Great Lakes Theater to Launch 2015-16 Season with THE SECRET GARDEN & KING LEAR

Great Lakes Theater (GLT) will commence its 2015-16 season at the Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square with a Fall Repertory that features a Tony Award-winning musical for the whole family, The Secret Garden and a towering Shakespearean tragedy, King Lear. The productions will be performed in rotating repertory September 25 - November 1, 2015. Victoria Bussert will direct The Secret Garden. Joseph Hanreddy will direct King Lear. (The Secret Garden is presented through special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.)

Generous support for The Secret Garden was provided by the Kulas Foundation. The production is part of the Kulas Musical Theater Series at Great Lakes Theater. GLT's production of King Lear is part of Shakespeare in American Communities, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. Great Lakes Theater is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. Season support is also provided by The Cleveland Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council. Media sponsors for GLT's 54th season are The FORM Group, Ideastream (WCLV 104.9 FM and WCPN 90.3 FM) and WKSU 89.7 FM.

"Our fall repertory season is a study in contrasts, in which the natural environment plays a central role both metaphorically and literally," said Charles Fee, GLT's Producing Artistic Director. "Nature's healing powers in The Secret Garden, and destructive powers in King Lear, constantly underscore the action of these two plays; just as the tragedy of an aging king's disintegration, descent into madness and death are contrasted by a child's experience of awakening, healing, and growth in The Secret Garden. Setting the plays against each other in 'rep' creates an exceptionally profound experience of the human condition. Seeing the acting company move effortlessly between these productions, under the brilliant direction of Victoria Bussert and Joe Hanreddy, is a reminder of the incredible talent that has become the hallmark of Great Lakes Theater."

The Fall Repertory begins with a Tony Award-winning musical for the whole family, The Secret Garden. An enchanting adaptation of a classic children's novel, this acclaimed musical will inspire "the child" within audience members of all ages. After being orphaned in India, 10 year-old Mary is returned to England to live with her melancholy uncle at his neglected estate. Haunted by the ghosts of her past and the secrets of her uncle, she innocently unlocks the forgotten gate to an untended garden on the estate grounds. From its soil, fertile with memory and "magic," springs hope and healing for them both.

A towering Shakespearean tragedy, Great Lakes Theater's production of King Lear completes the classic theater company's Fall Repertory pairing. A classic tale of love, loss and legacy, King Lear's royal epic reigns supreme. When an aging monarch resolves to retire and divide his kingdom among three daughters, his sense of reason is suddenly shattered by the surprising emotional storm that ensues. Stoked by fierce winds of treachery, the tragic tempest plunges both king and kingdom into chaos. As his life hangs in the balance, a once proud monarch is forced to wrestle with morality as he confronts his own mortality.

Great Lakes Theater's award-winning home at the Hanna Theatre features a visionary "Great Room" inspired design that integrates the artist and audience experience into a single unified environment. Hanna patrons select from a variety of seating opportunities including traditional theater seats, club chairs, lounge/bar seats, banquette couches and private box seating. Arranged in an intimate 550-seat thrust configuration where the audience surrounds the stage, no seat is further than 12 rows from the performance.

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