OLIVES AND BLOOD, CLOUD 9 and More Set for CRT's 2014-15 Season

The Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) announces its 2014-15 Season, filled with classic comedies and challenging, engaging new work. The 2014-15 Season is full of characters in search of their identity. Their journeys explore the dramatic moments and decisions that allow for self-discovery. For detailed information and tickets call the box office at 860-486-2113 or visit www.crt.uconn.edu.

"There is a point in life when each of us must give up the luxury of being 'nobody', if only for a moment, to become 'somebody' -no matter how dreary, exciting or frightening. These self-defining moments - some comic and some tragic - are the subject of the plays we are offering in the 2014-15 season," said Artistic Director Vincent J. Cardinal.

The 2014-15 season begins with a fascinating new play, Olives and Blood, by UConn Professor Michael Bradford. It investigates Spain's search for national identity following the Spanish Civil War through one man, Juan Luis Trescante Medina. He has defined himself as the heroic executioner of the playwright Federico Garcia Lorca. Now, late in life, he faces a trial by memory for a 60-year-old killing, an event whose truth may define him as a champion or silence him as a coward. Gary English directs this informative and compelling play.

Caryl Churchill's Cloud 9, directed by Cardinal, is a wild, erotic, gender-bending story that crosses oceans and centuries as Betty journeys to embrace her identity while managing her off-kilter family. It's a hilarious, obscene romp populated with unforgettable characters, situational foolishness, and sight gags that leave room for a bittersweet conclusion of love and acceptance.

CRT is thrilled to welcome back the talented team of director Paul Mullins (I'm Connecticut, Much Ado About Nothing) and choreographer Gerry McIntyre (Legally Blonde and the 2013 CT Critics Circle Award winner for Best Choreography for Hairspray) to stage The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. This award winning musical comedy from William Finn, Rachel Sheinkin and Rebecca Feldman is a joyously embellished tale of the public school system in a head-on collision with brainy puberty and self-discovery through the amped up competition of a spelling bee. This heartwarming and clever show promises to bring hearty laughter to the holiday season.

Aristophanes' ribald comedy Lysistrata will invade CRT's Nafe Katter Theatre to warm the evenings with hilarity during the cold nights of February and March. The play's heroine, Lysistrata, rallies the women of Athens, Sparta and Corinth to discover their power to end the Peloponnesian War with great comic consequences and startlingly current commentary.

The world premiere of Band of the Black Hand comes to the Studio Theatre stage guided by the deft hands of Split Knuckle Theatre's Artistic Director Greg Webster and Puppet Arts Professor Bart. P. Roccoberton. This noir style journey of one man's search for justice will combine movement theatre, modern Indonesian shadow puppetry and jazz music to create a sensual, dark and mysterious world. The production will be featured in the summer of 2015 at the National Conference of the Puppeteers of America.

The final offering for the season is Associate Artistic Director Dale AJ Rose's staging of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. This magical comedy, set in Victorian times, ends the yearlong search for self, as we follow four young lovers into the fairy forest to discover their hearts' true desires.

Current CRT subscribers have been sent a subscription renewal form. New subscriptions are on sale now. Single tickets go on sale August 1. Please call 860-486-2113 for information on subscribing and general ticket information. The CRT Box Office is located at the Nafe Katter Theatre, 820 Bolton Road, on the Storrs campus. The Box Office is open Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. Performances are usually Wednesdays through Sundays. Wed. & Thu. evening performances start at 7:30 p.m., Fri. and Sat. evening performances start at 8 p.m., Sat. and Sun. matinee performances start at 2 p.m. Ticket prices range from $7 to $36, and subscribers receive a discount of up to 24 percent off regular ticket prices.

All plays, dates and times are subject to change.

