ARCADIA, Three World Premieres & More Set for Yale Rep's 2014-15 Season

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE, dedicated to the production of new plays and bold interpretations of classics that make immediate connections to contemporary audiences, announces its 2014-15 season, which will include two modern masterpieces and three world premieres commissioned by Yale Rep, in addition to three titles to be announced as part of the NO BOUNDARIES series of global performances.

The season will feature new productions of ARCADIA by multiple Tony and Oscar winner Tom Stoppard, one of the most accomplished writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, staged by Artistic Director James Bundy; and THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE by poet-playwright Bertolt Brecht, whose mordantly funny and strikingly theatrical body of work continues to inspire generations of theatre artists, directed by OBIE Award winning Resident Director Liz Diamond.

Three new plays commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre will have their world premieres as part of the 2014-15 season: WAR by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (whose acclaimed play Appropriate is currently running in New York), directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz; FAMILIAR, an intergenerational comedy-drama by OBIE Award winner and Pulitzer Prize nominee Danai Gurira, directed by Rebecca Taichman; and ELEVADA, a romantic comedy by Sheila Callaghan, profiled by Marie Claire as one of "18 Women Who Are Changing the World," directed by Jackson Gay.

Yale Rep's 2014-15 season will also feature three titles, to be announced, presented at part of the NO BOUNDARIES series of global performances.

"Yale Rep's 2014-15 season offers an astonishing lineup of gifted theatre artists and a breathtaking diversity of emotions, experiences, and perspectives that ultimately reflect and celebrate our shared humanity," says Artistic Director James Bundy. "I'm delighted that Yale Rep continues to be a home for work by artists such as Tom Stoppard, Danai Gurira, Rebecca Taichman, Liz Diamond, and Jackson Gay, who are well known already to many Yale Rep audience members, and I'm thrilled to introduce Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Lilieana Blain-Cruz, and Sheila Callaghan, all of whom are making their Yale Rep debuts."

ABOUT THE 2014-15 SEASON

ARCADIA
By Tom Stoppard
Directed by James Bundy
October 3-25, 2014
University Theatre (222 York Street)

Amidst illicit passions and professional rivalries on an English country estate, a brilliant young pupil proposes a startling scientific theory well beyond her own comprehension. More than 200 years later, two academic adversaries try to piece together puzzling clues from the past in their quest for an increasingly elusive truth. Arcadia is an achingly romantic and heartbreakingly funny waltz of the mind and the body, dancing across centuries.

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard, the four-time Tony and Academy Award winning author of The Coast of Utopia, Rough Crossing (Yale Rep, 2008), and Shakespeare in Love, has been hailed as "the perfect blend of brains and emotion, wit and heartache" (The New York Times). Artistic Director James Bundy, whose Yale Rep credits include Hamlet, A Delicate Balance, and A Woman of No Importance, stages this new production of "the greatest play of our age" (The Independent).

World Premiere
WAR
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
November 21-December 13, 2014
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)

Tensions escalate between Tate and Joanne at the hospital bedside of their comatose mother. As they attack each other's smallest words and biggest choices, they are ambushed by two strangers who make a shocking claim about their grandfather's WWII tour of duty. War is a wildly provocative, bracingly funny, and all-too-human portrait of a family navigating the landmines of the past as they try to broker peace with each other-and themselves-in the present.

Acclaimed playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins makes his Yale Rep debut with the world premiere of War. His plays include Neighbors, An Octoroon, and Appropriate, which the New York Times praised as "highly entertaining, sharp, and peopled with complex characters." Lileana Blain-Cruz recently directed Christina Anderson's Hollow Roots for The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival.

World Premiere
FAMILIAR
By Danai Gurira
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
January 30-February 21, 2015
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)

In a snowy Midwestern suburb, Marvelous and Donald are preparing for the marriage of their eldest daughter. Clashes erupt within the family when the first-generation American bride-to-be insists on observing a traditional Zimbabwean wedding ritual. Familiar is a richly funny and deeply moving new play about the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters, sisters, wives and husbands-the customs they keep, and the secrets they keep buried.

Born in the U.S. and raised in Zimbabwe, OBIE and Whiting Writers Award winning playwright Danai Gurira is the author of the critically acclaimed plays Eclipsed (Yale Rep, 2009), the Pulitzer Prize finalist In the Continuum (co-written with Nikkole Salter; Yale Rep, 2007), and The Convert. Rebecca Taichman's previous Yale Rep credits include the world premieres of David Adjmi's Marie Antoinette and The Evildoers.

THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE
By Bertolt Brecht
Directed by Liz Diamond
March 20-April 11, 2015
University Theatre (222 York Street)

In the entirely fabricated country of Grusinia, a sturdy young servant named Grusha rescues the abandoned baby boy of the Governor overthrown in a violent palace coup. As civil order is restored, the exiled ruler's wife returns to reclaim her child-and the two mothers bring their case before a cynical, battle-weary judge. An epic fable set against the harrowing backdrop of total war, The Caucasian Chalk Circle traces the thin lines between law and justice, blood and family.

OBIE Award winning Resident Director Liz Diamond (The Winter's Tale, Happy Now?, Saint Joan of the Stockyards) returns to Yale Rep with a new production of the great 20th-century poet-playwright Bertolt Brecht's playfully theatrical, lyrical, and bitingly satiric masterpiece, The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Please note: The Caucasian Chalk Circle is Yale Rep's 2014-15 WILL POWER! production. The run includes two 10:15AM performances on April 8 and 9, 2015, available only to high school groups. For information on WILL POWER! performances, please contact Ruth M. Feldman at (203) 432-8425 or rm.feldman@yale.edu.

World Premiere
ELEVADA
By Sheila Callaghan
Directed by Jackson Gay
Commissioned by Yale Repertory Theatre
April 24-May 16, 2015
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)

New York City. Right now. Ramona's going on lots of first dates but is intentionally sabotaging her chances for a second. Khalil, a social media superstar, is about to close a huge deal that will take him completely off the market. They'll do anything to float above their own lives, even as fate tries to pull them both back down to earth. Elevada is a warm, witty, and wise romantic comedy about the fear of being alone-and the fear of not being alone.

A finalist for the 2014 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Elevada marks the Yale Rep debut of Sheila Callaghan, "a gutsy writer with a gift for creating vivid images rooted in the emotional life of her characters" (The New York Times), whose plays include That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play and Roadkill Confidential. The world premiere of Elevada is directed by Jackson Gay, who has staged These Paper Bullets! and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at Yale Rep.

Three additional titles, presented as part of the NO BOUNDARIES series of global performances, will be announced in the fall.