Olney Theatre Center, a mid-Atlantic destination for professional theater performance and education, proudly announces two world premieres, two legendary musicals, a classic thriller, and a rotating rep of Gilbert & Sullivan as part of its 10-play 78th season, the company's largest. Headlining the season is Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical, set in the waning days of Batista's regime in Cuba, written and directed by Tony® Award-nominee Moisés Kaufman (The Laramie Project Cycle) with music from two-time Grammy Award-winner Arturo O'Farrill. Previously on an annual calendar, the 78thseason standardizes the schedule, running September 2015 through August 2016.
Joining the previously announced Hay Fever, Bad Dog, and Guys and Dolls are Kaufman and O'Farrill's Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical;
Jordan Harrison's moving and provocative new play Marjorie Prime; the classic thriller Dial "M" For Murder;
Stephen Sachs' hilarious two-hander Bakersfield Mist;Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado in rotating rep, from Chicago's acclaimed company The Hypocrites; a reimagined production of
Andrew Lloyd Webber's legendary Evita; and the magic and romance of Twelfth Night produced on the outdoor Root Family Stage. Add-on productions of
Paul Morella's annual one-man A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas, the launch of Adventure Theatre-MTC's national tour of Three Little Birds, and the annual home-stand of Olney Theatre Center's educational touring arm, National Players round out a super-stuffed season.
"Everyone will find something to love in Olney Theatre Center's largest season ever," said Artistic Director
Jason Loewith. "And you only need to buy tickets to three productions to become a member. From the latest passion-project by the creator of The Laramie Project to family-friendly musicals like the Gilbert & Sullivan Rep, from effervescent classics like Hay Fever and Twelfth Night to provocative new plays like Bad Dog and Marjorie Prime, it's an amazing time to be a member."
The journey begins right after Labor Day, when Olney Theatre Center turns itself into the Bliss family's country estate for
Noël Coward's sparkling comedy,Hay Fever, helmed by I And You director
Eleanor Holdridge, and starring Artistic Associates
Valerie Leonard,
Susan Lynskey,
John Hudson Odom, and
Michael Russotto, alongside local favorites
Chris Dinolfo and
Beth Hylton.
Multiple
Helen Hayes Award-winner
Holly Twyford leads the cast in Olney Theatre Center's contribution to DC's Women's Voices Theatre Festival in the Rolling World Premiere of Jennifer Hoppe-House's explosive and hilarious new play Bad Dog. Directed by the Artistic Director of Minneapolis' famed Playwrights' Center, Bad Dog also features a quartet of the area's best comediennes:
Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan,
Naomi Jacobson,
Amy McWilliams, and
Emily Townley.
Holiday musicals at Olney Theatre Center have become a tradition for thousands of patrons throughout the region... and is there any American musical more classic than Guys and Dolls? Olney invites the whole family for a delightful, delirious stroll through Damon Runyon's New York, directed by Jerry Whiddonand choreographed by Michael Bobbitt, starring Jessica Lauren Ball as Sarah and Natascia Diaz as Adelaide.
2016 kicks off with Olney Theatre Center's most ambitious project yet, the world premiere of
Moisés Kaufman and Arturo O'Farrill's Carmen: An Afro-Cuban Jazz Musical. A co-production with New York's
Tectonic Theater Project, Carmen suffuses Bizet's unforgettable melodies with original Afro-Cuban jazz in the classic story, updated to Batista's Cuba in 1958. In development since 2011, the piece is written and directed by Kaufman, with choreography by Tony® Award-nominee
Sergio Trujillo.
Next up in March 2016 is Marjorie Prime, the newest play from one of the country's great young writers,
Jordan Harrison, directed by Olney Theatre Center Artistic Director
Jason Loewith. In this "searching, tender comedy" (New York Times) about coming to terms with the past, the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab becomes an evocative world of memories with the help of the award-winning design team from Colossal.
As a palate-cleanser, pay a visit to Tony and Margot Wendice's London flat for the classic thriller on which
Alfred Hitchcock's film is based, Dial "M" For Murder in April. And in May, stop by
Donna Migliaccio's trailer-park home for
Stephen Sachs' raucous comedy about art, class and manners, Bakersfield Mist, directed by Washington favorite John Vreeke.
Olney Theatre Center kicks off the summer with a reimagined, chamber-sized production of
Andrew Lloyd Webber's legendary look into the life of Eva Perón, Evita in June. And in delirious counterpoint, Chicago's famed company of exuberant, gutsy actors, The Hypocrites, bring their critically-acclaimed rotating repertory productions of The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado to campus in July, directed by Sean Graney, following critically-acclaimed runs at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge and Berkeley Rep.
The 2015-16 Season concludes with Shakespeare's joyous and magical Twelfth Night on the Root Family Stage, directed by
Jason Loewith. Made possible through the
William H. Graham, Sr. Fund, the production brings together current and past National Players for a celebration of classic theater and mentorship.
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