Imprint Theatreworks Announces 2019 Season, Including Dave Malloy's GHOST QUARTET and More

It's IMPRINT's highly-anticipated second season, and it's even bigger and more daring than the first.

Inspired by events both local and nationally, the company offers a second season that focuses on women taking charge of their own destinies. MERCURY RISING will open with a contemporary classic comedy that dives deep into the perception of women and embracing sexuality. After that, an immersive song-cycle will take us through a warped and non-linear tale of two sisters and the meaning of forgiveness. Following, we will take a trip to the Bluegrass state for a quirky and powerful comedy that questions family, religion, and identity. Three local playwrights will then have their works fully mounted as world premieres alongside emerging directors. Lastly, we will journey to the past for an explosive and bloody hard rock musical about a woman who was pushed too far.

"Our Second Season gives the microphone to women and it demands we are heard.

It speaks bold stories of self-discovery and awakening. It weeps when we wrong our loved ones. It laughs as we are forced to turn the mirror on ourselves. It screams when it's pushed too far. It has a voice that is loud and clear and that voice is saying: you are your own before you are anyone else's.

We are doing more productions, bigger shows, and offering even more opportunities than in 2018, with the same sharp focus and engaging content audiences came to know in Season One.

Things are heating up. The Mercury is Rising. Are you ready?"

- Ashley H. White, Co-Artistic Director

"Our First Season is almost complete. A season that was built upon IMPRINT's mission of artistic innovation and collaboration. It was a season of dreamers and warriors. Women and men longing for what they loved and the life they so fiercely felt they deserved.

We took a journey with our audiences around the globe and time through re-imagined classics by acclaimed masters, regional premieres by well-known artists and new works by local playwrights.

We strove to tell stories that ignited dialogue about our place in history, where we stood today and then how we will play a role in the future. We believe 2019 will continue that journey, with our provocative and bold second season, MERCURY RISING.

The embers have been lit. The fire is about to burn bright."

- Joe Messina, Co-Artistic Director

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IMPRINT Theatreworks' 2019 Season: Mercury Rising

IN THE NEXT ROOM (or The Vibrator Play) by Sarah Ruhl | January 11-26, 2019

A comedy about intimacy, awakening, and most importantly...equality. Set in the 1880s at the dawn of the age of electricity and based on the bizarre historical fact that doctors used "devices" to treat women for imagined hysteria. The play centers on a doctor and his wife and how his new therapy affects their entire household. Don't miss this entertaining work of self-discovery which shows that human connection is not simply a means to an end, but a vital part of life itself. This modern masterpiece was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Directed by Marianne Galloway, Bath House Cultural Center

2nd Annual First Impressions Festival for Local Playwrights | February 20-23, 2019

Local Playwrights will return to IMPRINT next year! Over one week in February, they will have their works read and enjoyed by audiences, directors, and producers alike. The festival will also feature panels, talk-back sessions, cocktail hours, and networking opportunities geared toward providing awareness, opportunities, and support for those playwrights we have right here at home. We will begin accepting submissions this fall.

At the Bath House Cultural Center

GHOST QUARTET a musical song cycle written and composed by Dave Malloy | May 24 - June 8, 2019

From the creator of the recent Broadway musical sensation, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 comes a fully-immersive song cycle about love, death, and whiskey. Four friends drink and tell interwoven narratives spanning seven centuries, following Rose Read and Pearl White, who repeatedly cross paths, sometimes as strangers, sometimes as sisters, sometimes as lovers, sometimes as mother and daughter, in an experience that questions love and defines forgiveness and regret. Audiences will be thrust into the multi-dimensional stories and unique melodies in this immersive setting where the actors play dozens of characters and instruments, and nothing is as it seems. A true piece of originality that should not be missed. Regional Premiere.

Directed by Ashley H. White; Musical Direction by Adam C. Wright, Bath House Cultural Center

KENTUCKY by Leah Nanako Winkler | August 2 - August 17, 2019

A biting comedy from a distinctive, new voice in theatre, Leah Nanako Winkler, recipient of the 2018 Yale Prize for Drama. Hiro is an Asian-American, self-made woman making it in New York. She is also estranged from her dysfunctional family in Kentucky. When her little sister, a born-again Christian, decides to marry at twenty-two, Hiro takes it upon herself to do whatever she can to stop the wedding and salvage any shred of hope she had for her sister's future. The themes of identity, religion and love collide in this coming-of-age story with a kick, complete with a chorus, and a talking cat. Regional Premiere.

Directed by Joe Messina; Assistant Direction by Christopher Lew, Location TBA

First Impressions Mainstage Showcase | September 13 - 27, 2019

Our mission to showcase local playwrights takes big step forward in our second season with Three Fully-Produced World Premieres by Local Playwrights! Three plays from the 2018 & 2019 First Impressions Festivals will be chosen to be mounted as full productions, with workshopping and development opportunities in between. In addition, we are launching our new Director Development Program, providing three new directors with opportunities to network with and be mentored by established Dallas Directors from various theatres (full list TBA), shadow rehearsals, workshop their chosen scripts, and ultimately direct their Dallas Debuts with each of these world premieres. Providing opportunity and exposure to these great local artists and new works furthers our mission and support for local playwrights and artists, while enhancing and engaging the community.

Directors, Application Details, and Location TBA

LIZZIE by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Tim Maner, and Alan Stevens Hewitt | October 25 - November 9, 2018 "Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, gave her father forty-one." This is the nursery rhyme that described the unspeakable crime that took the nation by storm when Lizzie Borden murdered her parents with an axe in 1892. Or did she? LIZZIE is a musical that reimagines that bloody legend with four women fronting a rock band and set to a blistering score with rage, sex, betrayal, and bloody, bloody murder. Regional Premiere.

Directed by Ashley H. White; Musical Direction by Rebecca Lowrey, Location TBA

Auditions will be held per show, and dates will be announced soon. Tickets will be available through IMPRINT theatreworks' website, www.imprinttheatreworks.org. Tickets for mainstage shows will be $25, and Season Passes, set at $90, are on sale now.

 

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