THE BITTER EARTH World Premiere to Launch NCTC's 2017-18 Season; Lineup Set!

New Conservatory Theatre Center Founder & Artistic Director Ed Decker announced the line-up for NCTC's 2017-18 subscription season last night at NCTC's annual Season Announcement Party for subscribers, donors and artists.

Regarded nationally and internationally as San Francisco's Premier LGBQI and Allied Theatre Company, NCTC seizes the opportunity with its 2017-18 season to respond to the new challenges facing our communities.

"Activism is an intrinsic part of NCTC and a common thread that connects our educational and performance programs," says Decker. "When deployed with the transformative potential of theatre, it can effect personal & societal growth, enlightenment and change. It was in this spirit that I curated a season that would bring people together where there is divide, heal where there is pain, and uplift where there is despair."

Featured in the seven-show season are three regional premieres, two sensational musical revivals, and two world premieres developed through NCTC's New Play Development Lab.

"Our audience response to the new work we've been putting on our stages has been enthusiastic support," adds NCTC Executive Director Barbara Hodgen. "In fact, there were some disappointed people this season who could not get into our sold out performances! Condensing our season from eight shows to seven both leaves us room to extend shows when the demand for tickets is high and gives us the time we need to go into even more depth as we develop new plays from queer and allied artists."

NCTC opens its 2017-18 season in September, with the world premiere of Harrison David Rivers' This Bitter Earth, an NCTC-commissioned play directly responding to the personal and political impact of racial tensions in our country today. A protest brings Jesse, a black man, together with his white lover, a Black Lives Matter activist. But now, as his lover immerses himself in the struggle, Jesse must confront his own political apathy or risk his rights and their love. This gripping and intimate new play asks what is the real cost of standing on the sidelines?

Harrison David Rivers has had plays performed and developed at theatres across the country, including The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Lincoln Center Theater, LAByrinth Theatre Company, Classical Theatre of Harlem, and About Face in Chicago. Winner of the 2013 Global Age Project at Aurora Theatre Company and New York Theatre Workshop's Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship, among many other awards, Rivers was the 2016 Playwright-in-Residence at Williamstown Theatre Festival and is currently a Core Writer at the Playwrights' Center, where he lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Next, NCTC presents the regional premiere of Le Switch by Philip Dawkins, the new play by the author of Failure: A Love Story and The Homosexuals, which NCTC presented in its 2013-14 Season. Le Switch centers on David, a self-possessed New York librarian with a need for classification, a love for collecting rare books he never opens and a strong ambivalence about marriage. What happens when his best friend's bachelor party takes him to Montreal, and he is swept off his feet by a charming young florist? A witty and whimsical romantic comedy tied in knots.

In December, NCTC delivers the ultimate holiday present with the 5th anniversary of its award-winning production of Avenue Q. Proclaimed "a local tradition" by San Francisco Travel, this hit won over critics and audiences alike in its previous engagements in NCTC's intimate Decker Theatre.

In January, NCTC is proud to present the world premiere of Tim Pinckney's Still at Risk, which takes a new look at the personal and political effects of HIV/AIDS on the LGBT community decades after the crisis. Pinckney centers his story around Kevin, a surviving activist from the front lines of the AIDS crisis, who finds himself struggling to find purpose in a modern age of greater gay rights and new political urgency. When an unexpected event threatens to erase the history he was part of creating, Kevin's anger and passion are renewed. Hilarious, sharp, and deeply moving, Still at Risk is a powerful look at the hazards of rewriting the past, and one man's attempt to move forward.

Tim Pinckney returns to NCTC almost twenty years after the company presented his play Message to Michael, which premiered at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre in New York City. In addition to Rattlestick, his plays have been developed or produced at The Hangar Theatre, Gerald Lynch Theatre and Primary Stages in New York City.

NCTC continues its 2017-18 season with the eleventh production by frequent NCTC collaborator, four-time Tony Award winner Terrence McNally. In March, NCTC presents the regional premiere of a newly revised version of It's Only a Play¸ which recently completed a hit run on Broadway. It's opening night of Peter Austin's new Broadway play, and while at the producer's penthouse for a lavish party, he anxiously awaits the play's reviews. With his career on the line and celebrities pouring in downstairs, he huddles upstairs with the producer, director and star of the show. This love letter to the theatre is the perfect setup for backstabbing comedy.

From one of the writers of HBO's Boardwalk Empire and Showtime's Masters of Sex comes a deeply insightful and very funny new play. In April, NCTC presents the regional premiere of The Mystery of Love and Sex by Bathsheba Doran. Doran's play brilliantly examines intimacy, identity and, of course, the many mysteries of love and sex. Charlotte and Jonny have been best friends since they were nine. She's Jewish, he's Christian, she's white, and he's black. They love each other, but not in that way. Or maybe that way. As they tumble into their twenties and confront the mysteries of their sexuality, they eventually find that the path forward is not always the one right in front of you.

Marking fifteen years since it played NCTC, Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly flies in at the perfect time! NCTC closes its 2017-18 season with an updated version of this gleefully subversive, over-the-top musical extravaganza. Told in high school he'd be big in show biz only "when pigs fly," Howard follows his heart anyway and creates the musical revue of his dreams. What they didn't know was he has a special talent to transform the most mundane objects - from shower curtains to garden hoses - into a show-stopping costume spectacle. Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical Revue and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical, When Pigs Fly meets our political moment with gleeful, glittery defiance!

Subscribers get the best seats at the best prices for every show in the season seven-show full-season subscriptions are available now, as well as a six-show package (without Avenue Q) and a four-show sampler, with a choice of any four shows in the season. In addition, we offering a special three-show flex pass to guests 35 years and under for just $60 - $20 a play! Subscriber benefits include 25% off single ticket prices, access to the best seats, free and easy ticket exchanges, first access to Avenue Q tickets, 50% off guest tickets, savings on non-subscription shows and much more. Subscriptions are now available at nctcsf.org/subscribe or by calling the Box Office at 415.861.8972.

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This Bitter Earth

By Harrison David Rivers

September 22 - October 22, 2017

Opening Night: September 30, 2017

Le Switch

By Phillip Dawkins

October 27 - December 3, 2017

Opening Night: November 4, 2017

Avenue Q

Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx

Book by Jeff Whitty

Based on an original concept by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx

December 1, 2017 - January 7, 2018

Opening Night: December 9, 2017

Still at Risk

By Tim Pinckney

January 19 - February 25, 2018

Opening Night: January 27, 2018

It's Only a Play

By Terrence McNally

March 2 - April 1, 2018

Opening Night: March 10, 2018

The Mystery of Love and Sex

By Bathsheba Dolan

April 13 - May 20, 2018

Opening Night: April 21, 2018

Howard Crabtree's When Pig Fly

Conceived by Howard Crabtree and Mark Waldrop

Sketches and Lyrics by Mark Waldrop

Music by Dick Gallagher

May 11 - June 10, 2018

Opening Night: May 19, 2018

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New Conservatory Theatre Center has been San Francisco's premier LGBTQIA and allied performing arts institution and progressive arts education conservatory since 1981. NCTC is renowned for its diverse range of innovative, high-quality productions, touring productions and shows for young audiences; its foundational anti-bullying work with youth and educators through YouthAware; and its commitment to developing new plays to continue expanding the canon of queer and allied dramatic work.

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