Rep Stage Announces Its 2010-11 Season

Producing Artistic Director Michael Stebbins announces the lineup for the 18th season of Rep Stage, the award-winning professional theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC). The new season features rarely seen plays produced with the creative and quality staging that Rep Stage audiences have come to expect. The 2010-2011 season includes two early 20th century one-acts by "Peter Pan" creator J.M. Barrie; Helen Hayes Award-winning director Kasi Campbell revisits a Rep Stage hit from 1996; a Maryland-based playwright's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play; and a cutting edge comedy by one of Off-Broadway's hottest young playwrights. Also included are special holiday offerings by some of Rep Stage's favorite artists.

Kicking off the season is "Travels With My Aunt," Grahame Greene's touching comic novel come to life. The second production of the season is "Two By J.M. Barrie: The New Word and The Old Lady Shows Her Medals," comedic and heartfelt gems by J.M. Barrie. 2011 begins with "An Almost Holy Picture" by local Pulitzer Prize nominee Heather McDonald, and the season closes with Off-Broadway playwright Stephen Karam's edgy comedy "Speech & Debate." Also, during the month of December, Rep Stage will play host to a variety of holiday offerings by some of Rep Stage's favorite artists - details forthcoming.

Describing the upcoming season, Rep Stage Dramaturg Lisa Wilde says, "This season we return to plays rich in theatrical tradition that will excite both our audience's and artists' imagination while exploring new technologies and intimacies. The plays raise complex questions about our diverse identities and relationships with others and how perception can upend those relationships to both comic and profound effect. This season's spiritual, imaginative and virtual odysseys take us from European grand tours and World War I Great Britain to pilgrimages in cranberry bogs and sagebrush deserts and finally to cyberspace and high school classrooms."

Season subscription packages of 3 or 4 shows are available now through August 15, 2010 at a 20% savings over single ticket prices, and a 15% discount thereafter by calling or visiting the Horowitz Center Box Office (410-772-4900) of HCC. Single tickets, priced again this season at rates far below many professional theatres in the Baltimore-Washington area, are available online at www.repstage.org or through the Box Office beginning July 5, 2010.

The Rep Stage 2010-2011 season continues to provide theatre lovers with free events such as the Rep Stage Reading Series, featuring some of the best and brightest professional actors from the region; pre-show lectures by leading experts offering audiences insights into the current production; post-show discussions, an open moderated "talkback," for artists and audience to share thoughts and observations on the current offering; and Wednesday 7 p.m. pay-what-you-can performances.

For more information on the 2010-11 season, as well as "The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?," the closing production of Rep Stage's 2009-10 season (playing through June 27, 2010) visit www.repstage.org or call the Box Office at 410-772-4900.

Rep Stage's 2010-11 season includes:

TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT
By Graham Greene, adapted by Giles Havergal
Directed by Kasi Campbell
August 25, 2010 - September 12, 2010
Horowitz Center's Studio Theatre

Greene's touching comic novel is given an inspired theatrical staging with four actors playing 25 characters, including the central figure Henry Pulling, a meek 55-year-old bank clerk who accompanies his flamboyant Aunt Augusta on a series of intriguing journeys. Kasi Campbell is a Helen Hayes Award-winning director, whose recent Rep Stage directing credits include "God's Ear," "In the Heart of America," "Bach at Leipzig" and "Hamlet."

TWO BY J.M. Barrie: THE NEW WORD and THE OLD LADY SHOWS HER MEDALS
By J.M. Barrie
Directed by Michael Stebbins
October 6, 2010 - October 24, 2010
Horowitz Center's Smith Theatre

Two short plays by J.M. Barrie ("Peter Pan") are paired together to create a very magical evening of theatre. "The New Word" watches a father trying to break through his British reserve to deliver a heartfelt farewell to his son off to war. In 1917, Alexander Woolcott, American critic and commentator, described the play as "a perfect thing written by a master craftsman. You witness it with such a persistent lump in your throat that you are unlikely to notice with what canny and thrifty skill, with what consummate art it has been written."

"The Old Lady Shows Her Medals" is a sparkling gem about a charwoman in London who lies to 'keep up with the Joneses' and the surprising consequences of her bragging. At once humorous and deeply heartfelt, this play reminds us why J.M. Barrie touches hearts around the world with the characters he creates.

Michael Stebbins, Rep Stage's producing artistic director, previously directed the acclaimed production of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" in the 2009-10 season.

AN ALMOST HOLY PICTURE
By Heather McDonald
Directed by Tony Tsendeas
February 2, 2011 - February 20, 2011
Horowitz Center's Studio Theatre
This Pulitzer Prize-nominated work follows one man's odyssey from Massachusetts to New Mexico, from despair to triumph, heeding a mysterious voice which he heard as a child and presumes to be God. "Audience members who are pursuing their own quests for spiritual comfort in the face of loss and destruction will surely find elements here that resonate for them." - The New York Times
Tony Tsendeas previously directed Rep Stage's 2009 production of "Wittenberg," which was recognized with six Helen Hayes Award nominations including "Best Resident Production."
SPEECH & DEBATE
By Stephen Karam
Directed by Eve Muson
April 13, 2011 - May 1, 2011
Horowitz Center's Studio Theatre

A hit Off-Broadway and on the regional theatre circuit, "Speech & Debate" cleverly blends contemporary dark comedy, music and cyberspace. The New York times called "Speech & Debate" "A triumph...hilarious, cliché-free and immensely entertaining...the play's real accomplishment is its picture of the borderland between late adolescence and adulthood, where grown-up ideas and ambition co-exist with childish will and bravado."

At Olney Theatre Center Eve Muson has directed main stage productions of "Venus" "Godspell," "Big River," "Peter Pan," and her own plays "Cinderella and Her Sisters" and "Pearls From Salt."

Please note that all titles, prices, schedules, and theatres are subject to change. Visit www.repstage.org or call the Horowitz Center Box Office at 410-772-4900 for the latest information.

About Rep Stage
Rep Stage, a professional Equity theatre in residence at Howard Community College, will be celebrating its 18th season with the 2010-11 season. Rep Stage is a member of TCG, League of Washington Theatres and Baltimore Theatre Alliance. Performances are made possible by Howard County Arts Council, Howard County Government, Columbia Foundation, and Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of Maryland and National Endowment for the Arts, and generous individual contributions.