are in for a treat when they walk in the doors of MoCA at 19 Newtown Turnpike. Westport’s newest art museum multiple galleries with spacious seating for both theater and lunching plus state-of-the-art ventilation. In addition to Westport’s MoCA, PWYF will be returning to Fairfield Theatre Company and Greenwich Arts Council for its four-month season beginning Tuesday, March 15 (Fairfield Theatre Company) and Thursday, March 16 (Greenwich Arts Council) and running monthly through June.  

Carole Schweid, JIB’s Artistic Director couldn’t be more thrilled with the new collaboration “While we’ve so missed performing our regular season for two years, this time away has allowed us to take a step back and make some exciting changes. Once we came to visit MoCA and saw their spectacular spaces, we knew we had to be here. Throw in plenty of parking to the mix and the partnership between JIB and MoCA is a match made in theater heaven!” Producer Diana Muller adds that keeping audiences (and performers) feeling as safe as possible is a top priority and that they are working with each of the venues (as well as Actors Equity) to maintain appropriate protocols. 

Headlining the program on March 15,16 & 17 is a special tribute to the late, great theater composer Stephen Sondheim.  Broadway veteran (and Westport-based) actress Stacy Morgain Lewis will perform along with Brian J. Collins in Michael McKeever’s poignant one-act play Move on or Sondheim at Studio 54.  Lewis was featured in the 2008 Broadway production of Sunday in the Park with George and will share stories from that experience with the audience during the talkback session which follows the plays. Audiences will be treated to two additional playreadings, including The Donor, a hilarious one-act by Avery Deutsch (featuring Marca Leigh and Michael Raver) that puts together a single mom, an out-of-work actor and what should be a simple favor…until things get dramatic! Wrapping up the program is Cary Gitter’s Big Date: It's back to January 2017 and one college freshman has more on her mind than what could be the best night of her life (featuring Fior Rodriguez and Sofia Ross.)

Other one acts patrons can expect to see throughout the season include irresistible gems by both well-established and up-and-coming playwrights like David Auburn, Terence McNally, Noel Coward, Scott Mullen and Susan Glaspell, to name a few.    

Following the plays and talkback with the professional cast of CT and NYC-based actors, audiences will be treated to a fresh and delicious boxed lunch catered by Gruel Britannia (Westport & Fairfield) and Meli Melo (Greenwich) to enjoy with friends in the galleries, outside or to take to go. The introduction of boxed lunches outside last spring was so successful that Managing Director Inge Maki thinks they are here to stay: “We’ve lined up a great selection of both new and familiar restaurants who are eager to work with us on creating terrific lunches for our crowd. On the menu this season are The Porch in Westport, The Granola Bar, Norwalk’s new Wall Street Tavern, The Pantry and more. And of course we’re bringing back the coffee and cookies!”

Opening day performances are 12 noon, Tuesday, March 15 (Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford Street); Wednesday, March 16 (MoCA Westport, 19 Newtown Turnpike) and Thursday, March 17 (Greenwich Arts Council, 299 Greenwich Avenue). Tickets $60 each or $224 for a 4-month subscription. For complete schedule, COVID policies and to purchase tickets, visit: jibproductions.org or call 203.293.8729 (10 am – 4 pm). 

 Support has been provided to JIB Productions from CT Humanities (CTH), with funding provided by the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development/Connecticut Office of the Arts (COA) from the Connecticut State Legislature.