Arlene Hutton is a member of New Dramatists and has held residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, the New Harmony Project and the Australian National Playwrights Conference. Works include Last Train to Nibroc (2000 NYC Drama League Best Play nomination), See Rock City, As It Is In Heaven (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) and two dozen one-acts. NYC credits: 78th Street Theatre Lab, Alice’s Fourth Floor, Barrow Group, Circle East, EST, HERE, Rude Mechanicals and Vital Theatre. Last Train to Nibroc has received more than fifty regional productions since its Off-Broadway run and played at the New End Theatre in London. Hutton’s scripts are published by Dramatists Play Service, Samuel French, Playscripts, Inc. and Smith & Kraus Best Women Playwrights. She is currently working on a play about the Bronte family.

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

Full-length Drama with a capella singing, 90 Minutes 9W
Minimal Set

“a moving portrayal of upheaval caused when the utopian existence of an 1830’s Shaker community in Kentucky is threatened by the arrival of ‘newcomers’ claiming to see angels …powerful and insightful…a thought-provoking piece, the message being that often we need not look as far as heaven to see angels here on earth..” – The Herald

“In a crowded field of disaffected and iconoclastic playwrights, Arlene Hutton is a breed apart. One of the most richly humane voices in contemporary theater, she drips balm, not acid, on the chafed psyches of her grateful audiences…As stripped down and unpretentious as a Shaker chair, the play is amusing, intellectually stimulating and moving -- a beautifully crafted piece that will endure.” – Los Angeles Times

“Hutton deals even-handedly with her characters, viewing them all with sympathy and respect, finding ample comedy in the tensions of their closed community, yet offering no pat solutions or final answers.”
– LA Weekly

…rare, subtle and very fine.” – Financial Times

“…powerful musical drama….” – The List

“What Hutton does that is so fascinating is to show us people who appear to be the very picture of goodness and brings out their eccentricities and frailties. [She] is excellent at drawing comedy from the situation….to its satisfying and inspiring conclusion.” – theatremania.com

“Hutton asks some universal questions about the nature of community and belief that are timeless and also prove to be good fodder for story-telling on stage… Hutton, who is best known for her charming Last Train to Nibroc, once again looks into a slice of Americana and a time when things, seemingly were simpler while showing that even a ‘utopian’ existence such as the Shakers’ was not without complications. As It Is In Heaven contains a story that deserves to be told.” – American Theatre Web

ArcLight Theatre (2002); 78th Street Theatre Lab (2001): Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2001); Festival of Faith & Writing (2002); Actors’ Co-op (2003); Aurora Theatre (2003); Square One (2004). Cameron Macintosh Foundation Grant; Lippmann Award. Published by Dramatists Play Service; Smith & Kraus (Women Playwrights: Best Plays 2002).