CABARET, THE WIZ and More Set for DTC 2010-2011 Lineup; Season Announced

Dallas Theater Center Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty announced today the company's 2010-11 season slated for the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center and the historic Kalita Humphreys Theater. DTC's 52nd season will include two classics never seen before at DTC, a wildly funny comedy, two musicals, a world premiere, and two grand dames of theater.

"In the past year, Dallas Theater Center has thrown open the doors of our new home at the Wyly Theater - welcoming record-breaking, sold-out crowds filled with people of all ages and experiences, coming together to see world-class theater and then engaging in lively conversation about what they see onstage," says Moriarty. "We want to inspire these conversations in the most dynamic way possible: by constantly redefining the relationship between the actor and the audience in the most surprising and meaningful ways we can imagine. Next season, we will expand our exploration of space with every play being presented in its own unique configuration. From the historic and intimate Kalita Humphreys Theater to the breathtaking flexibility of the Wyly, which virtually cries out to be reconfigured, attacked and conquered anew each show, audiences can expect to be constantly surprised and engulfed by each production."

The 2010-2011 season is as follows: In the Potter Rose Performance Hall: Henry IV (Sept. 10 - Oct. 10); Rain (Nov. 5 - Dec. 5); Dividing the Estate (March 11 - April 9, as part of the Foote Festival); Cabaret (April 22 - May 22); The Wiz (July 8 - Aug. 14, in association with Dallas Black Dance Theater). In the Kalita Humphreys Theater: A Christmas Carol (Nov. 26 - Dec. 24); Arsenic and Old Lace (Feb. 4 - March 13).

The season opener Henry IV will feature former DTC company member RAndy Moore as Falstaff, one of Shakespeare's most beloved characters. In the classic Arsenic and Old Lace, Fort Worth native and Tony Award-winning actress Betty Buckley and Tony Award-nominated actress Tovah Feldshuh, two of theater's grand dames, come together to create not-to-be-missed performances as the murderous eccentric aunts.

In the second season in its new home, the Wyly Theatre, DTC continues established collaborations such as with SMU Meadows School of the Arts and Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts with the Skokos Learning Lab - and embarks on exciting new partnerships with theaters and institutions across the metroplex to produce engaging work such as the citywide Foote Festival celebrating the late Texas playwright Horton Foote, and a significant collaboration with Dallas Black Dance Theater, jointly producing The Wiz in the summer of 2011.

"Growth and expansion does not happen in a vacuum," says Moriarty. "At Dallas Theater Center, we believe that theaters, arts organizations, and our city itself will best grow and prosper when we all work together."

Continuing the popular Pay What You Can initiative, DTC patrons will be able to purchase tickets to the first performance of each production for the amount of a donation they choose.

"At the first performance of every play in our season, every single seat in the theater is available for as much, or as little, as you can afford. For as little as one penny, anyone can see world-class professional theater at Dallas Theater Center," says Moriarty.

Season subscriptions go on sale May 1 and begin at $90.

2010-2011 Season Lineup

Henry IV Sept. 10 - Oct. 10
by William Shakespeare
directed by Kevin Moriarty
Potter Rose Performance Hall, Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre

Shakespeare's most popular play during his lifetime, and one of his greatest achievements as a writer, comes to life on stage for the first time in DTC's history. Featuring Shakespeare's most beloved comic character, Sir John Falstaff, Henry IV is filled with riotous comedy, battlefield action, and a moving story of a profligate boy who must learn to become a man and a king.

Set in England in the 1400's, Henry IV tells the story of a country in the midst of a bloody civil war, led by the ailing King Henry IV, who is desperately struggling to fight off rebel armies. Meanwhile, his son, Prince Hal, is found drinking in bars with lowlifes, highwaymen and other members of the London underworld, including Sir John Falstaff (played by former DTC company member RAndy Moore), a charming, drunken and obese knight who has befriended him as a second father. Unwilling to accept his responsibility as heir to the throne, the young prince must finally reconcile with his dying father, abandon his dissolute lifestyle, and change from a prodigal son to one of the most powerful leaders in English history.

Rain Nov. 5 - Dec. 5
by ReGina Taylor
directed by Ethan McSweeny
World Premiere
Co-Production with the Goodman Theatre
Potter Rose Performance Hall, Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre

After her marriage falls apart, Iris makes her annual trip home to Dallas for her mother Rose's birthday. For Iris, home is a place where nothing ever changes, a refuge from the storm. But change is afoot in her mother's house, and Iris and Rose must learn to weather the storm together. Laced with humor, Rain is a moving portrait of family, motherhood and the ties that bind one generation to the next.

From ReGina Taylor, author of the critically-acclaimed Crowns and Drowning Crow, Rain will have its world premiere in Dallas before going onto performances at Chicago's Tony Award-winning Goodman Theatre.

