2026 Season
Church
a play by Young Jean Lee
directed by Justin Genna
April 24–May 10, 2026
American Legion Post 3
8 Washington Street, Gloucester, MA
“Acclaimed playwright Young Jean Lee transforms her life-long struggle with Christianity into an exuberant church service. Both celebratory and confrontational, CHURCH will test the expectations of religious and non-religious alike—looking deep into why we believe what we believe.”
- Concord Theatricals
Creative Team
Young Jean Lee
-
Young Jean Lee is a playwright, director, and filmmaker who has been called “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by The New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by Time Out New York. In 2018, she became the first Asian-American woman to have her play produced on Broadway with her show STRAIGHT WHITE MEN. She has written a screenplay commission for Plan B Entertainment, and her short films have been presented at The Locarno International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and BAMcinemaFest. Lee is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN Literary Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, and a Windham-Campbell Prize. She is currently working on a Broadway play commission for Second Stage and a screenplay commission for Cinereach.
* Appearing through an Agreement between Lanes Coven Theater Co, and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Justin Genna
-
Justin is an actor, director, dancer, and Co-Artistic Director of Lanes Coven with his wife Lily Narbonne. With Lanes Coven: Topdog/Underdog (Sound Design), The Servant of Two Masters (Truffaldino), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Proposal (Director), The Importance of Being Earnest, Romeo & Juliet (Director + Role of Tybalt), Macbeth (Director), The Dumb Waiter, Taming of the Shrew. Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Justin worked with Milwaukee Ballet for 8 years, and trained at Houston Ballet and Virginia School of the Arts. OFF BROADWAY: Novenas for a Lost Hospital (Rattlestick Theater). REGIONAL THEATER: Marie, Dancing Still (5th Avenue Theater Seattle), Cyrano (SPARC formerly known as Livermore Shakespeare Festival), Little Dog Laughed & Rock of Ages (Santa Rosa Rep), A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theater). TV/FILM: Law & Order SVU, “Little Women.” MFA, American Conservatory Theater. justingenna.com
Cheryl D. Singleton*
-
Cheryl D. Singleton* is thrilled to be working with Lanes Coven. Cheryl is a professional Boston-based actress with experience in stage, screen, television, voice-over and improvisation. She recently finished a run as Abasiama in The Ceremony, play number six in the Ufot Family Cycle. Gloucester audiences may have seen her in To Kill A Mockingbird, Stew and Wipeout at Gloucester Stage. Select credits include: Crowns at Moonbox Productions, Our Daughters, Like Pillars at Huntington Theatre Co., The Little Foxes and Intimate Apparel at Lyric Stage Co. and The Seagull at American Repertory Theatre. Cheryl has also been pleased to work with Speakeasy Stage Co., The Front Porch Arts Collective, Wheelock Family Theatre, Plays in Place, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Pops, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, Commonwealth Shakespeare Co., ImprovBoston, and Queer Soup. Select film and television: Invitation to a Bonfire (AMC), She’s Gotta Have It (40 Acres and A Mule), and Castle Rock (Hulu).
* Appearing through an Agreement between Lanes Coven Theater Co, and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Hannah Young
-
Hannah Young (she/her) is thrilled to be making her Lanes Coven debut! She is a Boston-based actor and was previously seen in Bull in a China Shop (Treehouse Collective), Little Women (Needham Community Theatre), and Much Ado About Nothing (Mystic Players Revival). A great lover of language and rhetoric, Hannah previously taught Shakespeare for Young Actors at the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Minnesota, which culminated in a student performance of an abridged but unadapted Shakespeare play. When not thinking or talking about theatre, you can find her with a fat sci-fi book in her hands. Hannah would like to thank her friends, family, and mentors for being a constant source of encouragement and joy.
