Whistler in the Dark Theatre Announces 2013-14 Season: AFTER-DINNER JOKE, FAR AWAY & More!

Whistler in the Dark Theatre is pleased to announce a season-long celebration of Caryl Churchill in honor of the playwright's 75th birthday. The series, which kicks off in November with The After-Dinner Joke, and culminates in April with Far Away, will include readings, panel discussions and a special series of radio plays.

With a body of work that spans more than 55 years and includes 45 plays for theatre, television and radio, Ms. Churchill is widely regarded as one of the most influential living playwrights. Previous Whistler productions of her work include Fen, A Number and Vinegar Tom, as well as a staged reading of Mad Forest.

"The more time we spend in the worlds Ms. Churchill has created the more we grow to love them," says Artistic Director Meg Taintor. "This season is an opportunity for us - and for our audiences - to spend a concentrated time exploring how those worlds impact us."

The After-Dinner Joke, a 1978 teleplay about the business of charity and the absence of charity in business, is a madcap romp with a loving nod to the style of Monty Python. Whistler's production, running from November 3-24th, will feature only 5 actors playing more than 60 characters in over 50 locations, all in the intimate space of the Charlestown Working Theater.

From April 3-20th, Whistler will mount Far Away, a dystopian fable written in 2000 about a society similar to our own that has turned so far against itself that even the natural world has taken up arms and declared sides. Between these two bookend productions, the Whistlers will also be creating and releasing four of Churchill's lesser-known radio dramas, which will be available as podcasts from the company.

Whistler continues its Pay What You Want ticketing structure - where every ticket to every show is waiting for an audience member to name their price. The PWYW ticketing program launched during the 2012-2013 proved to be highly successful both for the company and for the audience, and will continue to be a way for the Whistlers to remove the barrier of price between audience members and the work.

This season also marks the launch of the Charlestown Working Theater's Resident Lab. The Lab, led by the Charlestown Working Theater, Theatre on Fire and Whistler in the Dark, is a new collaborative initiative that creates opportunities for trainings, readings, open rehearsals, and more. Through a focused intentional diversity of programming, both on the stage and in supplement to the presented work, the three companies will work together to foster an engaged community of artists and audiences.

"The Resident Lab is an organic step in the evolution of the partnership of CWT, ToF, and Whistler. We plan to put artistic research and creative community building at the forefront of this initiative, involving process sharing and collaboration with artists and audiences" says Jennifer Johnson, Co-Director of the Charlestown Working Theater.

"It's a season of growth and collaboration for us," notes Taintor, "a time for us to take the relationships we already have - with artists, with audiences, with other companies and with Ms. Churchill's work - and to deepen and enrich them."

Additional programming for this season-long celebration will be announced at a later date.

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