A Christmas Carol Nov. 26 - Dec. 24
by Charles Dickens
adapted by Richard Hellesen
music by David de Berry
directed by Matthew Gray
Kalita Humphreys Theater

No holiday story compares with A Christmas Carol, and no production has more humor and humanity than DTC's staging of this heart-warming classic. Filled with traditional and original songs of the season, A Christmas Carol is DTC's most popular production and appeals to a broad family audience every year.

*Community Partner: North Texas Food Bank

Arsenic and Old Lace Feb. 4 - March 13
by Joseph Kesselring
directed by Scott Schwartz
Kalita Humphreys Theater

First produced on Broadway in 1941 and as a Hollywood film in 1944, Arsenic and Old Lace is one of the funniest and most often performed plays of the American theater. This farcical black comedy revolves around two spinster aunts who have taken to murdering lonely old men by poisoning them with a glass of homemade elderberry wine laced with arsenic, strychnine, and "just a pinch" of cyanide; their brother who believes he is Teddy Roosevelt and digs locks for the Panama Canal in the cellar of their home (which then serve as graves for the aunts' victims); and their other brother, a murderer who has received plastic surgery performed by an alcoholic accomplice, Dr. Einstein, to conceal his identity and now looks like the famous horror film actor, Boris Karloff.

Legendary Broadway actors Betty Buckley and Tovah Feldshuh join forces to create a fresh, new production of this hilarious comedy.

*Associate Producing Partner: Charles Schwab
*Assistant Producing Sponsor: Gardere Wynne Sewell

Dividing the Estate March 11 - April 9
by Horton Foote
directed by Joel Ferrell
Potter Rose Performance Hall, Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
Part of the DFW Foote Festival

In this human comedy about a family that must confront its past as it prepares for its future, matriarch StElla Gordon is dead set against the parceling out of her Texas family's land despite the financial woes brought on by the oil bust of the 1980s. An award-winning Broadway hit comedy in 2009, Dividing the Estate is filled with sharply but affectionately drawn characters acting with foxy cunning and hypocritical virtue.

The great Texas playwright, Horton Foote, was known for his rich characterizations and wry humor, deftly combining the claustrophobia of Tennessee Williams' southern families, the physical and psychological dysfunctions of Eugene O'Neill's clans, and the humor and pathos of small town Southern life portrayed by Flannery O'Connor. The winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his play, The Young Man from Atlanta, and two Academy Awards for his screenplays of To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies, Horton Foote was one of America's most observant playwrights and a Texas treasure. DTC is partnering with theaters and arts organizations throughout the Metroplex to produce the region-wide Foote Festival from March 14 - May 1, 2011.

*Assistant Producing Partner: Jackson Walker

Cabaret April 22 - May 22
music by John Kander
lyrics by Fred Ebb
book by Joe Masteroff
directed and choreographed by Joel Ferrell
Potter Rose Performance Hall, Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre

Since its Broadway premiere in 1966, Cabaret has won a staggering number of stage and screen awards, including 8 Oscars and 13 Tony Awards. Set in pre-war Weimer Berlin at the infamously decadent Kit Kat Klub, the show follows the fortunes of the club's star, Sally Bowles, and an impish emcee, who sound the clarion call to decadent fun, while outside the footsteps of Hitler's stormtroopers grow louder and louder. The entire Wyly Theatre will be transformed into the Kit Kat Klub in a fully immersive, fresh new production of this sexy and provocative musical classic.

The Wiz July 8 - Aug. 14
book by William F. Brown
music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls
directed by Kevin Moriarty
Co-production with Dallas Black Dance Theatre
Potter Rose Performance Hall, Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre

A high-energy and thoroughly delightful reimagining of The Wizard of Oz with an African American cast, this joyful family musical won seven Tony Awards when it opened on Broadway, including Best Musical and Best Score. With a score filled with a dazzling, lively mixture of rock, gospel and soul music, The Wiz starts with a tornado and keeps lifting from there, as young Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion become friends, "Ease on Down the Road," and come face to face with the great Wiz himself, ultimately learning that there's no place like home.

In a unique collaboration, DTC - Dallas' oldest, continuously operating professional theater - joins forces with Dallas Black Dance Theatre - Dallas' oldest, continuously operating professional dance company - to dance, sing, laugh and celebrate in this boisterous and exuberant musical.

*Assistant Producing Partner: Vinson & Elkins

One of the leading regional theaters in the country, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) produces new, contemporary and classic plays and musicals to an audience of more than 90,000 North Texas residents annually. DTC is a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. DTC engages, entertains and inspires a diverse community by creating experiences that stimulate new ways of thinking and living by consistently producing plays, educational programs and other initiatives that are of the highest quality and reach the broadest possible constituency.

 

---

Join Team BroadwayWorld

Are you an avid theatergoer? We're looking for people like you to share your thoughts and insights with our readers. Team BroadwayWorld members get access to shows to review, conduct interviews with artists, and the opportunity to meet and network with fellow theatre lovers and arts workers.

Interested? Learn more here.

---