Play Date

Packing for Nantucket? There’s drama in the works for your stay. Since her adolescent days as an apprentice at Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, New Canaanite Lynne Bolton has spent much time around the stage. She’s amassed a considerable body of work as an actor and director, off-Broadway and with regional theaters. In 2005, Bolton and a partner formed the nonprofit White Heron Theatre Company in New York. In 2011, the company moved to Nantucket.  After a full Equity production of George Bernard Shaw’s Candida at Nantucket’s Bennett Hall in 2012, the company raised funds through Kickstarter to bring the production to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. While there, Bolton saw many companies perform in tents. White Heron does not yet have a brick and mortar theater on Nantucket. Taking inspiration from what she saw in Scotland, a full-stage, seventy-four-seat venue under a tent was raised for the summer 2013 season on the theater company’s property behind the Whaling Museum. “Theater tents are an old tradition for summer stock,” says Bolton. “They create an intimate experience for audience and actors.” For a list of 2014 shows performed in repertory rotation, go to whiteherontheatre.org.