View Season 22 Brochure

Patrons mailing in subscriptions: please click here to download and print your mail-in form.

SEPT. 8 - OCT. 1, 2023

Directed by Katie O’Bryon Champlin

Noises Off
by Michael Frayn

Lauded as “the funniest farce ever written” by New York critics and originally nominated for Best Play at the 1984 Tony Awards®, Noises Off presents a manic menagerie of itinerant actors rehearsing a flop called Nothing On.

Doors slamming, on and offstage intrigue, and an errant herring all figure in the plot of this hilarious and classically comic play.

Be prepared for Noises Off like you’ve never seen it before as The Pear uses it’s intimate space in new and innovative ways! LIMITED SEATING AVAILABLE.

IN REPERTORY | NOV. 17 - DEC. 10, 2023

Directed by Sinjin Jones

District Merchants
by Aaron Posner

Love, loss, litigation, and predatory lending are examined in surprising ways in this uneasy comedy, which wades fearlessly into the endless complexities and contradictions of life in America.

Set among the Black and Jewish populations of an imagined time and place that is simultaneously Shakespearean, Reconstruction-era Washington, D.C., and today, District Merchants is a remarkable tale of money, merchandise, and mercy brought to the stage by award-winning playwright and director Aaron Posner.

William Shakespeare’s The Land of The Dead
by John Heimbuch

London, 1599. After the opening of his newest play, Henry V at the Globe Playhouse, William Shakespeare must once again defend his work while the actors strut and fret - and an excess of bile plagues the populace outside. When the company’s costumer is bitten by a plague-ridden madman, and the Queen and her men arrive seeking safety, life in the playhouse takes a turn for the worse.

As the affliction spreads through London, the Globe is placed in quarantine and the survivors within must fight for their lives. Can they escape? Is there a cure? Is artistic integrity ever worth dying for? A true and accurate account of the Elizabethan zombie plague.

FEB. 9 - MAR. 3, 2024

Directed by Austin Edgington

For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday
by Sarah Ruhl

When Ann thinks of her father, she immediately remembers playing Peter Pan in her hometown theater in Iowa, and the flowers he delivered after her performance. Her memory is jogged by the fact that she and her four siblings are in their father’s hospital room during his final moments. His death sparks a conversational wake that includes everything from arguments over politics to when each sibling realized that they grew up.

A loving look at a family’s view of death, life and the allure of never growing up.

“A work that is equal parts dark and light, recalling the ebullient excitement of youth, but also confronting the hard fact of mortality… Ruhl’s imagination is among the most adventurous at play today in the theater.” – The New York Times

IN REPERTORY | APR. 19 - MAY 12, 2024

Directed by Wynne Chan

The Chinese Lady
by Lloyd Suh

Afong Moy is fourteen years old when she’s brought to the United States from Guangzhou Province in 1834. Allegedly the first Chinese woman to set foot on U.S. soil, she has been put on display for the American public as “The Chinese Lady.” For the next half-century, she performs for curious white people, showing them how she eats, what she wears, and the highlight of the event: how she walks with bound feet. Soon her celebrated sideshow comes to define and challenge her very sense of identity.

Inspired by the true story of Afong Moy’s life, The Chinese Lady is a dark, poetic, yet whimsical portrait of America through the eyes of a young Chinese woman.

Love Letters
by A.R. Gurney

Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner, both born to wealth and position, are childhood friends whose lifelong correspondence begins with birthday party thank-you notes and summer camp postcards. After exchanging letters through the years into adulthood, both lives marked by personal trials and tribulations, the two ultimately reconnect for a brief affair - only to realize it is too late for both of them.

However, a final letter after one’s untimely death soon surfaces, illustrating how close they truly were to each other despite their physical distance - as close as only true lovers can be.

JUN. 28 - JUL. 21, 2024
WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION

Directed by Sinohui Hinojosa

Chaplin & Keaton on the Set of Limelight
by Greg Lam

What would it be like to witness two geniuses at work? Silent Comedy legends Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton worked together only once. For the deeply autobiographical Limelight, Chaplin cast the down-on-his-luck Keaton to play a small part in his nostalgic story of an old comedian doing one last performance. This play imagines what it might have been like on that set while exploring the lives of these two titans of cinema.

Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight explores the tension between the desire to entertain and the need to fight for a greater world in politically dangerous times. What responsibilities does an artist have beyond bringing a smile to the face of an audience?

JOIN US FOR A RIPE NEW SEASON OF COMMUNITY CONNECTION!

  • The return of the popular Pear Pressure Cabaret and new Pear-aoke nights!

  • Fun-filled monthly Greg Burton & Friends Improv Show!

  • A live “shadow cast” performance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

  • New shows and theatre from Bay Area Drama!

  • The return of our time-honored Pear Slices and Fresh Produce festivals!

  • The reemergence of the Silicon Valley Fringe Festival!