Columbia Stages Announces 2010-2011 Season

COLUMBIA STAGES, the award-winning producing arm of Columbia University's MFA Theatre Arts Program, announces its 2010-2011 season beginning October 20th at The Riverside Theatre, 91 Claremont Avenue between 120th and 122nd Streets.

This year at Columbia Stages, see a North American premiere, new productions of classic plays, creative adaptations of stories from ancient Greece to Hollywood, and several new works. Discover fresh perspectives from young actors, directors and playwrights engaged in discovering the future of theatre.

EXPERIENCE THEIR NEW FINDINGS THIS SEASON!

WALKABOUT YEOLHA by Samshik Pai
Directed by Kon Yi
October 20-23, 2010

Adapted by MFA Playwriting Candidate Kyoung Park from Walter Byongsok Chon's translation, this Korean drama in its North American premiere tells the story of a community struggling to retain its identity in the face of cultural intrusion. Set in a distant future, Walkabout Yeolha presents a sweeping, allegorical tale of the entwined fates of an empire and a village.

LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST by William Shakespeare
THREE SISTERS by Anton Chekhov, translated by Paul Schmidt
Directed by Andrei Serban
November 11-21, 2010

Renowned director Andrei Serban, known for his iconoclastic interpretations of classic plays at Lincoln Center, the A.R.T., The Public Theater, and the Metropolitan Opera, introduces two bold new productions performed in repertory featuring the MFA Acting Class of 2011. Presented with vitality and elegance, Love's Labor's Lost is an intelligent comedy full of wit, philosophical reflection, and a few dirty jokes. Serban's revolutionary take on Three Sisters retains all the humor, solemnity, and absurdity of the drama while making this classic feel refreshingly modern.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM by William Shakespeare
Adapted and Directed by James Rutherford
January 26-29, 2011

Featuring the work of performance group Piehole, A Midsummer Night's Dream is laughing-tragedy at its finest: five Athenians enter the forest and undergo a monstrous transformation. Sexual violence trumps fairyland enchantment and fever-dream gives way to full-on nightmare.

RIVERS AND TRIBUTARIES by Carin Jean White
Directed by Carin Jean White
February 16-19, 2011

A world premiere set between two times and two places. San Francisco, 1970: As Michael's last year of art school draws to a close, doubt overtakes him. When offered an opportunity in Europe, his doubts turn to fear. New York City, 2010: Elbe waits to see Marina Abramovic at MoMA and witnesses the function of fear.

FROM HERE, I CAN TELL YOU
Created and Written by Jess K. Smith, Matthew Wilson and Melissa D. Brown
Directed by Jess K. Smith
March 9-12, 2011

Another world premiere, this play asks the question of what stories keep us in the room when the door of intimacy seems neither half-shut nor half-open. Inspired by the fraught relationship of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald and the letters and literature created between them, this devised piece explores the shared worlds and stories that can keep us together or tear us apart.

3 WOMEN
Created and Directed by Anna Brenner
March 30-April 2, 2011

The third world premiere of our season, inspired by Robert Altman's 1977 film of the same name, this play is a dreamlike investigation of personality and identity through the perspectives of three women in a dusty California town. Upon meeting, their eccentricities and need for friendship drive them to steal and trade each other's personas, eventually creating one they can all share.

ORESTEIA (a tragic rite) by Jonathan Vandenberg after Aeschylus
Directed by Jonathan Vandenberg
April 20-23, 2011

A new work created from the only extant trilogy of Ancient Greece. Aeschylus depicts the tragic events at the house of Atreus after the Trojan War. Here, his text is held to the fire. A theatre of image, gesture, and sound emerges from the ashes. A journey from darkness into light.

ANOTHER FEAST
April 13-May 2, 2011

Following the success of last year's New Play Feast, the Theatre Arts Program presents nine new plays by the MFA Playwriting Class of 2011. Students work side by side with renowned professional writers on the development of their new work; this year's playwright mentors include Sheila Callaghan, Kevin Cunningham, Christopher Durang, Will Eno, John Logan, Sarah Ruhl, and Chay Yew.
Performances will be held at 3LD, 80 Greenwich Street @ Rector. www.3ldnyc.org

Tickets to all Columbia Stages productions are FREE with any valid student ID, $15 for the general public and $5 for seniors. All seating is general admission.

Tickets may be purchased:

• Online: www.ColumbiaStages.org
• By Phone: 212.870.6784
• In Person: The Box Office at The Riverside Theatre. Box Office hours are
Thursday - Saturday, 4pm - 8pm and Sunday noon - 4pm, as well as one hour prior to performances.

For more information, visit COLUMBIASTAGES.ORG or call 212.854.3408.

ABOUT COLUMBIA STAGES
Columbia Stages is the producing arm of the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University's School of the Arts. Columbia Stages presents a series of original productions and a festival of new plays by emerging artists from the MFA Theatre Arts Program.
Taught by a faculty of internationally renowned creators, practitioners, producers, and scholars, the program provides students with the foundation for a career in professional theatre, with programs in acting, directing, playwriting, dramaturgy, stage management, and theatre management and producing. Presented annually, the productions at Columbia Stages are a laboratory for students' dramatic experimentation.

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