
by Lydia R. Diamond
directed by Jim Petosa
A humorous and introspective Boston-area premiere, The Gift Horse follows Ruth, a successful teacher and artist, whose quick and easy wit masks a painful childhood. With the support of her best friend Ernesto and therapist Brian she finally confronts her tumultuous past in a play infused with nationally-acclaimed playwright Lydia R. Diamond’s distinctive voice.
Read the interview with playwright Lydia R. Diamond in The MetroWest Daily News!
This production is Hearing Loop-enabled.
The MainStage Theater is equipped with a Tele-Coil Loop System. Patrons with hearing aids and cochlear implants can set their devices to “T-Coil” to take advantage of the assistive listening system. Patrons wishing for assistive listening devices may pick up a headset from the Box Office upon arrival at the theater. Click here to learn more.
Running Time: 2 hrs 15 mins
Regular Singing / Good / Fiddler on the Roof / Thurgood
Brecht on Brecht / Golda’s Balcony / The Gift Horse
Pamela Taylor






CLOTEAL L. HORNE* has performed at New Repertory Theatre in The Gift Horse and in New Rep’s Classic Repertory Company productions of Romeo & Juliet and To Kill a Mockingbird. Other Boston credits include Saturday Night/Sunday Morning (Elliot Norton Nomination, Lyric Stage Company); How We Got On (Elliot Norton Nominee, Company One Theatre); Othello (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Little Row Boat and BlueShift readings (Huntington Theatre Company). Off-Broadway credits include The Steadfast (Slant Theatre Project); and Dirty Blood (Billie Holiday Theatre). Regional credits include The Merchant of Venice, Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Comedy of Errors, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare & Company); She A Gem (New York Theatre Workshop); To Kill a Mockingbird (Weston Playhouse); A Funny Thing Happened… (Barnstormers); and The Clothesline Muse (Aion Productions). She also Assistant Directed The School for Scandal Off-Broadway with Red Bull Theatre Company. Cloteal holds a BFA in Theatre Arts from Boston University and will soon begin Brown/Trinity Rep’s MFA Graduate Acting Program. She is a proud Ambassador for the New York Shakespeare Society. Originally from San Diego, California, she now resides in Brooklyn.


OBEHI JANICE* returns to New Repertory Theatre for Oleanna after performing in The Gift Horse and New Rep’s Next Voices New Play Reading Series. Recent credits include Love’s Labour’s Lost (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); We’re Gonna Die (Company One Theatre/American Repertory Theater); An Octoroon (Company One Theatre/ArtsEmerson); Mr g (Underground Railway Theater); her solo show FUFU & OREOS (IRNE Nomination, Best Solo Performance, Bridge Repertory Theater); Arabian Nights (Central Square Theater); It Felt Empty (Theatre on Fire); and Splendor (Company One Theatre). A graduate of Georgetown University, Obehi was named “Boston’s Best Actress” by The Improper Bostonian in 2014. Her comedic short, Black Girl Yoga, won the Reel 13/AfroPunk Film Competition (WNET/New York Public Media). American Theatre magazine named her one of “6 Theatre Workers You Should Know” in February 2017. She was also the TCG Fox Foundation Resident Actor at Company One Theatre from 2015-2017. Originally from Lowell, Massachusetts, she currently resides in Medford. Upcoming projects include a staged reading of her new play, Ole White Sugah Daddy, at SpeakEasy Stage Company in May 2017. obehijanice.com


MAURICE EMMANUEL PARENT* returns to New Repertory Theatre after performing in The Gift Horse, The Snow Queen, Camelot, Rent, Passing Strange, Cabaret, The Wild Party, and Ragtime. Most recently he played the title character in Edward II with Actors’ Shakespeare Project where he is a resident acting company member. Other credits include work with SpeakEasy Stage Company, Off the Grid Theatre, Underground Railway Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Wheelock Family Theatre, Lyric Stage Company, Boston Theatre Works, Huntington Theatre Company, Cape Playhouse, and Barrington Stage. He has received the Elliot Norton Award (2008 and 2017), IRNE Award (2015, 2016 and 2017) and an ArtsImpulse Award (2017). Maurice, a resident of Roxbury, is an adjunct faculty member at Boston University and Tufts University. He is the co-founder of The Front Porch Arts Collective (frontporcharts.org); mauriceparent.com


ZACHARY RICE has performed at New Repertory Theatre in The Gift Horse. He was most recently seen in Hamlet (Apollinaire Theatre Company). Other credits include directing Dusa, Fish, Stas & Vi (Boston University); Roundabout (Boston Theater Marathon); InSync (Roxbury Repertory Theater); assistant directing Precious Little (Nora Theatre Company); Matchless & The Happy Prince (Underground Railway Theater); Significant Other (SpeakEasy Stage); The Housekeeper (Fresh Ink Theatre); and dramaturging When January Feels Like Summer (Underground Railway Theater). Zachary received his BFA in Theater Arts from Boston University. He is originally from Washington state and currently resides in Cambridge.


