Santa Cruz Shakespeare (SCS), a nationally recognized professional theatre company in Santa Cruz County with deep local roots that go back more than 40 years, today announced its production “Master Harold”… and the boys by Athol Fugard opens on Sept. 5 at 8 p.m.
Directed by Rebecca Haley Clark, the production will run through Sept. 20 under the trees and stars in the Audrey Stanley Grove at Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park. Tickets prices range from $20 to $75 and are available at santacruzshakespeare.org. The seasonal box office is open for phone orders Tuesday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 831-460-6399 and two hours prior to every performance.
Following the epic sweep of its 2025 summer productions with the theme “No One is Alone”, SCS’s fall production of “Master Harold” snaps us into the deeply intimate and intense apartheid era of South Africa. The production stars Corey Jones as Sam, Nick Rossi as Haley and Elliot Sagay as Willy.
About the production: Young Hally, who is white, spends the afternoon after school in his family’s tea shop with two of the family’s servants, Sam and Willy, who are black. Over the course of 90 minutes, we bear witness to the shifting relationship between all of them: a relationship built both on love and respect, as well as one built on bigotry and institutionalized racism. Fugard’s autobiographical masterpiece is both joyous and brutal, with an ending that will leave you both stunned and inspired. It brings home the season theme “No One is Alone” with a beautiful recognition – one that would lead Fugard to becoming one of the great playwrights of the 20th century.
“As we watch the massive shifts in the world rock the very foundations beneath our feet, we are confronted with a call to action: What am I going to do about all this?” said director Rebecca Haley Clark. “This play forces us to consider three different time periods. 1950. The time period of the play itself, just after the enactment of the system of apartheid in South Africa. 1982. The time period in which the play was written, less than a decade before the official end of apartheid. And 2025. The here. The now. The crossroads. It also forces us to consider space. What does my tiny surfer beach community have to do with a tea shop in Port Elizabeth, South Africa?”
For tickets and information visit santacruzshakespeare.org.
About Santa Cruz Shakespeare
Featuring professional actors from around the country and inspired by deep local roots that go back more than 40 years, Santa Cruz Shakespeare stages bold productions of the plays of Shakespeare and other great playwrights that stimulate audiences’ senses and spark their imagination.
