ART/WNY's 2014-15 Season to Include HELLO AGAIN, THE CRUCIBLE, and More

The American Repertory Theater of WNY in the company's 8th season announces the highly entertaining 2014-15 season. Coming off a historic 2013-14 in which the company lead the Buffalo theater community with four Artie Awards for Theatrical Excellence and won its very first award for Best Musical Production, American Repertory Theater of WNY is anticipating a compelling theater season and is excited to excel with this season's lineup.

As part of the Curtain Up! celebration, ART/WNY is kicking off the season with a musical by esteemed Tony nominated and Grammy award winning writer, Michael John LaChiusa, entitled HELLO AGAIN. This saucy roundabout musical based on Arthur Schnitzler's LA RONDE weaves the lives of ten individuals meeting one another in a circular story of chance encounters throughout a 20th Century American landscape. The second show scheduled is the bewitching classic by Arthur Miller THE CRUCIBLE.

After a winter break, ART/WNY returns with Steve Martin's existential funny-bone tickler, PICASSO AT LUPIN AGUILE. The final production of the season is a showcase of talented local playwrights offering their take on the unseen side of regional history entitled RUST BELT GROTESQUE.

The 2014-15 season is just around the corner with a Curtain Up! kickoff featuring the fully produced premier of the saucy roundabout HELLO AGAIN. Directed by two-time Artie Award winning director, Jeffrey Coyle (FLOYD COLLINS; BBAJ) under music direction of Brett Ruygen, this musical adaptation based on Arthur Schnitzler's LA RONDE weaves several lives throughout ten scenes of hope, love, passion and, in one form or another, sex. First premiered at Lincoln Center Theater in 1994 at the Mitzi Newhouse, under the directorial eye of the legendary Graciela Daniele, the production featured some of Broadway leading talent including Donna Murphy, Malcolm Gets, Carolee Carmello and John Cameron Mitchell.

Describing HELLO AGAIN, LCT's musical director Ira Weitzman, in the liner notes of the original cast recording of the musical, wrote: "HELLO AGAIN uses the famous circular structure of Schnitzler's play; a series of ten dialogs leading to sexual encounters, each scene linked by a character from a previous one until the first and last characters meet at the end. Where Schnitzler focuses on the social satire of his own 1890's Vienna, HELLO AGAIN encompasses America throughout the 21st Century. Though each scene is set in a different decade, the ten characters are on a universal journey. The longing that leads to sex masks their desire for an elusive emotional connection. Through these private moments come some of more the soul-searching songs in contemporary musical theater."

This WNY debut will feature an amazing ensemble of talent opening with Steve Brachmann as The Soldier engaging under a streetlamp with The Whore, portrayed by Katy Minor, and in turn finds himself in 1944 with The Nurse, played by Carolyn Lansom. The Nurse turns to 1960 were she is hired to "care" for The College Student played by Marc Sacco. Their scene leads to a movie house meeting between The College Student and The Young Wife, voted "Most Likely to Succeed", portrayed by Candice Kogut. After becoming "morally bankrupt", The Young Wife finds herself in 1954 with The Husband, played by Thomas LaChiusa, in a beautiful yet abstract scene where the mirror reflects who she is inside. On board the Titanic in 1912 finds the Husband having champagne and chocolates with The Young Thing portrayed by Michael Wachowiak. After being seduced aboard a sinking ship, The Young Thing escapes to a discotheque in the late 70's into the arms of The Writer, played by Matthew Mooney, who sets the next scene in the making of a 1920's silent movie featuring the "overpowering will" of The Actress portrayed by Shayna Raichilson-Zadok. The Actress then finds herself in 1980 attempting to seduce The Senator played by Robert Ernie Insana. In the final scene, The Senator phones his passion into The Whore and reaches across time to embrace her as all say "hello again" in the end.

HELLO AGAIN opens on September 11th as part of Buffalo's Curtain Up! Celebration and runs to October 4th. Following up in October, ART/WNY brings Arthur Miller's classic and bewitching work, THE CRUCIBLE. Under direction of ART/WNY alumni Drew McCabe (TWILIGHT ZONE REDUX; RED CLAY; DEAD ENGLISH), THE CRUCIBLE runs October 30th through November 22ndand will also feature Thomas LaChiusa as John Proctor, Lisa Vitrano as Elizabeth Proctor, ART/WNY alumni Christopher Standart as the legendary Judge Danforth, Sara Marioles-Mitch plays the infamous Abigail Williams with her team of Wiccas including Jenny Marie McCabe (Mary Warren), Leanne Troutman (Mercy Lewis), Erica Lorenzetti (Betty Parris), Leacel Hillenbrand (Susanna Walcott) with the talented Candace M Whitfield as the legendary hoodoo guru TITUBA. Steve Brachmann takes the compelling role of Reverend Hale. The sordid bunch of land grabbers and witch hunters includes David C Mitchell (Thomas Putnam), Michael Breen (John Hathorne) Shanyna Raichilson-Zadok (Ann Putnam), Scot Kaitanowski (Reverend Samuel Parris), with the "good guys" featuring Victor Morales (Cory Giles), Virginia Brannon (Rebecca Nurse), Murray Galloway (Francis Nurse), Priscilla Young-Anker (Sarah Goode), Christopher Andreana (Cheever) and Peter Calleri (Hopkins) rounding out the cast. "Arthur Miller is perhaps one of the most important American playwrights of the mid-20th Century."

