Valley Players

10/02/2026

A triumphant opening night for AT THE WEDDING! Thank you to our wonderful audience and fantastic cast and production team for such a wonderful evening. Friday's show is sold out and only a few tickets remain for Saturday's performance. Sunday's show does still have availability, but don't delay--make your reservation today before it's too late! Half of net ticket revenue goes to Out Now to support LGBTQ+ youth in the Valley!

09/30/2026

Friday's performance of AT THE WEDDING is now sold out, but tickets still remain for Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Read all about the show in the Hampshire Gazette and get your tickets at valleyplayers.org before they're all gone!

https://gazettenet.com/2026/09/30/the-story-i-need-to-tell-valley-players-to-present-at-the-wedding-written-by-a-mount-holyoke-college-alum/

If your ex merely showed up to your wedding reception uninvited, you might ask them to leave. What would you do if they got drunk and started monologuing about heartbreak and made a table full of children cry? Valley Players will present Bryna Turner’s “At the Wedding” at the Amherst Woman’s...

09/24/2026

You're invited to the wedding, so don't get left out!

Valley Players' picnic-theater production of Bryna Turner's moving, hilarious comedy AT THE WEDDING opens in just one week and tickets are going fast! A couple of the performances are now nearly sold out, so make your reservation today at www.valleyplayers.org.

AT THE WEDDING goes up October 1-4, on the lawn at the AWC-Amherst Woman's Club (35 Triangle Street, Amherst MA). Seating starts at 6pm and the show starts at 6:30pm. Tickets are on a pay-what-you-can scale starting at $18 and half of net ticket revenue goes to support the LGBTQ+ youth advocacy group Out Now. The production is supported by a generous grant from the Emily List Fund.

09/14/2026

Together with Amherst Community Theater, Valley Light Opera, Rainbow Players/Empowerment Through the Arts, and Starlight’s Youth Theatre, Valley Players is now working to build a home for the community performance and arts education in the greater Amherst area. Valley Players has joined the Performing Arts & Education Collaborative, a 501(c)3 nonprofit partnership that has come together to create a shared space for performance, rehearsal, classes, and set and costume construction and storage.

“Our mission from day one has been to help build community through community theater,” notes Valley Players president and founder Matteo Pangallo. “It makes perfect sense, then, for us to team up with our fellow community arts organizations who share both our drive to serve the region and our frustrations with having no fixed place we can count on as our home.”

Following a meeting with several of PAEC’s leaders, Pangallo was enthusiastic about the partnership. “We’re all working with similar constraints in terms of space, storage, and scheduling,” he observed. “Instead of duplicating efforts to overcome those costly hurdles, PAEC aims to do what theater-makers do best: collaborate and create to solve the problem.”

Having secured a feasibility grant last year from the Mass Cultural Facilities Fund, PAEC is now in the process of researching audiences’ and organizations’ needs before it starts on the next stage of its project: identifying and evaluating possible sites for development. It is also actively fundraising so it can match the next major grant it has targeted from the Cultural Facilities Fund. To support that fundraising effort, starting with its December production of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Valley Players will be adding a $2 PAEC Fee to its tickets. “That money is going directly to one goal,” notes Pangallo: “building a home for the arts in Amherst.”

Combined, PAEC’s organizations stage nearly 50 shows a year, involving nearly 1,000 community members. They also have a tremendous broader impact on the region. “Together, PAEC member organizations attract thousands of audience members each year, support local businesses, and contribute substantially to the regional economy,” the group states.

Pangallo sees an alignment between that support of the larger community and Valley Players’ own mission. “Valley Players’ lives its commitment to our community by donating half of our net ticket revenue from each show to another nonprofit serving our region. Since our founding in 2024, we’ve raised over $7,000 for organizations including Cancer Connection, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, River Valley Counseling Center, Community Action Pioneer Valley, the Peace Development Fund, the Literacy Project, Way Finders, and Center for New Americans.” The company’s upcoming performances of Bryna Turner’s comedy "At the Wedding", going up October 1–4 at the Amherst Woman’s Club, will raise funds for the LGBTQ+ youth support organization Out Now.

“Having a home we can count on will strengthen that mission,” Pangallo reflects, “by letting us focus even more on the work of making community theater to move, to matter, together.”

More information about PAEC, including how to donate to the group, is at paec-arts.org. More information about Valley Players, including how to donate and how to get tickets for "At the Wedding", is at valleyplayers.org.

