Southern Rep Announces 25th Season

The 2011-2012 Season marks a significant milestone in the journey of Southern Rep Theatre: we're turning 25! To celebrate the occasion, Southern Rep is embarking on a season full of new plays, exciting collaborative productions, and beloved classics.

As a native New Orleanian I have always reveled in and marveled at our dual natures. We take on adversity but with humor and charm, and we celebrate with abandon but always with a mournful eye to its necessary end. Our 25th Anniversary season embodies these twin characteristics of Strength and Indulgence. To celebrate our Strength we looked for powerhouse plays with dynamic stories and explosive voices. In GOD OF CARNAGE four seemingly civilized urban elites give in to their true natures. A highly principled artist must decide how art, money and passion can co-exist in RED. And in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE decorum, fantasy and sex battle for supremacy in a steamy booze-filled look back to our 20th century roots. For fun and Indulgence look for the provocative wildness of THE NEW PLAY BACCHANAL and also help us welcome new and old friends with a return to our City Series sampler which includes Ricky Graham, Running With Scissors, Theater 13and The New Orleans BINGO! Show.
This is a season that is guaranteed to shake you up and as we say ‘round here it will also "make ya wanna shake what god gave ya." You won't want to miss this 25th Anniversary Season!
- Artistic Director, Aimée Hayes

This season we present the winners of the Tony Award for Best Play for each of the past two years, Yasmina Reza's GOD OF CARNAGE which won the award in 2009, and John Logan's RED, winner in 2010. GOD OF CARNAGE will be directed by local favorite Ricky Graham who will also be seen wielding his comic stylings in the return of our City Series to Southern Rep. In addition to these offerings, we are thrilled to announce an exciting new production of an enduring classic and arguably New Orleans' favorite play, Tennessee Williams' A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. This will be the first local production of Williams' masterpiece in several years. And of course, don't miss our NEW PLAY BACCHANAL, Southern Rep's play festival that features some of the best new work from both local and national playwrights.

In such a milestone season, we are thrilled to be collaborating with so many of our friends, who bring such diverse theatrical offerings to the Southern Rep stage in the return of The City Series. Also, audiences can look forward to readings and events that highlight some of the most beloved plays from our past seasons. We are so grateful for this opportunity to celebrate our 25 years ... While it seems that every other headline threatens budget cuts and job loss, or some new technology that further limits our daily human contact, we believe that we need theatre more than ever. It is the perfect time to gather with our neighbors and share in a collective experience and conversation.
- Managing Director, Marieke Gaboury

2011 - 2012 Season

GOD OF CARNAGE
by Yasmina Reza
directed by Ricky Graham
Featuring Spud McConnell and Maureen Brennan, with Lara Grice and Gary Rucker
Winner of the 2009 Tony Award. How "civilized" are we, really? A playground altercation between eleven-year-old boys brings together two sets of Brooklyn parents for a meeting to resolve the conflict. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses, and the rum flows, tensions emerge and the gloves come off, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.
Brutally entertaining-NY Newsday
September 14 - October 2 (opening night September 17)

RED
by John Logan
directed by Aimée Hayes
Featuring Bob Edes, Jr and Sean Glazebrook
Winner of the 2010 Tony Award. Master abstract expressionist Mark Rothko has just landed the biggest commission in the history of modern art, a series of murals for New York's famed Four Seasons Restaurant. In the two fascinating years that follow, Rothko works feverishly with his young assistant, Ken, in his studio in the Bowery. But when Ken gains the confidence to challenge him, Rothko faces the agonizing possibility that his crowning achievement could also become his undoing. Raw and provocative, RED is a searing portrait of an artist's ambition and vulnerability as he tries to create a definitive work for an extraordinary setting.
Intense and exciting... -NY Times
November 2 - November 20 (opening night November 5)

