UP NEXT
TREATY: A Play About How To NOT Blow Up The Planet
Announces Two UPcoming Productions!
Ground UP Productions is thrilled to announce that after an amazing fellowship in May at The Foundry in West Stockbridge, M.A., we have already been granted two more productions in December, 2025 and March, 2026 in New England!
New England Productions in 2025 and 2026
THE SANDWICH TOWN HALL, N.H.
December 19-21, 2025
Sandwich, New Hampshire
8 Maple St, Center Sandwich, N.H. 03227
http://www.sandwichnh.org
603-284-7701
and don't miss...
an offer from our favorite local restaurant!
December 19th and 20th
THE FOOTHILLS RESTAURANT
Dinner & Show Package!
3 Courses, Drink and SHOW only $63.00!
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO and TICKETS
The Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, V.T.
March 26-29, 2026
Middlebury, V.T.
72-76 Merchants Row, Middlebury, VT 05753
In the Brand New Anderson Studio!
http://www.townhalltheater.org
802-382-9222
Recent Press On "TREATY"
Seth Shelden's UN Address at the General Assembly First Committee Meeting, October 2025
The Berkshire Eagle's Fantastic Article on the History of TREATY and The Disarmament Issue
NYC Playwright, Kenneth Jones, Explores Ground UP's Journey and Future with TREATY
Middlebury VT Town Hall Theater's BRAND NEW SPACE!
TREATY:
A Play About How to NOT Blow Up The Planet
By Chris Thorpe
Directed by Kate Middleton & Laura Standley
Featuring:
Rebekah Acquah, Rebecca Cole, Josh Evans, Stephen Heskett, & Seth Shelden
Where: Sandwich, N.H. Town Hall
Performances: December 19th, 20th, and 21st, 2025
Tickets: $25 & $15 (students with ID)
Show: 7:00PM & 2:00 PM
ABOUT THE PLAY:
After a chance meeting with a disarmament expert, playwright Chris Thorpe fell into the world of nuclear treaty negotiation, The Treaty On The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and the ordinary people who are trying to achieve the extraordinary outcome of complete nuclear disarmament. Based on conversations with organizations and individuals involved in those negotiations, including ICAN, the Nobel Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the play is partly a story about the people on either side of the nuclear debate, and partly a conversation with the audience about how we find the space to talk about disarmament in our own lives.
Project CAST Members & CREATIVE TEAM
Rebekah Acquah/Layla: Rebekah Acquah is the Founder of Eve’s Grace Scholastic Innovation, Author, creator and host of Fiery Faith TV, and an actress with BUSCH Talent Management. A survivor of Liberia’s civil war, she draws on her testimony to inspire resilience, authenticity, and bold faith. Through her creative projects— whether film or theatrical work —Rebekah aspires to blend history, storytelling, and spiritual insight to empower and impact audiences worldwide.
Rebecca Cole/Veronique: Rebecca began her professional life in the theater in Chicago at The Goodman and Apollo Theaters. After a 30 year hiatus she then founded Off the Dock Players in New Hampshire and has been in The Other Place, Rabbit Hole, The Humans, ’night Mother, A Doll‘s House, Part 2, Love Letters and Bakersfield Mist. Rebecca has starred in A Sweet Bird of Youth, Something Unspoken, and The Mutilated in Tennessee William’s hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Rebecca also owns The Foothills Restaurant with her best friend Nancy Blaine and splits her life between Sandwich and NYC where her urban landscape design business rebeccacolegrows.com surpassed 32 years. In her interior and floral design life her television credits include "Oprah", "The View", "The Today Show" and as host/designer of over 200 episodes of "Surprise by Design" on Discovery Channel.
