CENTERSTAGE’S 2009–10 Season
marks an exciting departure.
After more than 40 years, we’re expanding our model with more variety and seasoning up the season, which will now include a whopping 14 events. The result offers you unprecedented selection from a varied array of artistic flavors and sizes, combined to create a full artistic meal and encourage conversation. The ingredients are virtually unlimited. Theatrical Tapas, if you will.
If you’re the sort of curious person who picks up a menu and gravitates to the sampler platter, our new format offers many chances to choose from a wide variety of theatrical experiences, or to select those with a common outlook or touchstone—from the more apparent to some less obvious. Throughout the pages that follow, we’ve proposed a few ideas for unusual pairings—and encourage you to come up with your own. The truly adventurous might decide to try them all!
Whatever your tastes, you don’t have to look far to find a rich assortment of great work waiting to challenge and divert you. And of course, Members keep the added flexibility to change dates as your schedule changes, or to add additional selections at “insider” prices.
Bon appétit!
"A sampling of diverse artistic styles, forms, and scales that allows you
the freedom to pick and choose according to personal taste."
—Irene Lewis, Artistic Director
PEARLSTONE SERIES
The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde
Directed by Irene Lewis
Oct 7–Nov 8, 2009
Gwendolyn loves Ernest, and he loves her. Cecily loves Ernest too, though he’s only just finding that out, and he loves her back. But is it a lover’s triangle, or is there room for two happy couples in Oscar Wilde’s madcap romance—and just what will fearsome Aunt Augusta have to say about it? The quintessential comedy of proper manners, by the quintessential Bad Boy of his day—what Wilde teasingly called his “Trivial comedy for serious people.” Mislaid babies, mistaken identities, secret engagements, baffled suitors, and some of the wittiest wordplay ever [volleyed] over cucumber sandwiches. Can they really untangle the plot twists and get it all sorted out before tea? Featuring Associate A
The Lookingglass Theatre’s production of
Around the World in 80 Days
Written and directed by Laura Eason
Nov 24–Dec 20, 2009
Phileas Fogg—fantastically wealthy, majestically mysterious, and a dedicated man of scientific reason—has deduced that a mere 80 days is enough to circumnavigate the globe. And he’s staked his entire fortune on it. Will bandits, a herd of buffalo, an act of chivalry, and a meddlesome inspector from Scotland Yard prevent him from fulfilling this mindboggling task? Follow Fogg and his loyal valet Passepartout from the misty alleys of Victorian London to the steamy subcontinent; aboard steamships, locomotives, and elephants—as he learns about the heart, himself, and a world bigger than he ever anticipated. Around the World in 80 Days is recommended for everyone ages 8 and up.
American Premiere!
Let There Be Love
By Kwame Kwei-Armah
Directed by Jeremy B. Cohen
Feb 10–Mar 7, 2010 **Please note there are no performances on Sunday, February 14th**
Old Alfred is sure that his country is getting taken from him. The embittered old West Indian, himself an immigrant to Britain, watches jealously while new waves of migration wash ashore. Whether fighting with his proudly feminist daughter, raging against the inexorable tide of social change, or combating his own failing health, his life is one long battle. Until a young Polish woman arrives at his London flat, and old beliefs and fresh resentments all get challenged. With the American premiere of his warm-hearted drama, CENTERSTAGE Associate Artist Kwame Kwei-Armah (Elmina’s Kitchen) reexamines our shared immigrant experience in a fresh and provocative way—finding a common humanity beyond racial, national, or cultural identities.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
By August Wilson
Directed by Irene Lewis
Apr 7–May 9, 2010
The only one of Wilson’s monumental cycle to shift scene from Pittsburgh—landing us instead in Chicago, where we find legendary monarch of the Blues, Ma Rainey, and her marvelous assemblage of less-than-merry musicians. As we wait to discover Will She or Won’t She, we learn gradually of the pitfalls and perils that lie in wait for each of these proud, ambitious artists outside the recording studio walls, and inside their sometimes tormented hearts. After all, it’s 1927; and with the Jazz Age in full swing it’s a moment as full of possibility as risk for those striving to achieve the American side of being African American. Featuring CENTERSTAGE Associate Artist E. Faye Butler in the title role of this modern classic.
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SHORT WORK SERIES
Cyrano
An original adaptation for three actors by Jo Roets
Directed by David Schweizer
Jan 13–Feb 7, 2010
Cyrano de Bergerac, a swashbuckler straight out of the history books, is a master of swordplay and wordplay, but a “magnificent Mount Everest of a nose” blocks his path to true love—quite literally. From the ivy-twined balconies of Paris to the blood-soaked fields of the Thirty Years War, handsome, tongue-tied Christian borrows Cyrano’s words to woo the beautiful Roxane. But is she falling for Christian’s looks or Cyrano’s soul? A cast of just three actors triangulates Rostand’s classic love story into a charming, lightning-paced melodrama of duels, panache, hopeless sacrifice—and an enormous schnoz.
