Citadel Theatre's 2019/20 Season To Feature The Bard, The Beatles, And Beheadings

Today, Citadel Theatre's Artistic Director, Daryl Cloran, announced his next season of programming, which includes another exciting international partnership for the Citadel, and many Canadian, North American, and World Premieres. The 2019/20 Season will feature a new series, Highwire, which promises innovative experiences for the theatrically adventurous. And, for the first time, the Citadel will offer a summer musical. It's an ambitious, thrilling season for the Citadel!

The Citadel's summer presentation Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash, a musical inspired by the life of the legendary songwriter, will grace the Maclab stage from July 20 to August 11, 2019. Featuring a multi-talented cast, this show includes more than two dozen classic Johnny Cash songs, and promises to be a great summer night out. Tracey Flye directs this musical sensation.

The subscription season begins in September 2019, with the powerful musical The Color Purple, featuring a cast of 16 African-Canadian performers, directed by Kimberley Rampersad (choreographer for the Citadel's hit musical Matilda). Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and Academy Award-nominated film, this inspiring family saga tells the story of a woman who finds the strength to triumph over adversity. The Color Purple runs September 21 to October 13 in Shoctor Theatre.

Last season, the Citadel made international news with the incredible musical Hadestown (which opens on Broadway this March). Thanks to that success, the Citadel has built another exciting international partnership. In November 2019, Citadel audiences will get a chance to see the U.K. smash-hit musical, Six! This incredible pop musical, based on the scandalous stories of the six wives of Henry VIII, has taken London, England by storm. By arrangement with Kenny Wax, Global Musicals, George Stiles, Kevin McCollum and Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, we are proud to present the Canadian Premiere of the West End production of Six by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Six: Divorced. Beheaded. Live in Concert plays November 2 to 24 on the Shoctor Stage.

This holiday season, to celebrate our 20th consecutive year of A Christmas Carol, we are proud to present a brand-new production. Daryl Cloran directs this fantastic new adaptation by Edmonton playwright David van Belle - featuring all of the heart and humanity of Charles Dickens' novella, but with a few new twists! This beloved Edmonton holiday tradition takes place in Maclab Theatre from November 30 to December 23.

January 2020 will begin with the Canadian Premiere of Cost of Living, the winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Written by Martyna Majok, this beautiful play deftly challenges the typical perceptions of those living with disabilities through two relationships: a brilliant PhD student with cerebral palsy and his new caregiver, and a woman who has suffered a devastating accident and her ex-husband. Cost of Living, a co-production with Arts Club Theatre Company, takes place January 11 to February 2, 2020, and will be directed by Ashlie Corcoran.

Last summer, the Citadel's Artistic Director Daryl Cloran and the Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival created a Beatles-inspired version of As You Like It for Vancouver audiences. Heralded as "...one of the most joyous productions in Bard's history," by the Vancouver Sun, it was the best-selling production in the 30-year history of Bard on the Beach. Set in the 1960s and filled with 25 Beatles songs (and some pro wrestling!), this groovy, fun-filled musical plays February 15 to March 15 in Shoctor Theatre. Cloran will direct this entertaining trip back in time.

The World Premiere of Edmonton playwright Belinda Cornish's adaptation of Todd Babiak's riveting novel The Garneau Block will take place March 14 to April 5 on the Maclab stage. Cornish wrote the play as part of the Citadel's playwright development program, The Lab. It is a smart and funny adaptation of Babiak's much beloved, very Edmonton story, which will leave you questioning how well you truly know your neighbours. The Garneau Block, directed by Citadel's Associate Artistic Director Rachel Peake, is the centre-piece of our new Collider Festival: two weeks in the spring where the Citadel becomes a hotbed of new play development, including readings and workshops of new projects.

The 2019/20 Mainstage Season will have an uproarious finale with Peter Pan Goes Wrong. This is the North American Premiere of the Mischief Theatre production, featuring an all-Canadian cast. It is a hilarious look at the members of an amateur theatre group as they try their best to present their production of the J.M. Barrie classic Peter Pan, while everything goes horribly and hilariously wrong. Peter Pan Goes Wrong, written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, is a co-production with Arts Club Theatre Company and runs April 11 to May 3 in Shoctor Theatre. Presented by arrangement with Mischief Worldwide, this production was originally presented in the West End of London by Kenny Wax and Stage Presence.

Our new series, Highwire, includes three exciting, innovative productions, starting with the interactive Fight Night from Belgium's Ontroerend Goed, The Border Project, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Richard Jordan Productions, and Vooruit - five performers, five rounds, your vote, one survivor - playing October 17 to 27, 2019. Alexander Devriendt directs this innovative play in the Maclab Theatre. The internationally acclaimed drama, Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan MacMillan with Johnny Donahoe, starring Edmonton's own John Ullyatt, runs February 1 to 23, 2020, in the Rice Theatre. It will be directed by Edmonton's Dave Horak. After the Fire, a darkly comic investigation of the aftermath of the Fort McMurray wildfire by playwright Matthew Mackenzie, runs April 18 to May 10 in the Rice Theatre. The show, directed by Brendan McMurtry-Howlett, is presented in association with Edmonton's Punctuate Theatre and Alberta Aboriginal Arts.