A.R.T. Adds PIRATES OF PENZANCE to Season

American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), in association with the Loeb Drama Center, is pleased to announce that the runaway hit of the 2012 Emerging America Festival, Pirates of Penzance, has been added to close the 2012-13 Season. Performances begin on May 10, 2013 and run through June 2, 2013.

The Hypocrites, known for their insightful illuminations of classic and obscure theater texts, will bring Pirates of Penzanceback to Cambridge to complete the A.R.T.’s 2012/13 Season. Irreverent and hilarious, the eighty-minute excursion features bathing beauties, philosophizing pirates, and remarkably short shorts. Audiences of all ages will be invited to sing along with the banjo picking Mabel and the instrument-laden cast.

Founded in 1997 by Artistic Director Sean Graney,The Hypocrites are recognized as a groundbreaking company and mainstay of theater in the city of Chicago. The company has grown significantly in the past few years, receiving national acclaim for The Threepenny Opera at the Garage Space at Steppenwolf, The Hairy Apeproduced in association with Goodman Theatre as part of its O’Neill Festival, Oedipusat The Building Stage, Cabaretpresented at the DCA Storefront, and No Exitat the Athenaeum. The company’s smash-hit production of Our Town, directed by David Cromer, transferred in 2009 to Off-Broadway and has subsequently toured the US. They are currently working on a new production of The Mikado.

Sean Graney has directed over 30 productions for The Hypocrites since he founded the company. He was a participant in the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors. He has won two Joseph Jefferson Citation Awards for the direction of Equus and Machinal. He has directed Edward II (Chicago Shakespeare), The Hairy Ape (Eugene O’Neill Festival at Goodman Theatre), The Comedy of Errors,The Mystery of IRMA VEP and What the Butler Saw (Court Theatre),The Complete Works of William Shakespeare(abridged) and Yankee Tavern (Milwaukee Rep), The Elephant Man (Steppenwolf for Young Audiences), and The Hundred Dresses,Hana’s Suitcase and Honus and Me (Chicago Children’s Theatre). He also has adapted several plays, most recently Sophocles: Seven Sicknesses, an adaptation of all seven surviving texts of Sophocles.

Tickets are available through subscriptions and to current subscribers and members. Single tickets, starting at $25, will be available at a later date.

The Loeb Drama Center, located at 64 Brattle Street, Harvard Square, Cambridge, is accessible to persons with special needs and to those requiring wheelchair seating or first-floor restrooms. Deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons can alsoreach the theater by calling the toll-free N.E. Telephone Relay Center at 1-800-439-2370.

For further information call 617-547-8300 or visit http://www.americanrepertorytheater.org