ART/WNY Artistic Director Matthew LaChiusa commenting on the production. "To have this company present one of his works, is a honor and holds a tremendous creative responsibility. We have a great cast with experienced and accomplished actors, a core of talented up-and-coming young actors, a solid director and a tremendous focus on bringing this production to our stage. With that, we are also dedicated to seeing that the work reflects the theatrical tastes of a 21st Century audience." After winter break, ART/WNY resumes the "second half" of the 2014-15 season with the existential funny bone grabber, PICASSO AT LUPIN AGILE written by America's "King Tut," Steve Martin. Set in the legendary Parisian bar "Lapin Agile", renowned painter Pablo Picasso and relative Relativity theorist Albert Einstein look at the 20th century and the placement of themselves in this century gone by.

ART/WNY alumni Tom Dooney (GREATER TUNA) will oversee a witty script described by the New York "Martin's poker-faced-and very funny-riff on the birth of the modern century", PICASSO AT THE LUPIN AGILE is slated for March 5th through March 28th, 2015. Director Tom Dooney has his own take on the piece, "From my point of view, it takes a special kind of comedy to be part of any ART/WNY season. After the success of GREATER TUNA I was glad to discover PICASSO AT LUPIN AGILE. It just tickles me but that's Steve Martin for you.The humor in both plays rely upon a parade of interesting characters and surprising developments.They are different because the laughs in PICASSO let you understand Einstein's genius and Picasso's talents.You also realize that the Parisian bar folks thought they were incredibly modern... not too different from how we think about ourselves. You will definitely have a good time at PICASSO if you've ever spent a night drinking with friends, pretending to be more philosophical than you really are, but realizing that you are thinking some pretty amazing things despite yourself. That kind of fun."

The 2014-15 season wraps up with a evening of local playwrights offering up their take on regional history in a showcase entitled RUST BELT GROTESQUE. Accomplished playwright James Marzo joins Artie nominated Justin Karcher (DEAD ENGLISH) and Artie winner Matthew LaChiusa (RED CLAY) in an evening of twists and turns of individuals and stories rooted in macabre side of Western New York's past. RUST BELT GROTESQUE is best described by playwright Justin Karcher, "The Buffalo experience is not one that can be summed up by just simply a positive or negative news story, but by the penicillin grime in the cracks of the city, by the gonorrhea gleam in the gaze of our shadow history. If our lives are grotesque, then we must embrace this grotesqueness. We're freaks and must shout out that we're freaks." Promising an evening of alternative views on the region's history, Karcher explains why. 'Like those Southern writers, we write about freaks, because we're still able to recognize what they look like...freaks haunted by false hope, chased by a history they shouldn't repeat, taunted by an unsure future... RUST BELT GROTESQUE is an exploration of Buffalo's freakish literary and historical identity." RUST BELT GROTESQUE opens April 30th and runs to May 23rd.

With a compelling mix of American theatrical works, the American Repertory Theater of WNY is rearing to kick-off the 2014-15 season. "Every season we keep building on the successful momentum of the previous one," said Matthew LaChiusa as he prepares the company for the upcoming year. "Through the hard work of all those who have worked for or continue to contribute to this company, we have been able to create company creative milestones. Most importantly is the diverse audience base ART/WNY has been able to cultivated throughout the last 7 seasons who truly appreciates the honest and integral creativity brought to our stage."

"From productions stage manager to patron, actor to production crew, designer to director, what makes this company unique is the collaborative spirit shared between all who attend an ART/WNY production."

All performances will at ART/WNY's performance space, ART in the Box, located on 16 Linwood Avenue, Buffalo NY. Showtimes are at 7:30, Thursdaythrough Saturday. For more information on the 2014-15 season, including season ticket specials, please visit www.artofwny.org or call 716 634 1102

American Repertory Theater of WNY's 2014-15 Season

HELLO AGAIN
Lyrics, Music and Book by Michael John LaChiusa
Directed by Jeffrey Coyle
September 11th to October 4th
7:30 pm

THE CRUCIBLE
By Arthur Miller
Directed by Drew McCabe
October 31st to November 22nd
7:30 pm

PICASSO AT THE
LUPIN AGILE
By Steve Martin
Directed by Tom Dooney
March 5th to March 28th
7:30 pm

RUST BELT GROTESQUE
One-Acts Written By
Justin Karcher
Matthew LaChiusa
James Marzo
April 30th-May 23rd
7:30 pm