Josh Evans/Chris:
Favorite credits include - Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap (The Barnstormers Theatre), Post Concussive Syndrome (Abingdon Theatre), Rubber Ducks and Sunsets (Ground UP Productions), Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight Pictures), “Gotham” (Fox), “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon Video), “FBI” (CBS, Dick Wolf), “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” (Netflix), “The Blacklist” (NBC). He is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and Michael Howard Studios, and a company member of Ground UP Productions. The work is dedicated to his parents and his wife. joshlevans.com
Stephen Heskett/James: Stephen has appeared on stages throughout New York, most frequently at The Brick Theater in shows including Switch to Kill, Blvd De Paris, BrainExplode!, Raising Cane, Galactic Girl, Blood Brothers Presents..., Spacemen From Space, The Ninja Cherry Orchard, and The Magnificent Ambersons. At FringeNYC: Sick City Blues, Down the Mountain..., and Theater of the Arcade. Other NY roles include: Abbie in Mac Rogers’s critically-acclaimed Sovereign directed by Jordana Williams, Len in Ecstasy (“a scene-stealing portrayal” -NY Times), Stanley in The Birthday Party at T. Schreiber Studios, Laertes in Hamlet, and Clifford in Side Man. Stephen has appeared in several award-winning short films with Giant Cookie/Off-Off-Hollywood Productions as well as their sitcom pilot Shut Up, Astoria! www.stephenheskett.com
Kate Middleton/Director: Most recently just wrapped a 6-Episode mini series "Perfect Sundays" out Summer 2026 on Netflix! Broadway/Off-Broadway: Music City (Ground UP Productions), Women Without Men (Mint Theatre), Shear Madness, (New World Stages), The Other Place (MTC), The Late Christopher Bean (TACT), Asymmetric (59E59), Pratfalls (Abingdon). Select Regional: The Kennedy Center, ROE world premiere at The Goodman Theatre as Jane Roe, The Fountain Theatre, Pioneer Theatre Company, The Huntington, St. Louis Rep., GEVA, Cape Playhouse, Dorset Theatre Festival, Triad Stage, Playmakers Rep., NJ Shakespeare, Weston Playhouse, Warehouse Theatre, Bickford Theatre. Recent TV: "Perfect Sundays", "Law and Order: SVU", “Chicago Fire”, “Elementary”, “Blacklist”, “FBI: Most Wanted”, “Orange is the New Black”, “Blue Bloods”, “Mercy”, “Law & Order”, “Law & Order: SVU”, and Comedy Central. Film: The Boston Strangler, The Tender Bar, Spoiler Alert, Set It Up, Noah Wise, 40th, Obits, Showing Up, T.I.C., April Flowers. Producing Artistic Director of Ground UP Productions.
www.KateMiddletonActress.com
Kodi Lynn Milburn/Stage Manager/Lights/Sound/Projection/Music:
Dubbed as the "Swiss Army Knife of Theater," Kodi embodies a fusion of creativity and activism. As a mixed indigenous neurodivergent queer, Kodi’s artistry resonates with a commitment to justice, harmony with nature, amplifying lost voices, and reflecting contemporary issues, echoing the ethos of the Jester's Privilege. Kodi’s work has been described as “inspired” (Alix Cohen, Women Around Town), “amazing” (Travelanche), “sound designer, Kodi Lynn Milburn deserve(s) much credit for the show’s aesthetic” (David Shengold, Opera News), “lush compositions and evocative soundscapes…a fantastic collaborator: creative, proactive, generous, organized, versatile, and indispensable” (Nathan Davis, Drama Desk Nominated Sound Designer)
Cross-discipline credits include: Sylvia Milo’s The Other Mozart (Hong Kong, Edinburgh Fringe, NYC, U.S. Tour, Canadian Tour), Treaty (The Foundry), Funny Guy (59e59, London, Edinburgh Fringe), Talking With Angels (TheaterLab), Faust (Baruch Performing Arts), Salome (Irondale Theater), Orgy & Bess (Judson Church), AMP (HERE), Tussaud/Antoinette (IRT), Good Samaritans (The Tank), Big Wave (TaDa!, The Tank), Enjoy your Meal (Edinburgh Fringe), Tiffany Caputo (Edinburgh Fringe), Anime-Zing Gameshow! (Edinburgh Fringe), Empty NeXt (TheaterLab), Vice & Virtue (NYTF), My Onliness (The New Ohio), Chess (American Theater for Actors), Uta Hagen Centennial Salon (Lincoln Center), Heart Strings (Atlantic Theater Co), 7 Magdalenes (Baryshnikov Arts Center, TheaterLab, HERE), Sparkle Spa (BMI), Ewalt & Walker (54 Below), Mary & Max (Bobby Cronin & Crystal Skillman), Voyage en Chanson (National Sawdust), L’autre Mozart (Fringe North, Halifax Fringe), Rhinoceros (Atlantic Acting School) and more. Kodi is a New York Foundation for the Arts Music Fellow.
"Sound The Alarm", a new album, is available on all streaming platforms under Kodi the Composer. kodilynnmilburn.com @heythereitskodi
Seth Shelden/Chris Off-Broadway theatre credits include I’ll Say She Is (New York Times Critics Pick), The Honeycomb Trilogy (The Guardian’s “Top 10 Theatre of 2015”), and Asymmetric (Time Out New York Critics Pick); regional credits includes Disgraced (Cape Fear Regional Theater) and Jack and Jill (with Ground UP; Best Actor, Indy Week); and film credits include Leave Keys in Car (Best Shorts leading actor; AMC’s ShortsHD). In real life, Seth is the General Counsel and United Nations Liaison for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning coalition working to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.
See http://icanw.org/seth_shelden.
