Arlene Hutton

Arlene Hutton is an American playwright, theatre artist and teacher. She is best known for a trio of plays, set during and after the Second World War, known as The Nibroc Trilogy. The initial play of that trilogy, Last Train to Nibroc, was the first play to transfer from FringeNYC to Off-Broadway (the second to do so was the hit musical Urinetown). Other works for which she is known include a one-act dramatic work about the aftermath of a sexual assault, I Dream Before I Take the Stand; a one-act musical drama set among the members of a Shaker community in the 19th century, As It Is in Heaven; William Inge, Jane Austen because, according to her, she was only moved to write plays to create better roles for herself than those of the plays in which she'd been appearing. Blue Mountain Center, Hutton is an alumna of New Dramatists Despite Hutton's expectation while writing it that the play would not be popular, Last Train to Nibroc turned out to be the playwright's most frequently produced play, having received about 100 productions to date. Chris Jones of Chicago Tribune awarded Last Train to Nibroc four stars, writing that it "most closely recalls the work of Horton Foote, although Hutton is very much her own writer."

In his review of Gulf View Drive, directed by Katherine Farmer, which won an Ovation Award for Best Production at the Rubicon Theatre, However, Marilyn Stasio of Variety wrote that the play covers so much socio-historical ground that it "tends to sag from the weight of its responsibilities. But the spine of the central relationship holds it up."

Eric ReeL (sic) observes that "Hutton's trilogy... is not only a work that captures a period in our history, and the timeless story of a young couple living through that history, but she has captured the essence of an entire era in the history of American theatre." The work has since received many professional productions,

Reception The List (Edinburgh, Scotland) called I Dream Before I Take the Stand "a feminist classic." The New Jersey Independent called it "a riveting piece of theatre. The writing is pithy and fierce." The production inspired an editorial in The Berkshire Eagle that considered the issue of sexual assault as it relates to young people.

As It Is in Heaven

Background As It Is in Heaven, a play with an all-female cast, was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2001. and it was revived in New York in 2011.

Critical reception Calling Hutton "one of the most richly humane voices in contemporary theater," F. Kathleen Foley of The Los Angeles Times described As It Is in Heaven as "amusing, intellectually stimulating and moving – a beautifully crafted piece that will endure." The critic of The Village Voice, Alexis Soloski, noted that "the scenes of the women working and living together are wonderful for their very Shaker-like qualities: simplicity, unpretentiousness, attention to detail," although Soloski claims that the playwright "weaves in a dramatic arc that never seems as finely worked as the rest of the play." Anita Gates in The New York Times, reviewing the New York revival, described As It Is in Heaven as a "modest, strangely moving one-act," which "is also an unexpected patchwork of high and low cultural influences," including The Age of Innocence, The Crucible and even The Book of Mormon. Her daughter, writer Ann Kirschner, was moved to write a book about the letters, Sala's Gift: My Mother's Holocaust Story. In a review of the Barrow Group performance of the play, critic R. Jones wrote that the play was written "with loving grace" and noted that "there was always a spark of hope in the bright young eyes of Sala... That is the beauty and the magic of Letters to Sala."

Other plays Other plays for adults written by Hutton include: The Three Sisters Brontë, a drama about the Brontë sisters inspired by Anton Chekhov's classic, The Three Sisters, in which the sisters "struggle to find creative prosperity while navigating the harsh realities of male society." Running, A New York Times writer praised Hutton for her "fine ear for the fits and starts of conversation" and noted that the "loose, thinking-it-through-as-we-go quality [of the play] is part of its charm." Vacuum, a drama about a scientist who may have found the cure for cancer. According to one critic, the play is "filled with great characters and very profound ethical undertones" and "exceeds... what you can normally expect" of FringeNYC.

Hutton has also written the following plays for young audiences: Happy Worst Day Ever: Commissioned by Cincinnati Playhouse, the play won the Macy's 2010 New Play Prize.

Working alongside other playwrights, including Craig Pospisil, Hutton co-wrote the ensemble plays: The Gorges Motel: which premiered at the 20th annual New York International Fringe Festival; and One Christmas Eve at Evergreen Mall, which premiered at the 21st annual New York International Fringe Festival. By The Numbers, which was commissioned by the Florida section of the Mathematical Association of America and premiered at their 50th anniversary conference at the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.

Two two-character short plays by Hutton have been produced for Internet podcast on the playingonair.org website: Last Train to Nibroc (see above), featuring Mamie Gummer and Gregg Mozgala and directed by John Rando, and Closing Costs, featuring Amy Ryan and Michael Stuhlbarg and directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch.

Teaching Hutton has served as an adjunct professor at Fordham University, She currently (as of 2019) teaches playwriting at The Barrow Group School in New York.