ALEJANDRO SIMOES has performed at New Repertory Theatre in The Gift Horse. Recent credits include Grand Concourse and The Motherf**ker with the Hat (IRNE Award Supporting Actor, SpeakEasy Stage); Marjorie Prime (Central Square Theater); Peter and the Starcatcher, Light up the Sky (IRNE nomination Best Actor), and One Man, Two Guvnors (Lyric Stage Company); Our Country’s Good, Recent Tragic Events, and Aunt Dan and Lemon (Whistler in the Dark); as well as productions with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare & Company, American Repertory Theater, Stoneham Theatre, Actors’ Shakespeare Project, and The Publick Theatre. He trained at Shakespeare & Company and Northeastern University.


LEWIS D. WHEELER* has previously appeared at New Rep in Ideation, The Gift Horse, Muckrakers, Pattern of Life, Rancho Mirage, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Silence, and a touring production of Cyrano. Recent credits include Finish Line (Boston Theater Company); Hand to God (SpeakEasy Stage Company); and Uncanny Valley (Stoneham Theatre). Regional credits include No Man’s Land (American Repertory Theater); Richard II (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Blood on the Snow (Bostonian Society); A Number and The Glass Menagerie (Lyric Stage Company); Doubt and An Ideal Husband (Gloucester Stage Company); and five seasons with Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre. Also, American Stage (FL), Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Nora Theatre Company, Underground Railway Theater, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, Vineyard Playhouse, Publick Theatre, Cape Rep, Shakespeare Now, Wellesley Repertory Theatre, Wheelock Family Theatre. Lewis was a founding member of Harbor Stage in Wellfleet, where he performed in The Seagull and Hedda Gabler and directed David Rabe’s Sticks and Bones. Film and television credits include Manchester by the Sea, Live by Night, Black Mass, The Company Men, Pink Panther 2, Louisa May Alcott (PBS), Brotherhood. Lewis earned his BA in Theatre and Film Studies at Cornell University and his MFA from the American Film Institute. He resides in Boston and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity since 2004. He appears next in To Kill a Mockingbird as Atticus at Gloucester Stage and in Shakespeare in Love at SpeakEasy Stage.
LYDIA R. DIAMOND (Playwright) Award-winning plays include Smart People, Stick Fly, Voyeurs de Venus, The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse, Harriet Jacobs, The Inside, and Stage Black. She has worked with Arena Stage, Cort Theatre (Broadway), Chicago Dramatists, Company One Theatre, Congo Square, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre Company, Jubilee, Kansas City Rep, Long Wharf, Lorraine Hansberry, McCarter, Mo’Olelo, MPAACT, New Vic, Playmakers Rep, Plowshares, Second Stage, Steppenwolf, and TrueColors. Commissions include Arena Stage, Steppenwolf, McCarter, Huntington Theatre Company, Center Stage, Victory Gardens, and The Roundabout. A recipient of many playwriting awards, she was also an 2005/2006 W.E.B. Du Bois Institute non-resident Fellow, a 2007 TCG/NEA Playwright in Residence at Steppenwolf, a 2006/2007 Huntington Playwright Fellow, a 2012 Sundance Institute Playwright Lab Creative Advisor, a 2012/2013 Radcliffe Institute Fellow, and the 2013/2014 Playwright in Residence at Arena Stage. She is a Northwestern University graduate and has an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Pine Manor College.

