Fountain Theatre Launches 2017-18 Season for Social Action

The Fountain Theatre will open its 2017-18 season of new plays with an urgent warning against the proposed policies of the Trump administration, followed by statements on social justice, inclusion, acceptance of "the other," prejudice, the role of government and the need for human connection.

"The Fountain has always been committed to speaking out for social justice and inclusion," asserts Fountain co-artistic director Stephen Sachs. "These are disturbing and tumultuous times - for our local intimate theater community in Los Angeles and our nation. The Fountain is a place for theater to serve as a vehicle for public discourse: to express outrage, compassion and hope."

The 2017-18 season will include four world premieres - Building the Wall by Robert Schenkkan; Runaway Home by Jeremy J. Kamps; Freddie by Deborah Lawlor; and Arrival and Departure by Stephen Sachs - as well as a 50th anniversary production of The Chosen by Aaron Posner. The Fountain's 2015 production of Citizen: An American Lyric, written by Claudia Rankine and adapted for the stage by Stephen Sachs, will be presented at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of Center Theatre Group's inaugural Block Party. And, in addition to the Fountain's ongoing, monthly 'Forever Flamenco' series, the Fountain will host Flamenco Fiesta, a two-day, outdoor flamenco concert celebration.

Over the past 27 years, The Fountain Theatre has established itself as one of the most successful intimate theaters in Los Angeles, providing a creative home for multi-ethnic theater and dance artists. Fountain projects have been translated into numerous languages, produced across the U.S. and worldwide, and made into a TV movie.

The Fountain Theatre's 2017-18 season is as follows:

March 18 - May 21 (previews March 15-17):
World premiere of Building the Wall - The newest play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan (The Kentucky Cycle, All the Way), directed by award-winning Michael Michetti. It's the very near future, and the Trump administration has carried out his campaign promise to round up and detain millions of immigrants. Now, a writer interviews the supervisor of a private prison as he awaits sentencing for carrying out the federal policy that has escalated into the unimaginable. This riveting, harrowing and illuminating drama delivers a powerful warning and puts a human face on the inhuman, revealing how when personal accountability is denied, what seems inconceivable becomes inevitable.

April 30 - May 7 (previews April 28-29):
Citizen: An American Lyric - Center Theatre Group will remount the Fountain's award-winning 2015 production at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of CTG's inaugural Block Party: Celebrating Los Angeles Theatre. Written by Claudia Rankine, adapted for the stage by Stephen Sachs and directed by Shirley Jo Finney, Citizen fuses poetry, prose, movement, music and video images in a provocative meditation on everyday acts of racism in America. Actors returning from the original production include Simone Missick, who co-stars as Misty Knight on Netflix's Luke Cage.

Summer 2017:
World premiere of Runaway Home - Three years after Hurricane Katrina, the unhealed wounds of New Orleans's Lower 9th Ward continue to fester. In this powerful, funny and deeply moving mother-daughter story by Jeremy J. Kamps, 14-year-old runaway Kali embarks on a journey to pick through the wreckage of what used to be her life. Rhyming, stealing and scamming her way through the still-destroyed neighborhood, engaging the vivid, lively denizens who remain, she grapples with the real cost of what she has lost as she is forced to confront the even higher cost of moving forward and the possibility of redemption.

Aug. 18 and Aug. 19 at 8 p.m.:
Flamenco Fiesta - The Fountain will host a two-night flamenco extravaganza on an outdoor stage in its own parking lot for a sizzling juerga weekend of live music, dance, food trucks and beer under the stars.

Fall 2017:
The Chosen - The Fountain Theatre celebrates the 50th anniversary of Chaim Potok's beloved novel with the award-winning stage adaptation by Aaron Posner. A silent father, an ancient tradition and an unexpectedly important game of baseball forge bonds of lifelong friendship between two Jewish boys from "five blocks and a world apart" in this funny, poignant, timely and timeless story about recognition and acceptance of "the other." Directed by Simon Levy.

Fall 2017:
World premiere of Freddie - This hybrid dance/theater work by Fountain Theatre co-artistic director Deborah Lawlor will be presented at Los Angeles City College, inaugurating a new partnership with the LACC Theatre Academy. Set in Greenwich Village in 1964 and based on a true story, Freddie fuses theater, music, dance and video to capture the explosive spirit of a passionate artist and a turbulent era. A naïve young woman falls under the spell of Freddie Herko, a brilliant ballet dancer of extraordinary charisma and talent and a beloved luminary of Andy Warhol's Factory. Frances Loy directs.

Spring 2018:
World premiere of Arrival and Departure - Troy Kotsur and his real-life wife Deanne Bray star in a modern-day, re-imagined deaf/hearing stage adaptation by Stephen Sachs (Bakersfield Mist, Cyrano) of the classic 1945 British romantic film, Brief Encounter. A deaf man and a deaf woman, married to different people, meet accidentally in a train station. A friendship develops over time, escalating into a passionate love affair that both struggle to permit themselves to consummate. An unforgettable love story about the challenges of communication, social isolation, diversity and self-empowerment.

For more information about The Fountain Theatre's 2017-18 Season, call (323) 663-1525 or go to www.FountainTheatre.com.