THE MAIN STAGE SERIES

Olives and Blood
October 2 - October 12, 2014
By Michael Bradford
Nafe Katter Theatre
Directed by Gary English

It is said in Spain that the dead are more alive than the day they were born. So it is for the presumed murderer of Federico Garcia Lorca, Juan Luis Trescante Medina. 60 years after Lorca's unsolved death, the aging fascist, Trescante, fights to hold onto the myth of an execution that has defined his life but failed to silence the great poet. In Spain, sixty years is little more than a breath, and a reckoning is all but inevitable. Directed by Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, Gary M. English, this new play by UConn Associate Professor Michael Bradford investigates the repression of the artist in times of political upheaval, and the power of a poetic voice that resonates beyond the confines of the flesh.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
November 20- December 7, 2014
Music and Lyrics by William Finn, Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre
Directed by Paul Mullins, Choreography by Gerry McIntyre

It is the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - and six quirky adolescents are competing for the title of champion. A witty, clever and sophisticated story provides an incredibly nuanced and sensitive look at the oddity of competition that is a spelling bee. The Tony Award winner for Best Book, Spelling Bee is a heartwarming, yet eccentric look at the emotional impact of competition. We're sure that this hilarious musical will cast its spell on Y-O-U.

Lysistrata
February 26 - March 8, 2015
By Aristophanes
Nafe Katter Theatre

This past decade of almost continuous warfare in the Middle East has left an indelible mark on American theatre by challenging us to examine war in its complexity and consequences through the re-examination of the Ancient Greek war plays. Sitting slyly among the war tragedies is Aristophanes' outrageous war comedy, Lysistrata. One woman's crusade to end the Peloponnesian War leads to the women of Greece withholding sex from their husbands and lovers to force a peace accord. As the siege takes hold, soldiers will beat their swords into...well, you know. This raucous, bawdy happy idea of a play by the "father of comedy" calls us to seriously consider war through no-holds-barred laughter.

A Midsummer Night's Dream
April 23 - May 3, 2015
By William Shakespeare
Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre
Directed by Dale AJ Rose

The season ends with William Shakespeare's most popular comedy, an imaginative and fantastic romp about love and its many complications. As the Duke of Athens prepares to wed his Amazonian queen, four lovers flee from their overbearing parents into an enchanted forest, where they become unknowingly embroiled in the battle between high-spirited sprites Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the faeries. The delightfully, madcap antics of Shakespeare's cast of characters provides a magical exploration of love, lust and marriage and illustrates just how other worldly love can be.

THE STUDIO WORKS SERIES

Cloud 9
October 23 - November 2, 2014
By Caryl Churchill
Studio Theatre
Directed by Vincent J. Cardinal

This past decade of almost continuous warfare in the Middle East has left an indelible mark on American theatre by challenging us to examine war in its complexity and consequences through the re-examination of the Ancient Greek war plays. Sitting slyly among the war tragedies is Aristophanes' outrageous war comedy, Lysistrata. One woman's crusade to end the Peloponnesian War leads to the women of Greece withholding sex from their husbands and lovers to force a peace accord. As the siege takes hold, soldiers will beat their swords into...well, you know. This raucous, bawdy happy idea of a play by the "father of comedy" calls us to seriously consider war through no-holds-barred laughter.

Band of the Black Hand
March 26- April 5, 2015
By Split Knuckle Theatre
Studio Theatre
Guided by Greg Webster and Bart. P. Roccoberton

Private Dick Jack Stone is hired to solve the savage murder of a young dock worker Charlie De Wit. There's a brutal gang war on in Capital City and the Band of the Black Hand is taking over from the Streets to the Mayor's office. As Stone journeys into the depths of Capital City, he begins to feel the clutch of the Black Hand. Join Split Knuckle Theatre and the Connecticut Repertory Theatre for this joint production exploring the sensual, dark, and mysterious world of Film Noir, in a show that incorporates modern Indonesian shadow puppetry and jazz music.

Connecticut Repertory Theatre - CRT is the professional producing arm of the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. CRT productions are directed, designed by and cast with visiting professional artists, including Equity actors, faculty members, and the department's most advanced student artists. The synergy between professional and advanced student artists creates extraordinary theatre and a unique learning environment.