JIM PETOSA (Director, Artistic Director) joined New Repertory Theatre as an award-winning theatre artist, educator, and leader in 2012. He has served as Director of the School of Theatre, College of Fine Arts, at Boston University since 2002, and Artistic Director of Maryland’s Olney Theatre Center for the Arts and its National Players educational touring company (1994-2012). While at Boston University, he established the Boston Center for American Performance (BCAP), the professional production extension of the Boston University School of Theatre, in 2008. Throughout the Northeast, Mr. Petosa has directed for numerous institutions, including The Gift Horse, Brecht on Brecht, Good, Freud’s Last Session, The Testament of Mary, Broken Glass, Assassins, On the Verge, The Elephant Man (IRNE Nomination), Amadeus, Three Viewings, The Last Five Years, and Opus at New Rep. In Boston, his work was nominated for two IRNE awards for A Question of Mercy (BCAP). He has served as one of three artistic leaders for the Potomac Theatre Project (PTP/NYC) since 1987. In Maryland, his work earned over 25 Helen Hayes Award nominations as well as the award for outstanding direction of a musical for Jacques Brel is Alive and Well… His production of Look! We Have Come Through! was nominated for the Charles MacArthur Award for outstanding new play, and he earned the Montgomery County Executive’s Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Award for Outstanding Artist/Scholar. A member of Actors’ Equity Association, Mr. Petosa has served on the executive board of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for StageSource. Originally from New Jersey, he was educated at The Catholic University of America and resides in Quincy.
JON SAVAGE has designed The Gift Horse, Broken Glass, The King of Second Avenue, Closer Than Ever, Imagining Madoff, The Elephant Man, and Holiday Memories at New Repertory Theatre. Other area credits include Out of Sterno (Gloucester Stage); A Disappearing Number (Underground Railway Theatre); M and Laughing Wild (Huntington Theatre Company); You for Me for You (Company One); The Farm and Deported/a dream play (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); and All’s Well That Ends Well (Elliot Norton Award, Best Production) and The Comedy of Errors (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company). Regional credits include A Grand Night for Singing (Bucks County Playhouse); State Fair (Walnut Street Theatre); Is He Dead? (Olney Theatre); and Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Bay Street Theatre). Jon was the Associate Set Designer for the Broadway production of Hot Feet and has worked in television and film for productions on the History Channel and the HBO miniseries, John Adams. He also served as a curator for the US National Student Exhibit at the Prague Quadrennial in 2007. He is currently on faculty at Boston University and is a member of United Scenic Artists. Originally from Wyoming, he resides in Weymouth.
PENNEY PINETTE (Costume Designer) has designed Ideation, The Gift Horse, Golda’s Balcony, and A Number at New Rep. She is a Boston-based designer focusing in dance and theatre. In addition to designing for the stage she also teaches fashion design and construction at Mount Ida College as well as costume production at Boston University where she has recently received her MFA. Some of her work has been with local puppeteer Bonnie Duncan of They Gotta Be Secret Agents, and the local dance community including Prometheus Dance, Contrapose Dance, and Fort Point Theater Productions. This year will be her fifth year designing costumes for the Boston Conservatory dance department.
ALBERTO SEGARRA has designed The Gift Horse at New Rep. Recent Washington, DC credits include Macbeth and Lucia di Lammermoor (Catholic University); Yo También Hablo de la Rosa (GALA Theatre); Twist Your Dickens (Kennedy Center); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Howard University); and Satchmo at the Waldorf (Mosaic Theatre). Other credits include The Taming of the Shrew, The Magic Flute, Carmen, Hair, Cabaret, Boeing Boeing, Evita, Dangerous Liaisons, The Glass Menagerie, and Romeo and Juliet. Mr. Segarra received his MFA in Lighting Design from the University of Maryland-College Park. Originally from Puerto Rico, he currently resides in Maryland. Upcoming projects include Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Blue Barn Theatre, NE); and Independence Eve (Urban Arias, Washington DC). albertosegarra.com
DEWEY DELLAY returns to New Repertory Theatre after composing and designing for Ideation, The Gift Horse, Thurgood, The Testament of Mary, The Whipping Man, Rancho Mirage, and Long Day’s Journey into Night. Other credits include Duet (Greenwich Street Theatre, Off Broadway); and The Countess (Criterion, London’s West End). Other regional credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Lyric Stage Company); Photograph 51 (IRNE nomination Best Sound Design, Nora Theatre Company); and When January Feels Like Summer (Underground Railway Theater). He has received an Elliot Norton award for Outstanding Design and an IRNE for Best Sound Design. Television credits include original music for Emmy nominated National Geographic’s China’s Mystery Mummies, Discovery Channel’s Miami Jail, and five seasons of the show Our America with Lisa Ling for the OWN Channel. He presently is contributing music to This is Life with Lisa Ling on CNN.
BRIAN M. ROBILLARD* returns to New Repertory Theatre after previously working on Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, Lonely Planet, Ideation, The Gift Horse, Brecht on Brecht, Fiddler on the Roof, Baltimore, Scenes from an Adultery, Albatross, On the Verge, and Pattern of Life. Recent area credits include A Christmas Carol (Central Square Theater); A Little Night Music (Huntington Theatre Company); Romeo & Juliet and King Lear (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company); Don Giovanni and Siren Song (BU Opera Institute); Song Cycle (Peabody Essex Museum); and Hairspray and The Fantasticks (Hope Summer Repertory Theatre). Brian received his BFA in Stage Management from Boston University. A native of Massachusetts, Brian currently resides in Chelmsford. Upcoming projects include Calendar Girls (Greater Boston Stage Company).
SPOTLIGHT SYMPOSIUM
Against All Odds: Surviving and Living in Extremes
Sunday April 23 following 4pm matinee
Free and open to the public!
TALKBACKS
The following performances are followed by a talkback discussion with members of the cast and New Rep staff:
Sunday 4/30, 2pm
Saturday 5/6, 8pm
Sunday 5/7, 2pm
Thursday 5/11, 2pm
Saturday 5/13, 3pm
Sunday 5/14, 2pm