Wirtz Center Announces 2019-2020 'Love and Power' Mainstage Subscription Season

A wife on death row, a Harvard Law School student, an all-powerful ruler and an impoverished orphan are among the characters navigating the intersections of love and power in Northwestern University's Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts' 2019-2020 mainstage season.

Musicals include "Fun Home," winner of the 2017 Tony Award for Best Musical, Nov. 8 to 24 and the Laurence Olivier Award-winner "Legally Blonde: The Musical" Feb. 14 to March 1, 2020.

Mainstage plays include an electrifying update of the 1928 play "Machinal" Oct. 25 to Nov. 10, Shakespeare's tragedy "Julius Caesar" Jan. 31 to Feb. 9, 2020, the Peter Pan-inspired "Peter and the Starcatcher" April 24 to May 3, 2020, and "Peerless," Jiehae Park's edgy look at college admissions ambition gone too far.

Subscriptions are on sale now on the Wirtz Center website. Single tickets will be available online beginning Aug. 1. Please note the box office will be closed Aug. 17 to Sept. 2 for the summer break.

Wirtz Center's new Managing Director Al Heartley's first season of plays and musicals have been programmed around the theme "Love and Power."

"Providing a wide range of offerings for our students and audiences was a top priority in curating the season," Heartley said. "Each of these stories, along with our annual partnerships with The Waa Mu Show and the department of dance, will make for a dynamic season.

"Each show asks in its own way: How do love and power intersect with one another? Are they mutually exclusive? When does one overcome the other? These interrogations will guide our conversations as we explore each production as a community."

All shows will be presented on Northwestern's Evanston campus.

The Wirtz Center also presents "Danceworks 2020" under the artistic direction of Joel Valentín-Martinez, March 4 to 8, 2020, in the Josephine Louis Theater, and the 89th annual Waa-Mu Show, May 1 to 10, 2020, in Cahn Auditorium. These annual productions can be added on to the mainstage series subscriptions.

Six-play subscription prices range from $56 to $148. Flex Passes are also available for $115, which include six admissions to any mainstage or 2019 - 2020 Stage on Screen film event.

Single tickets are available online beginning Aug. 1 on the Wirtz Center website, and in person Sept. 24 at the box office and by phone at 847-491-7282.

The Wirtz Center Box Office is located in the lobby of the Ethel M. Barber Theater, 30 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston. Box Office hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays.

The Wirtz Center is a member of the Northwestern Arts Circle, which brings together film, humanities, literary arts, music, theater, dance and visual arts.

Photo Credit: Justin Barbin

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