Epic Theatre Company's 2015-16 Season to Include THESE RUTHLESS BITCHES, GREAT EXPECTATIONS & More

Epic Theatre Company has announced it's 2015-2016 Season, featuring six premiere events, including an adaptation of An Italian Wife bestselling author Ann Hood.

"This is our fourth full season," said Artistic Director Kevin Broccoli, "And our third season in residency at the Artists Exchange in Cranston. In many ways, I'm looking at this as our senior year. We're taking everything we've learned over the past three years and using it to present a unique and entertaining season that will take us in a brand new direction."

Broccoli plans on using this season to explore page-to-stage projects as well as taking classic plays and turning them on their head.

"I called our first year at the Artists Exchange the Year of Fear. We were taking on projects that seemed overwhelming-almost impossible-as a way of challenging ourselves as well as the artists that work with us. This year, I wanted to do something we've never done before, and that meant taking a look at classical theater and literary adaptations. Up until now, we've mainly focused on contemporary work, and now I think it's time to go back to basics, so to speak. The thought of doing a play like Tamburlaine scares me to death, and that's how I know I have to do it."

Epic will be ending this season with Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of Orlando by Virginia Woolf. "It's a happy accident that Orlando will help transition us into an exciting new phase for the company where we'll be taking on bold adaptations and creating new perspectives for notable plays."

The season will open with a bang--the all-women comedy These Ruthless Bitches, inspired by the classic play The Women by Clare Booth Luce. "This is The Women meets Orange is the New Black," says Broccoli. "I've wanted to do The Women forever, but both the costume budget and less-than-modern ending gave me pause. I would never have believed that a play with so much class and sophistication could work in a prison setting, but if anything, it heightens the comedy considerably."

The theater will welcome Halloween with The Terrifying Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Andy Boyd. "I'm a huge fan of Andy's work, and when I came up with the idea of doing a play that would evoke the darkest elements of the Grimm's fairy tales, he was the first person I wanted to contact. He's come up with a concept that's really exciting, and I couldn't be happier."

Earlier this year, Broccoli took on a "One Week Season" challenge where he had to write an entire season's worth of plays in just one week. All five of the plays written that week will be getting productions during the 2015-2016 Season at different theaters both in and outside of Rhode Island. Epic will be presenting American Strippers in November, Broccoli's favorite play of the five.

"When it came time to give the five plays away, this was the one I had to keep for myself," he says, "For one thing, it fits what we're doing this season perfectly. It's about folklore, mythology, and gender roles in today's society. It also features male strippers named Pecos Bill and Davy Crockett. How could I possibly not do it?"

The play deals with a group of Greek goddesses having a bachelorette at a strip club run by American folk heroes. "It's about the collision of these two things-mythology and American legend-that are trying desperately to stay relevant in a world that has moved onto other things. In a season where we're looking at old stories and trying to view them in new ways, this fit perfectly."

January will feature a stripped-down, fast-paced production of Great Expectations with a new adaptation by Lucy King. "When I read this adaptation, I just fell in love with it. It's pure storytelling at its finest. It's just the event I was looking for to kick off a brand new year."

In February, Epic will be presenting a new version of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, adapted by Emily Parker. "Initially, I thought, Oh boy, let's not be the theater company doing Pride and Prejudice. Is there anything new to say about it? How do we do it without looking like sell-outs? But after going back to the source material, I realized how much fun we could have with it, and how much fun it could be for the audiences. This is going to be an immersive production that will give readers of the novel what they've always wanted-to jump right into the book. So much of this season is about taking work that seems distant from us and bringing it inches away from the audience, and that's exactly what we're going to do with Pride and Prejudice. We're going to celebrate everything about Jane Austen that people love, and hopefully convert a few naysayers as well."

The anchor of Epic's season will be An Italian Wife based on the best-selling novel by Ann Hood. "When I started choosing page-to-stage projects for the upcoming season, I was worried about one thing in particular-would I be spending an entire year working on plays by dead white guys? So, I contacted Ann and asked if I could adapt one of her novels. She suggested her latest work, which I proceeded to devour over two days, and then I came back to her with a pitch for it that she welcomed with open arms and lots of generosity. She's a beloved figure in Rhode Island, so I'm over the moon that we get to be the first theater company here to adapt one of her books."

From a world premiere to a classical masterpiece, Epic will take on both parts of Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great in April of 2016. "I felt that the season needed one of those major events in it-similar to when we did Angels in America. Tamburlaine is what I call a Beast of a Play. If you look up 'The Best Classical Plays Not Written by Shakespeare' it's always in the top five, but it's rarely done, because how ambitious it is. We're planning on doing a lean and mean production that will have everybody talking."

In May, Epic will usher in another world premiere with Total Strangers, a thriller about two women who meet for the first time on a train only to end up tangled in each other's lives. "It's Strangers on a Train but with women," says Broccoli, "Patricia Highsmith was the queen of nail-biting suspense, and you still see her influences everywhere in modern culture. This play pays homage to her, and also puts some new twists and turns on a classic story."

The season ends with The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, based on her novel. "Margaret Atwood is one of my favorite authors and The Penelopiad is one of my favorite books. When I heard it had been turned into a play, I knew we had to do it. By ending the season with it, we come full circle. This season ends with our all-women production of Orlando, we open the new season with an all-women production, and we'll close next year with one as well. This is going to be a year when you'll be seeing some amazing performances from some of the area's best actresses."

Auditions for Epic Theater Company's 2015 - 2016 Season will be held on Sunday, April 26th at the Artists Exchange from 5pm - 10pm. To arrange an audition time, or for questions about the season, please e-mail EpicTheatreCompanyRI@gmail.com.

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