Alex Highsmith
-
Alex Highsmith is an actor, producer, and small business owner from Utah. Favorite previous roles include Katherine in Taming of the Shrew (National Players, Olney Theatre), Harper in Angels in America (Intiman Theatre), Marlene in Top Girls (Gallery Players), and Tzarista in Beardo (Pipeline Theatre). Alex would like to thank her mom, Cathy, for her unwavering support throughout her entire life, and for never missing a single show. Alex lives in Park Slope with her fiancé Sam, and her dog, Jasper. You can usually find them at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. BFA, Boston University School of Theatre. Follow her @ahigh4life
Lily Narbonne*
-
Lily Narbonne* is the Co-Founding Artistic Director of Lanes Coven Theater Co and also a Dialect Coach, Director, and Teaching Artist. With Lanes Coven: upcoming As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Proposal, many productions of Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Taming of the Shrew; as Director: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Dumb Waiter. Select acting credits include Leopoldstadt (Huntington Theatre), A Christmas Carol (American Conservatory Theater); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jane Austen's Persuasion, Cyrano de Bergerac (SPARC Theater); The Three Musketeers, King Lear, Two Noble Kinsmen, All’s Well That Ends Well (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival). TV/Film: “Julia” (HBO Max). As Dialect Coach (@dialectarts) – select credits: A View From The Bridge, Shining City, Translations, Funnyhouse of a Negro, and Moviestar. Education: MFA, American Conservatory Theater; BFA, BU School of Theatre & LAMDA.
As You Like It
a play by William Shakespeare
directed & adapted by M. Graham Smith
July 10–August 2, 2026
Windhover Performing Arts Center
257R Granite St, Rockport, MA 01966
“Rosalind and her cousin escape into the forest and find Orlando, Rosalind's love. Disguised as a boy shepherd, Rosalind has Orlando woo her under the guise of "curing" him of his love for Rosalind. Rosalind reveals she is a girl and marries Orlando during a group wedding at the end of the play.”
Creative Team
William Shakespeare
-
William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April, which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.
Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre (sometimes called the English Renaissance or the Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. Shakespeare’s poems also remain popular to this day.
- Shakespeare birthplace trust
M. Graham Smith
-
M. Graham Smith is a freelance Director, Educator, and Producer and he’s so thrilled to reunite with collaborators Justin Genna and Lily Narbonne eight years after working with them on Qui Nguyen’s Begets at ACT in San Francisco. Recent directing credits: The Tempest (Marin Shakespeare), Gods & Monsters (New Conservatory Theater), World Premieres of Obie winner Christopher Chen’s Home Invasion, Kevin Rolston’s Deal with the Dragon (Magic Theatre & Edinburgh Fringe), The Mortification of Fovea Munson (The Kennedy Center); Father/Daughter (Aurora); White Chip (B Street), Pickleball (B Street), You for Me for You (Crowded Fire), and White (Shotgun). Graham’s new play FDR’s Very Happy Hour, centering d/Disability and Access in an immersive environment had its World Premiere at Actors Theatre of Louisville and will be embarking on a National Tour in October of 2026. He teaches at A.C.T. and Berkeley Rep. He’s a graduate of Wesleyan University where he directed the first workshop of In The Heights.
Romeo & Juliet
a play by William Shakespeare
directed by Justin Genna
original music composed & recorded by Scott Moore
Creative Team Bios
This is a condensed 75-minute version of Shakespeare's famous love story, with all the the original language, featuring 9 actors, fights, dances, and minimal set/props, staged primarily for in-school performances to enhance education and literacy, and will also travel to libraries and community centers.
Saturday, March 14, 2026
10:00 AM & 2:00 PM
Sawyer Free Library Community Room
Saturday, March 21, 2026
2:00 PM
Sawyer Free Library Community Room
Sunday, March 22, 2026
7:30 PM
The Cut
177 Main Street, Gloucester, MA 01930
This is a benefit night where funds go towards the local Middle School and our Shakespeare programming there.
Learn more about the
Lanes Coven Education Programs
Financial Accessibility
Theater is for everyone.
If money is ever an issue, and/or if you are an educator, it is Lanes Coven’s policy, since the beginning, that you may reach out and ask for a complimentary ticket.
Card to Culture
We are proud to participate in Mass Cultural Council's Card to Culture program in collaboration with the Department of Transitional Assistance, the Department of Public Health's WIC Nutrition Program, the Massachusetts Health Connector, and hundreds of organizations by making cultural programming accessible to those for whom cost is a participation barrier.
EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare cardholders can use the code C2C5 to purchase a $5 ticket to any performance Lanes Coven offers, excluding fundraisers. This is on a first-come-first-serve basis. Tickets may be reserved online. But we cannot guarantee that walk-ins can receive this discount. We encourage online reservations, as our capacity at American Legion is 81 seats and at Windhover 125 seats. See the complete list of participating organizations offering EBT, WIC, and ConnectorCare discounts.