Working it Out
Three pieces on the theme of work, performed back-to-back in one event
Mar 3–28, 2010
Three of America’s sharpest playwrights, including West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin and Mad Men staff writer Rick Cleveland, tackle the workplace in three wildly different ways.
Hidden in this Picture by Aaron Sorkin
It’s the epic closing shot of director Robert’s first movie. Everyone is watching, the cameras are rolling at a thousand dollars a foot, 694 extras are on the move, there won’t be another chance to catch this sunset moment…and three cows wander into the picture, shattering the illusion of a Marine base in Guam. Propelled by Sorkin’s signature sleek, fast-flung dialogue and acerbic humor, Hidden in this Picture pokes fun at the commercial scramble of movie-making while critically questioning artistic integrity, prompting a healthily humorous perspective about our own work.
Washed Up on the Potomac by Lynn Rosen
Three freelance copyeditors pitch diverting banter among cubicles while questioning future prospects and rehashing dearly held but fast-withering aspirations (to become a novelist, to kick-start a comedy act, to enter law school). All the while, the trio is haunted by the memory of a former coworker, a young woman who simply vanished without a trace, without having left a mark on the world. When forced to choose between becoming full-time employees and losing their jobs entirely, the copyeditors must either cling to stifling safety—cracking jokes and squabbling over desks—or dare to venture into the uncertainty of chasing their dreams.
Jerry & Tom by Rick Cleveland
A couple of regular guys try to juggle family life, principles, and their jobs as hit men. Experienced assassin Tom shows Jerry the ropes, teaching moderation and the proper methods of murder. But Jerry won’t be bound by secrecy and tact, and his hot-blooded behavior threatens to trigger grave consequences. From routine executions in restaurants and seedy hotel rooms to troubles with the wife and kids, offset by gallows humor, Jerry and Tom is both thrilling and poignant—an engaging peek at an elusive (and not-so-glamorous) profession.
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CONCERT READINGS
Three international play readings performed over three back-to-back weekends in an informal setting; a professional cast will perform the play seated at music stands, with stage directions read, allowing the audience's imaginations to create the world of the play. Ticket holders will be given the opportunity to sit in on the creative process at several free open rehearsals for each play. Details on rehearsal dates, times, and how to reserve your place at these unique behind-the-scenes events will be announced after the first of the year.
April 8–11, 2010
East of Berlin
By Hannah Moscovitch
When a young, German-born Argentinean discovers the truth about his expatriate father, he sets off for his ancestral homeland in a journey of painful self-discovery. This new play, by an acclaimed Canadian writer, explores the weight of history and the nature of personal responsibility while asking big questions—about fathers and sons, the banality of evil, and the deceptive games that memory plays on identity.
April 15–18, 2010
Benedictus
By Motti Lerner
Seven Jewish Children
By Caryl Churchill
Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy
By Tony Kushner
An evening of political theater from three premier practitioners. Benedictus, a simmering thriller from Israel’s Motti Lerner (The Murder of Isaac), tackles the timely topic of nuclear brinkmanship and the delicate negotiations among Iran, Israel, and America. Caryl Churchill’s controversial Seven Jewish Children condenses millennia of history into an intensely poetic moment. And polemic and farce merge in Tony Kushner’s uproarious, passionate, and informed short, featuring an unlikely encounter: Laura Bush and an otherworldly interlocutor.
April 22–25, 2010
after the quake
By Haruki Murakami, adapted by Frank Galati
Over the last three decades, Haruki Murakami’s prize-winning novels (Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore) have heralded the onset of a new generation of Japanese literature. Surreal, yet filled with quotidian detail; influenced by American pop culture as much as by Japanese tradition; characterized by a deadpan humor that covers deep feeling—Murakami is Japan’s Kurt Vonnegut, a Thomas Pynchon for the Far East. In After the Quake, an elliptical short fable inspired by the Kobe earthquake and its aftermath, Murakami’s full range of expression is on display. Tender, nostalgic, fantastical, and utterly modern—a unique perspective on the Tokyo of today, yesterday, and tomorrow.
The readings will also include the ever-popular Toast Bar (a hit during past seasons of our First Look reading series), a chance to enjoy a tasty selection of breads and spreads in addition to the bar service.
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CABARET SERIES
Judy Kaye
Oct 15–18, 2009
Euan Morton
Nov 12–15, 2009
E. Faye Butler
Feb 11–14, 2010
Tracie Thoms & Friends
Apr 29–May 2, 2010
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HOLIDAY BONUS!
The Santaland Diaries
By David Sedaris; adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello
Directed by Irene Lewis
Dec 8–20, 2009
Nothing says “holiday spirit” like temper tantrums and sozzled Santas! Wicked, uproarious, and subversive: Sedaris’s harrowing tour of duty as Crumpet, the Macy’s elf, features CENTERSTAGE Associate Artist Robert Dorfman—in tights.
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