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
by Tennessee Williams
Featuring Mike Harkins, Aimée Hayes, Ashley Ricord and Michael Aaron Santos
They told me to take a street-car named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at-Elysian Fields.-Blanche in A STREECAR NAMED DESIRE
A play that truly comes from the heart of our city - what better way to celebrate our 25th anniversary than with this startlingly fresh production of one of the best plays in the pantheon of American Theatre? Originally scheduled for Southern Rep's cancelled 2006 Post-Katrina season, STREETCAR finally makes a triumphant return to New Orleans.
March 21 - April 8 (opening night March 24)

THE ANNUAL NEW PLAY BACCHANAL!
A subscriber bonus!! Subscribers will receive a pass to all that the Bacchanal offers-a feast of workshops, readings, and one-of-a-kind events that all celebrate world premiere new plays! Featuring a new play by the winner of the annual Southern Rep Ruby Prize, named in honor of civil rights veteran Ruby Bridges. The award, which includes $10,000 and workshops in New Orleans and New York City, supports a new play by a woman of color playwright.
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THE RETURN OF THE CITY SERIES!
Season Subscribers get an EXCLUSIVE pre-ordering period for each of the City Series productions. We've got some great offerings already lined up, including:

SHIRLEY VALENTINE
by Willy Russell
directed by Marieke Gaboury
A one-woman show starring Ricky Graham.
May 9 - 27, 2012
Shirley is so appealing in her plight ... that she becomes disarming. -NY Times

RICKY GRAHAM
Known for creating performances filled with "madcap fun" (Times-Picayune), delightful romps and political satires from Ricky Graham will pop up throughout the season. In December - something for the whole family - THE PECAN CRACKER -- The Nutcracker Suite, Louisiana style (less tutus, more alligators!), plus the return of Ricky Graham favorites like AND THE BALL AND ALL and the constantly updated RENEW REVUE. Stay tuned for news of the hilarious musical offerings and theatrical antics that Mr. Graham will be bringing to the Southern Rep stage!

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS
Throughout the year, Running With Scissors will pepper Southern Rep's stage with spicy seasonal fare, offering a menu that includes screwball sitcom silliness and comforting comedy classics suitable for even the most delicate family members (well, if they're tipsy).

THEATRE 13
Last season, Theatre 13 brought to the stage their hysterical productions of 39 STEPS (multiple Big Easy Award winner, including Best Comedy of 2010) and DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, which the Times-Picayune called "one of the funniest and finest shows of the season"). In 2012, they'll storm the Southern Rep stage with two exciting new productions!

THE NEW ORLEANS BINGO! SHOW
A unique combination of old-time carnival hucksterism and serious musical chops. - Gambit Weekly
Be astonished, amazed, and amused by America's best-loved musical gameshow cabaret!

Subscribers get ALL THREE PLAYS IN OUR MAINSTAGE SEASON - GOD OF CARNAGE - RED - A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - FOR JUST $85!

Why Subscribe?
• Get your FREE pass to the NEW PLAY BACCHANAL
• Save up to 25% off of regular priced tickets!
• Get your pick of the best seats in the house for our full season!
• Take advantage of our flexible exchange and cancellation policies for subscribers!
• Don't miss out on any of the plays you want to see, with the exclusive ordering period for
our CITY SERIES productions!
• Be a part of the Southern Rep family, with invitations to readings that celebrate the best
plays in Southern Rep's history!

TO SUBSCRIBE ONLINE - Go online to www.SouthernRep.com and buy your subscription now! Or call our Box Office at (504) 522 - 6545.

Southern Rep strives to enlighten, educate and entertain our audiences. We create a dynamic and nurturing home for theatre professionals in our Mainstage Season and with programs like THE NEW PLAY BACCHANAL, PLAYLAB, The 6x6 New Play Slam, and our monthly soap opera, DEBAUCHERY. And we offer exhilarating learning opportunities through innovative education and outreach programs like YO NOLA, our innovative education program that trains underserved youth to run their own theatre company; or our new play award for women of color playwrights, The Ruby Prize. As New Orleans' only year-round professional theatre, we are woven into the city's rich and diverse cultural fabric.

Southern Rep continues to show that it is staging the most important, challenging, and downright mesmerizing pieces of theater New Orleans audiences are graced to experience. - Theodore P. Mahne, The Times-Picayune Lagniappe