08/28/2026

Tickets are now available for Valley Players’ production of Bryna Turner’s riotous, moving comedy "At the Wedding"! The show goes up October 1–4 as a picnic-theater performance on the beautiful lawn at the AWC-Amherst Woman's Club (rain dates October 8–11). Half of the production’s net ticket revenue will be donated to Out Now, a local nonprofit organization supporting LGBTQ+ youth in the Valley. Tickets are on a pay-what-you-can scale and are available at www.valleyplayers.org

"At the Wedding" features Joanna Nix (Carlo), Kate Stango (Carly), Ali Shafi (Victor), Terrance Fables (Eli), Kimberly Salditt-Poulin (Maria), Cici Drzik (Leigh), and Blue Jordan (Eva). The show is directed by Joe Van Allen and produced by Matteo Pangallo, with stage management by Anna Morrissey, technical direction by Kevin Tracy, assistant technical direction by Ana Steiner, and intimacy coordination by C. R. Rose. The production is also supported by a generous grant from the Emily List Fund for Performing Arts Therapy.

Winner of the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation’s Theatre Visions Award, New York Times Critic’s Pick, and New York Times’ Best of 2022 Unforgettable Theatrical Moments, "At the Wedding" follows Carlo as she arrives, unexpectedly, at her ex-girlfriend’s wedding, carrying heartbreak, bitterness, and an undeniable longing. Set just outside the reception itself, the play lingers in the liminal spaces of a familiar tradition, where Carlo and the other guests orbit the celebration and each other. The show runs approximately 70 minutes.

“Brutally hilarious,” praised TheaterMania, and New York Theatre Guide described it as “bitterly funny” in its “wisecracking and wisdom-sharing about the unbreakable bond between love and pain.” The New York Times found the play “fresh and trenchant,” with plenty of comedy and that “reshapes the wedding genre for our time, inviting new characters to the party.”

Van Allen explains that the Valley Players production “centers on the shift from standing outside the celebration to finding connection, even in the margins. 'At the Wedding' reveals a community deeply human in its messiness, tenderness, and desire to belong. The play reflects the reality that these lives and experiences have always existed within and alongside our most familiar traditions. In doing so, it creates space for audiences, particularly those who are underrepresented, to see themselves not at the edges of the story, but at its center.”

Pangallo adds, “I’m especially excited for this production because it represents a unique collaboration of four local organizations whose missions synergize around building the collective and inclusive good of our community: Valley Players, as well as Out Now, the Emily List Fund, and the Amherst Woman’s Club.”

Out Now (outnowyouth.org) is a youth-led, adult-advised, q***r youth organization that works to promote, harm reduction, self- determination, and community building through anti-oppression organizing. The organization’s mission is to connect young people into racial, economic and social justice-related community work that leads to personal and collective liberation.

Created to honor the memory and legacy of local Valley actor, dancer, and arts lover Emily List, the Emily List Fund for Performing Arts Therapy supports theater, dance, and music projects in the Valley and beyond that aim to include those who are disadvantaged or under-represented in the arts. By means of its grant-making, the Fund’s goal is to transform lives and make them brighter through the performing arts. More information is at emilylistfund.org.

Since 1893, the Amherst Woman’s Club has promoted the cultural and social welfare of its members and the greater Amherst community. Its historic 1864 Italianate Renaissance Victorian mansion, the Hills Memorial Club House, at 35 Triangle Street, provides the Club, its guests, and public with a unique and picturesque venue for concerts, plays, lectures, social functions, weddings, and more. More information, including how to become a member, is at AmherstWomansClub.org.

Valley Players is an all-volunteer nonprofit organization with a mission to enrich the quality of life in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts by producing nimble, meaningful, and accessible community theater that helps build community. A core part of that mission is donating half of its net ticket revenue to other nonprofits serving the Valley. More information about Valley Players, including how to make a tax-deductible donation, become a business sponsor, sign up for auditions, or join the email list, is at valleyplayers.org.

08/09/2026

Another Valley Players journey begins! Today we gathered for the first read-through and production meeting for Bryna Turner's hilarious and moving "At the Wedding," going up October 1-4 at the AWC-Amherst Woman's Club as a benefit for Out Now and supported by a generous grant from The Emily List Fund! Reservations available soon--join the email list at www.valleyplayers.org to be the first to find out when ticket sales open.

06/30/2026

Since it started in 2024, the all-volunteer nonprofit group Valley Players has been on a mission to help build community in the Valley through community theater. A key part of achieving that has been donating half of net ticket revenue from each of its shows to another Valley nonprofit that has a mission that aligns with the story or themes of the play.

Over its first two and a half years, Valley Players raised more than $7,000 for organizations including Cancer Connection, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, River Valley Counseling Center, Community Action Pioneer Valley, the Peace Development Fund, the Literacy Project, and Way Finders.

