Theater and Stage Work
Neva has seen all sides of the stage in her professional life as a dramatist. With acting credits in over 60 productions, writing credits, directing and producing credits numbering more than 20 shows, and countless other engagements, Neva has seen and done it all. Of a recent performance she says: "I wrote 'Raptured: the Disappearance and Discovery of Aimee Semple McPherson' to provide the role of an aging superstar for an older woman. Sister Aimee is also very modern for her times."
Hamlet's Ghost
"Hamlet's Ghost" is a new take on the classical masterpiece, "Hamlet" by Shakespeare. This wonderful adaptation is written by Neva Hutchinson.
The reading took place for two nights: Friday, September 25, and Saturday, September 26.
A de-constructed form of Shakespeare’s text, this play has 7 characters and the Ghost as a shapeshifter. The cast includes Benoit Monin as Hamlet, Louis Parnell*, Norman Gee*, Emily Corbo, Neva Hutchinson*, Richard Talavera, Christian Haines*, and Allen McKelvey*.
*Member, Actor's Equity
Replay of Hamlet's Ghost
Raptured
Based on the hardscrabble life of entertainment evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, "Raptured" is a new play written by Neva Hutchinson. Based on the true disappearance and re-discovery of Aimee Semple McPherson in May of 1926 (a pseudo-celebrity of her day), the public believed that she was not kidnapped, but with her married lover, Kenneth Ormiston in a bungalow by the sea. She was then called up to a Grand Jury trial on charges of loose morals. "Raptured: the Disappearance and Discovery of Aimee Semple McPherson" is based on facts and augmented by the author's imagination.
October 26 - November 3, 2018
Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason Street, San Francisco, CA, 94102
Directed by Ray Renati
Love Letters
Synopsis: A romantic, bittersweet comedy, Love Letters begins when Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner are eight years old in 1937. They write to each other for 50 years, from summer camps and boarding schools, in marriage and divorce. Throughout it all, their feelings for one another are never lost.
"A play that requires no embellishment in order to become a full-bodied theatrical experience." (The Hollywood Reporter)
Written by A.R. Gurney.
Directed by Cristina Anselmo.
Featuring Ray Renati and Neva Hutchinson (both members, Actors Equity Association, Equity Project Code).
Premiered: September 15-16 2019, at the Dragon Theatre, 2120 Broadway, Redwood City.
By The Waters of Babylon
Synopsis: Catherine is a professor's widow, living as a hermit in Austin, TX, the object of much gossip and suspicion in her neighborhood, due to events surrounding her husband's death. Arturo is a Cuban refugee, a writer turned gardener, summoned to tame Catherine's chaotic back yard. Both are haunted by the ghosts of their previous lives, and both are victims of actions done in service of survival. Through an intense afternoon and evening, Arturo and Catherine will embark on a journey through their deepest fears and desires, and ultimately, find themselves on the shore of a new beginning.
Phoenix Theatre, San Francisco, October 2016.
Written by Robert Schenkkan and directed by Bruce Bierman.
Backstage: Bay Area Premiere of By the Waters of Babylon
Backstage with "By the Waters of Babylon"
October 2nd, 2016
"The play is an acting duet...Neva Hutchinson is delightful as Catherine. Michael Angelo Gonzalez [as Arturo] takes his character through layers of emotion and involvement, at first informed by his subservient relationship to his employer, but later emboldened by Catherine’s increasing familiarity."
Backstage: Bay Area Premiere of By the Waters of Babylon
Night over Erzinga
Golden Thread Productions presented an Armenian Family’s Story of Survival and Reconciliation.
September 15 - October 9, 2011.
Written by award-winning playwright Adriana Sevahn Nichols. Directed by Hafiz Karmali with original music by Penka Kouneva. Commissioned by Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative at the Magic Theatre (Fort Mason Center).
