It's a "red hot" line-up! Artistic Director Robert Falls announces five of eight play selections in Goodman Theatre's upcoming 2011/2012 subscription season-beginning with his production of the Tony Award-winning Broadway sensation Red, by John Logan, in September. Next in the Albert Theatre, Resident Director Chuck Smith stages David Mamet's Race in a Chicago premiere, following its acclaimed Broadway run. The Goodman then welcomes Spanish director Calixto Bieito, known for his radical opera stagings, in his American theater debut with a new interpretation of the rarely-produced Camino Real by Tennessee Williams. The season concludes on a high note with ReGina Taylor's musical Crowns-revived for its 10th anniversary. In the Owen Theatre, rising star playwright Danai Gurira brings her world-premiere production of The Convert, a stand-out offering in the Goodman's recent New Stages new play reading series. Still to be announced are three plays-including a collaboration with Chicago's Teatro Vista. The 2011/2012 season also includes the 34th annual production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
The 2011 season is as follows:
Red
By John Logan
Directed by Robert Falls
September/October 2011
Full-blooded and visceral, the Tony Award-winning Red takes you into the mind of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, for whom paintings are "pulsating" life forces and art is intended to stop the heart. Red chronicles the tormented painter's two year struggle to complete a lucrative set of murals for Manhattan's exclusive Four Seasons restaurant, and his fraught relationship with a seemingly naïve young assistant, who must choose between appeasing his mentor and changing the course of art history. Set amid the swiftly-changing cultural tide of the early 1960s, Red is a startling snapshot of a brilliant artist at the height of his fame, a play hailed as "intense and exciting" by the New York Times. ComEd is the official Lighting Sponsor for Red.
Race
By David Mamet
Directed by Chuck Smith
January/February 2012
This latest work by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet ruthlessly examines guilt and oppression via a compelling crime mystery. Two high-profile lawyers-one black, one white-are called to defend a wealthy white client charged with the rape of an African-American woman, but soon find themselves embroiled in a complex case in which blatant prejudice is as disturbing as the evidence at hand. With characteristic bluntness, Mamet leaves nothing unsaid in this no-holds-barred suspense story which the Chicago Tribune declared "intellectually salacious."
Camino Real
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Calixto Bieito
March/April 2012
Tennessee Williams' hauntingly poetic allegory takes us to the mysterious Camino Real, a surreal netherworld populated by a colorful collection of lost souls anxious to escape but terrified of the unknown wasteland lurking beyond the city's walls.
When Kilroy, an American traveler and former boxer inadvertently lands in Camino Real, he sets off on a phantasmagoric venture through illusion and temptation in an attempt to flee its confines-and defy his grim destiny. Called "one of Williams' most imaginative plays" by the New York Times, Camino Real is a sensual carnival of desire and desperation.
Crowns
Written and directed by ReGina Taylor
ReGina Taylor's gospel musical sensation returns to the Goodman, promising audiences a rollicking good time. When Brooklyn-born Yolanda relocates to the South after the death of her brother, she finds strength in the tales of the wise women who surround her-and the powerful rituals connected to their dazzling hats. Fusing the music of the South with rich storytelling and abundant "hattitude," Crowns is a jubilant celebration of song, dance, cultural history-and glamorous headwear.
IN THE OWEN THEATRE - TWO PLAYS STILL TO BE ANNOUNCED
The Convert onvertA Co Co-Production with McCarter Th Theatre Center eatre (Princeton Princeton, NJ , NJ) and Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles, CA)
February/March 2012
Set amid the colonial scramble for southern Africa in 1895, The Convert tells the tale of Jekesai, a young girl who escapes a forced marriage arrangement with the help of a stalwart black African catechist, Chilford Ndlovu. Caught between her loyalties to her family and culture but indebted to this new Christian god, she becomes Chilford's protégé, but when an anticolonial uprising erupts she is forced to decide which side of the conflict she will choose-and where her heart truly belongs.
With wit and compassion, The Convert explores the untold cultural and religious collisions caused by British colonization in this section of southern Africa (now Zimbabwe), and the reverberating effects still felt in the region today. The Convert was commissioned by Center Theatre Group.
About Goodman Theatre
Currently on stage is the world premiere of ReGina Taylor's The Trinity River Plays (through February 20, 2011) in the Albert and Mary, a world premiere Goodman commission by Thomas Bradshaw (through March 6, 2011).
Upcoming productions in the 2010/2011 Season include: God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza (March 5 - April 10); El Nogalar by Tanya Saracho (world premiere, March 26 - April 24); Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl (world premiere Goodman commission, April 30 - June 5); and Chinglish by David Henry Hwang (world premiere, June 18 - July 24).
Goodman Theatre, "the leading regional theater in the nation's most important theater city" (Time), is a major cultural, educational and economic pillar in Chicago, generating nearly $300 million in economic impact over the past decade in its state-of-the-art two-theater complex on North Dearborn Street. Founded in 1925 and currently under the leadership of Artistic Director Robert Falls, "Chicago's most essential director" (Chicago Tribune), and Executive Director Roche Schulfer, Chicago's oldest and largest not-for-profit resident theater has experienced unprecedented success over the past 10 years in its new downtown facility, welcoming nearly two million patrons to productions and events-including 10 festivals celebrating playwrights such as David Mamet, August Wilson and Horton Foote, as well as the biennial Latino Theatre Festival-serving 30 percent more students through its Education and Community Engagement programs (including the FREE Student Subscription Series and other interactive programs) and employing more than 3,000 artists and theater professionals. The Goodman has earned more than 90 awards for hundreds of productions, including the Pulitzer Prize for Ruined by Lynn Nottage-one of 25 new-work Goodman commissions in the last decade. The Chairman of Goodman Theatre's Board of Trustees is Patricia Cox and Joan Clifford is President of the Women's Board. American Airlines is the Exclusive Airline of Goodman Theatre.
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