Laura Standley/Director/Veronique is Professor of Theatre at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA). She holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Central Oklahoma and an MFA in Acting from University of California, Irvine. An actor, director, choreographer, and sound designer based in the Berkshires, she played Veronique in Ground UP’s staged reading of Treaty last year in NYC. Recent collaborations include Release and Repair, two original devised works created in collaboration with 2nd Street, Second Chances in Pittsfield, MA, and based on the stories of the formerly incarcerated individuals they work with. Laura teaches a wide variety of courses, including all levels of acting and directing. She is a trained intimacy choreographer who advocates for new, safer methods of staging intimate scenes. She started her directing career with Ground UP, where she collaborated on The Shape of Things (starring Kate and Seth!), Burn This, Lobby Hero, and Pump Boys and Dinettes. For Oklahoma Shakespeare, her production of Kate Hammill’s Sense and Sensibility won Broadway World’s honor for Best Ensemble. As an actor, she has been fortunate to perform with many companies including HERE Arts Center, Shakespeare Theatre New Jersey, Shakespeare Orange County, Long Beach Playhouse, and Oklahoma Shakespeare. Favorite roles include Electra in Electra, Gertrude in Hamlet, and The Witch in Into the Woods. Laura is fascinated with the theatre experience. Her goal is to create dynamic, movement-based performance for the stage that impacts the common good.
T. Shyvonne Stewart/Layla: Broadway: The Lion King, The Lightning Thief (OBC). National Tours: The Lion King, The Lightning Thief (1st National). Select Regional: Tootsie (Julie), Sister Act. TV/Film: "FBI", “The Equalizer,” “The Blacklist,” “Power Book II: Ghost,” “Partner Track,” “Kennedy Center Honors,” White Face App (NYC Comedy Short Film Festival). Education: Spelman College, GWU & Georgetown. IG:@tshyvonnestewart. tshyvonnestewart.com.
Thanks: God, parents, family, friends, Apex Talent Group & Exclusive Artists Agency.
Chris Thorpe/Playwright is a writer and performer from Manchester, UK. His work is produced worldwide, and has dealt with topics as diverse as the psychology of the climate crisis (Always Maybe The Last Time and What Do You Want Me To Say, for the Royal Court), cognitive bias (Confirmation for China Plate, with Rachel Chavkin), human error (The Oh Fuck Moment with Hannah Walker) and Iranian pop music/cultural hierarchy (Things Hidden Since The Foundation Of The World with Javaad Alipoor, for Sydney International Festival and HOME Manchester). Currently he is touring two pieces about the world of nuclear treaties and disarmament - A Family Business, and a solo show, Talking About The Fire - produced by China Plate, directed by Claire O’Reilly and developed with Rachel Chavkin.
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To Our Ground UP Patrons, Friends and Family,
Ground UP is honored to have been awarded our two-week fellowship this past May/June, 2025, at THE FOUNDRY, a multidisciplinary arts space in West Stockbridge, M.A. We rehearsed and staged the full-scale production of TREATY: A Play About How To NOT Blow Up The Planet, by Chris Thorpe. TREATY was originally produced by Ground UP, in February 2024, in our New Works Winter Reading Festival.
We now announce two upcoming productions of TREATY in December, 2025 and March 2026!
December will take us to Sandwich, N.H., where we will have 4 performances of TREATY at The Town Hall of Sandwich, N.H., on December 19th, 20th, and 21st. Then in March 2026, we will join The Middlebury Town Hall Theatre in Middlebury, V.T., for a co-production in the new and beautiful space, The Anderson Studio.
This powerful new play is more than just Ground UP’s 27th production—
It’s a call-to-action on one of the most pressing global issues of our time: complete nuclear disarmament. Adding to the significance of this opportunity, Seth Shelden, a founding member of Ground UP Productions, will perform in TREATY and lead panel discussions with some of the biggest thought leaders behind the issue today. Seth’s work with ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) helped the organization win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. We are so very honored to have him on this project.
The Foundry’s generosity is truly an amazing gift, but it only provides part of what we need to give this project the impact it deserves, and we are raising additional funds to cover artist stipends, technical needs, and expanded outreach efforts. Even more exciting, TREATY marks the revival of our education outreach program, The UnderGround Project, ensuring that this critical message reaches schools, community groups, and audiences far beyond the theatre.
DONATE HERE:
www.GroundUPproductions/donate
Thank you for believing in the power of theatre to inspire change.
With gratitude,
Kate Middleton
Artistic Director, Ground UP Productions
Don’t miss the chance to be among the first to experience TREATY, a call-to-action play and the expansion of Ground UP’s Education Outreach Program, The UnderGround Project.
We hope you can join us and we thank you for your support.
BUY TICKETS HERE
THANK YOU to THE FOUNDRY!
A HUGE thank you to Amy Brentano and The Foundry in West Stockbridge, M.A. for awarding us with a 9-day fellowship in their incredible space, last May 2025, where we were able to workshop, develop and produce TREATY: A Play About How To NOT Blow Up The Planet. Without this fellowship, Ground UP Productions and The UnderGround Project Education Outreach Program would not be possible. We are so very grateful for your belief in this project and your commitment to developing new and important work.