With its tenth program, this June’s sold-out run of Shakespeare’s play of music and magic, "The Tempest", at Black Birch Vineyard and the Northampton Center for the Arts, Valley Players has now made its single largest donation yet. Through this show, the group was able to contribute over $3,700 to Center for New Americans, Inc. to support immigrant and refugee families in the Valley community.

“'The Tempest' shows that the power of compassion and being welcoming is greater even than any magical power,” Valley Players president Matteo Pangallo explains, “and that what makes us human is our capacity for empathy—to recognize others as fully human as well.” Because of this, and because 'The Tempest' centers on cultural contact, the plight of the stranger, and the power of language, Valley Players decided to use this production to support Center for New Americans. “It was a natural fit,” Pangallo says, “and given the context of our historical moment, we felt it important to support the crucial work being done by CNA.”

Center for New Americans has been serving immigrants in western Massachusetts for nearly thirty-five years by providing free classes in English, instruction in digital literacy, civics, and employment searching, childcare, tutoring, and low-cost immigration legal services. Its programs are designed to foster access for immigrants to community resources and opportunities. CNA’s annual naturalization ceremony on July 4th in Northampton represents a vivid demonstration of the culmination of the citizenship journey and is attended by hundreds of community members.

Valley Players’ third season continues to support important causes. Its production of Bryna Turner’s "At the Wedding" (Oct. 1–4 at the AWC-Amherst Woman's Club) supports the LGBTQ+ youth support group Out Now, its next “Bard in the Bar” reading of "King Lear" (Nov. 21 at The Brewery at Four Star Farms) will gather donations for a local elder services organization, and the holiday revival of its hit from last year, "It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play" (Dec. 18 at the Academy of Music Theatre) will benefit the affordable housing programs of Valley Community Development.

More information about Valley Players, including how to donate, become a business sponsor, sign up for auditions, get tickets, or join the email list, is at ww.valleyplayers.org.

06/25/2026

CAST ANNOUNCEMENT & VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES!

A company of local actors from across the region has been cast in Valley Players’ fall production of Bryna Turner’s riotous, moving comedy "At the Wedding". The show goes up October 1–4 as a picnic-theater performance on the beautiful grounds of the AWC-Amherst Woman's Club (rain dates October 8–11). Half of the production’s net ticket revenue will be donated to Out Now, a local nonprofit organization supporting LGBTQ+ youth in the Valley. Tickets and more information will be available in August at valleyplayers.org.

"At the Wedding" features Joanna Nix (Carlo), Kate Stango (Carly), Ali Shafi (Victor), Terrance Fables (Eli), Kimberly Salditt-Poulin (Maria), Cici Drzik (Leigh), and Blue Jordan (Eva). The show is directed by Joe Van Allen, produced by Matteo Pangallo, and supported by a grant from The Emily List Fund for Performing Arts Therapy.

Valley Players is also seeking a stage manager, costumer, intimacy coordinator, and set designer (people with wedding planning experience are especially welcome). Anyone interested in volunteering for one of these positions can email [email protected].

Winner of the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation’s Theatre Visions Award, chosen as a New York Times Critic’s Pick, and selected as the New York Times’ Best of 2022 Unforgettable Theatrical Moments, "At the Wedding" follows Carlo as she arrives, unexpectedly, at her ex-girlfriend’s wedding, carrying heartbreak, bitterness, and an undeniable longing. Set just outside the reception itself, the play lingers in the liminal spaces of a familiar tradition, where Carlo and the other guests orbit the celebration and each other.

“Brutally hilarious,” praised TheaterMania, and New York Theatre Guide described it as “bitterly funny” in its “wisecracking and wisdom-sharing about the unbreakable bond between love and pain.” The New York Times found the play “fresh and trenchant,” with plenty of comedy that “reshapes the wedding genre for our time, inviting new characters to the party.”

The director for the Valley Players’ production, Van Allen, explains, “Our vision centers on the shift from standing outside the celebration to finding connection, even in the margins. At the Wedding reveals a community deeply human in its messiness, tenderness, and desire to belong. The play reflects the reality that these lives and experiences have always existed within and alongside our most familiar traditions. In doing so, it creates space for audiences, particularly those who are underrepresented, to see themselves not at the edges of the story, but at its center.”

06/22/2026

Thank you to the amazing company of "The Tempest," the great folks at Black Birch Vineyard for once again hosting us, and the over 590 audience members who came out to enjoy the performances (and the double rainbows)! We were able to raise over $3,700 for Center for New Americans, Inc. and once again demonstrate the community-building power of theater made to move, to matter, together.

06/20/2026

Though "the mutinous winds" will continue to blow, the weather tomorrow (6/21) otherwise looks lovely for the final performance of "The Tempest". We've opened up the additional lawn tickets for more seating, so book yours today at www.valleyplayers.org and don't miss Valley Players' biggest show yet!