Northwestern Theater Presents THE GRAPES OF WRATH and More in May Lineup

May is a busy month for theater on Northwestern University's Evanston campus, and there is something for every audience imaginable: Old, young and in between.

In addition to the final performances of Frank Galati's stage adaptation of John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," which runs through May 3 at the Ethel M. Barber Theater, Northwestern's Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts will launch three new productions and screen two others.

Sarah Ruhl's "In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play," May 15-24 at the Josephine Louis Theatre, is an adult comedy set in Victorian times about relationships, intimacy and personal connections.

"The Reluctant Dragon," May 8-24, an Imagine U family production, at the Hal and Martha Hyer Wallis Theater, is a children's tale about a peaceful and poetry-loving dragon.

The 2015 Waa-Mu Show, "GOLD," May 1-10, directed by Joseph Jefferson Award-winning director David H. Bell, pays tribute to the ambitious athletes who participated in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. A Northwestern tradition, it is the University's 84th annual production.

In addition, the Wirtz Center's Stage on Screen series will continue with a May 5 National Theatre Live broadcast of Tom Stoppard's hit London play, "The Hard Problem," and a May 26 broadcast of the Stratford Festival's staging of Shakespeare's "King John."

The Wirtz Center's 2014-15 season productions will be held, as noted, in venues on the University's Evanston campus.

For more information, phone 847-491-4819, visit the Wirtz Center website at www.wirtz.northwestern.edu or email wirtz@northwestern.edu.

Single tickets for the following Mainstage productions are on sale now. Where applicable, ticket discounts are available for groups of eight or more. Subscriptions and single tickets can be purchased by phone through the Wirtz Center Box Office at 847-491-7282 or online at wirtz.northwestern.edu.

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