THE RECEPTIONIST

BY

ADAM BOCK

DIRECTED BY

SARAH BENSON

Please hold for Adam Bock’s “poisoned Post-it note of a play” (The New York Times), The Receptionist.

It’s business as usual at the Northeast Office where the cheerfully dutiful receptionist answers phones, brews coffee and gossips with co-workers. But when an unexpected visitor from the Central Office walks through the door, business becomes far from usual. The Receptionist is a jet-black comedy about bureaucracy and complicity that’s biting in its humor and chilling in its relevance.

Subscribe to Season 47 to reserve your seat.

Second Stage Theater’s programs are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Season is supported by a grant from the Howard Gilman Foundation.

^ 30 Under 30 Party Stick around after the show for complimentary drinks and snacks and chat with your fellow young theatergoers. For all productions at the Pershing Square Signature Center; open to 30 Under 30 buyers and Flip the Script subscribers.

* Across the Boards Join us after the show for a discussion with the creative team and learn how a 2ST production goes from page to stage.

(i) Insider’s Night An exclusive event for 2ST Subscribers. Join us one hour before for wine, hors d’oeuvres, and intimate discussion with one of the show’s designers.

OC Open Captioned Performance Text is displayed at the side of the stage in real time, including dialogue and sound effects from the production.

AD Audio Described Performance Using special audio equipment, commentary and narration is provided during the performance, guiding the listener through the show with descriptions of scenes, costumes, etc. in between dialogue or songs.

BY ADAM BOCK

Adam Bock’s other plays include Before The Meeting, A Life, A Small Fire, The Drunken City, The Thugs, The Typographer’s Dream, and Swimming in the Shallows – and have been produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, Clubbed Thumb, and Second Stage Uptown in NYC; and all over the US, in Canada, Australia and the UK and Argentina. He has received the Obie, the Guggenheim, a NEA, a Clauder Prize, the Bay Area Theatre Critics, Glickman, and Heideman Awards, and been nominated for multiple Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards.

DIRECTED BY SARAH BENSON

Sarah Benson is an Obie award-winning director. Credits include: Teeth by Michael R. Jackson and Anna K. Jacobs (Playwrights Horizons & New World Stages); The Welkin by Lucy Kirkwood (The Atlantic); Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury (Soho Rep, TFANA & Berkeley Rep); In The Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks (Signature); Samara by Richard Maxwell, music by Steve Earle (Soho Rep); Futurity by César Alvarez/The Lisps (ART, Walker Arts Center and with Ars Nova); An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Soho Rep, TFANA); ...Walt Disney by Lucas Hnath; Blasted by Sarah Kane, Elective Affinities by David Adjmi. Recipient of two Obie Awards, Vilcek Prize, Callaway Award and multiple nominations from the Drama Desk, Drama League and Lortels. Benson was a Director of Soho Rep from 2007 - 2023. Upcoming: Minor Music... by Saidiya Hartman at Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and Tartuffe in a new version by Lucas Hnath at NYTW.

COMING SOON.

PERFORMANCE DATES

WHERE

BEGINS APRIL 15, 2026

THE PERSHING SQUARE SIGNATURE CENTER / OFF-BROADWAY