About the Play:

To Grandmother's House We Go is a full-length dramatic comedy by Joanna McClelland Glass. A family matriarch's daughter and three adult grandchildren come to her home for Thanksgiving. Personal dramas of their own all have them asking if they can move in with her. To Grandmother's House We Go is a farcical take on the interminable return of the adult child to its "happiest place," namely the childhood home.

To Grandmother's House We Go is a heart warming look at challenges to the modern family. The very proper "Grandie" lives in a large Connecticut Victorian house with her witty brother a retired art historian; her elderly cook and companion, and her widowed daughter an artist. Inflation has taken its toll on their wealth, but Grandie's exacting standards remain unaltered. It is Thanksgiving and the three adult grandchildren visit: a divorced mother who lost custody of her children, a divorced father with custody of his children and a new fiancee, and the youngest who has just separated from her husband. The tradition of the young taking care of the old is reversed as the marital anarchy of the younger generation (30's) lays its angst and requests at the old lady's feet. To Grandmother's House We Go is a timeless dramedy about grown children returning to the nest and the emotional toll these extended childhoods exact on parents and grandparents.

To Grandmother's House We Go was first produced in 1980 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, and transferred to Broadway at The Biltmore Theatre in New York City. It won a Special Commendation from the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize honouring the best English-language women writers worldwide. The play is regularly performed in repertory and community theatre productions.

Cast: 6 female, 2 male

What people say:

"A delight! An effective and affecting, very warm and extremely satisfying comedy." — New York Post

"Rich, robust theatrical fare! Warm, literate, intelligent, witty and amusing! Touches the heart as well as the mind." — Gannett Newspapers

"The generations' differing values is a central theme for playwright Joanna McClelland Glass. But To Grandmother's House We Go is, most of all, a play about fairly ordinary lives and ordinary personal tragedies. ...Grandmother's house is well worth a visit." — The Ottawa Citizen

About the Playwright:

Joanna McClelland Glass is a Tony-nominated Canadian playwright. Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, she studied theatre in high school and developed her abilities in community theatre. Shortly after moving to Calgary to work for a radio station, she won a scholarship to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. She then moved to New York, where she began to write. Her plays have been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in many North American regional theatres, as well as in England, Ireland, Australia, and Germany.