Classical Theatre Company Will Present PEER GYNT

CTC has announced a partnership with the iconic DeLuxe Theater in the historic Fifth Ward. All three Mainstage productions in the 2019-2020 season will be housed in this hidden gem of a facility. After opening in 1941 as a movie theater, the DeLuxe spent decades as a landmark location for film. Then in 2015, an agreement with the City of Houston and the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation brought about major renovations to the DeLuxe, bringing it new life as a state-of-the-art performance venue, event hall, and art gallery. Classical Theatre Company is proud to have the DeLuxe Theater as its performance space for the 2019-2020 season.

Following the success of its three previous forays into the Norwegian master, Henrik Ibsen's, plays - ­2010's Ghosts and 2016's A Doll's House, and 2018's An Enemy of the People - Classical Theatre Company will again produce one of the great playwright's works: Peer Gynt. Ibsen, known for his intense early dramas, dives right into the heart of what it is to be Norwegian in this folkloric Scandinavian odyssey. To be co-directed by CTC Executive Artistic Director John Johnston and former CTC Artistic Associate Kalob Martinez, Peer Gynt will be the company's first venture into incorporating a strong presence of puppetry into a production.

"Kalob is a puppet master and he's going to bring his expertise to Peer Gynt," says Johnston. "This play has a multitude of characters - many of whom are drawn from Norwegian folklore and mythos. The central protagonist, Peer Gynt himself, is traditionally considered a personification of Norway or the Norwegian spirit himself."

This tale follows Peer Gynt as he traverses from Norway to North Africa throughout the decades of his life. The play uses powerful romantic notions while still sowing the roots of modernism for which Ibsen was to become so well known.

Directed by Executive Artistic Director John Johnston, whose other directorial work at CTC includes Shylock the Jew of Venice, Antigone, Tartuffe, One-Man Hamlet, Ghosts, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, The Cherry Orchard, A Doll's House, The Bear & The Proposal, The Barber of Seville, and An Enemy of the People.

For more information on this production or the Classical Theatre Company, or to arrange interviews with directors John Johnston or Kalob Martinez and actors participating in Peer Gynt please email Executive Artistic Director John Johnston at johnj@classicaltheatre.org.

WHO:

Classical Theatre Company

WHAT:

Peer Gynt

By Henrik Ibsen

WHERE:

DeLuxe Theater

3303 Lyons Avenue

Houston, TX 77020

WHEN:

February 12 - March 1, 2020

TICKETS:

General Admission $25, Seniors $20, Teachers/Students and Industry $10

Available online at www.classicaltheatre.org