Actors' Playhouse At The Miracle Theatre Announces Their 2010-2011 Season

How do you follow up thirteen Carbonell nominations? Actors' Playhouse has chosen to present four Tony Award-winning shows and one world premiere from a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright in its new season line up. With one more show to be announced, Actors' Playhouse 2010 - 2011 season at the Miracle Theatre is shaping up to be one hot ticket. After a critically acclaimed production of Boublil and Schönberg's Les Misérables in 2009, which received the most Carbonell nominations for any one show, and with Miss Saigon, another musical from the same creators about to open in March, Actors' Playhouse shows no indication of slowing down the pace for the upcoming year.

Having built a reputation for delivering large-scale musicals in an award-winning fashion, Actors' Playhouse has chosen a somewhat different line up for this year with three musicals and three plays, but as Theatre Critic for the Miami Herald, Christine Dolen says, " simply put, it is potentially the best in the award-winning theater's long history."

Kicking off the season will be the world premier play The Color of Desire by Miami's own Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, author of Ana In the Tropics who now shares his home between here and New York. Playing October 6, 2010 through November 7, 2010, this cutting edge work creates a world full of lyricism, set in Havana, Cuba, 1960. As the revolution heats up, a dashing American businessman hires a young Cuban actress for a role unlike any she's ever played: the woman he loved and lost. With both great humor and profound emotional resonance, this piece is reminiscent of Chekhov's "Cherry Orchard," the last moments of an island on the brink of change. A story of love, intrigue, seduction and the pursuit of freedom, graced with a vibrant and poetic exploration of the lost love affair between America and Cuba.

Follow up to the Cuban drama will be the timeless classic OLIVER! from November 17, 2010 through December 26, 2010. OLIVER! one of the most beloved musicals of all time, vividly brings to life Charles Dickens' timeless characters with its ever-popular story of the boy who asked for more. Lionel Bart's musical masterpiece is full of irresistible songs including Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You've Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I'd Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more. Winner of two Tony Awards and six Oscars, OLIVER! has played in 22 languages worldwide.

January 19, 2011 through February 13, 2011 will feature the professional regional debut of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a musical comedy that will spell W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L when it kicks off the New Year in 2011 at the Miracle Theatre. This hilarious tale of overachievers' angst chronicles the experience of six adolescent outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. The show's Tony Award-winning creative team, with music and lyrics by William Finn, book by Rachel Sheinkin, and conceived by Rebecca Feldman, has created the unlikeliest of hit musicals about the unlikeliest of heroes. Spelling Bee is a quirky yet charming cast of outsiders for whom the spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time.

Following the The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the theatre will present the most anticipated production in the new line up, August: Osage County, the challenging and critically acclaimed play by Tracy Letts. Osage County is about a father who disappears, a mother caught in the grip of addiction, a marriage unraveling, and a family approaching total meltdown. And as The New York Post says, it's all "ENORMOUSLY ENTERTAINING!" This is the kind of theatre event you will talk about for months and remember forever. This Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play electrified audiences in New York with its thrilling story and scathingly intelligent humor. Ask anyone who has seen it and they will tell you, Osage County is one of the most unforgettable evenings you will ever spend at the theatre. Every night, gasps reverberate throughout the theatre as each new bombshell is dropped in this hilarious and stinging look at an American family in crisis. August: Osage County will run from March 9, 2011 through April 10, 2011.

The last play to be presented will be Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps from May 11, 2011 through June 5, 2011. Adapted by Patrick Barlow, this play mixes a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel and adds a dash of Monty Python to give you a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, a cast of four playing over 150 zany characters, an on-stage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old-fashioned romance!

Finally, to complete the well-rounded line-up, the sixth show will be a musical, to be announced soon, and will run July 13, 2011 through August 21, 2011.

Executive Producing Director Barbara S. Stein believes "our 2010-2011 line up is a major statement of our company's goals to develop a solid regional theatre presence in South Florida. We feel we have chosen something for everyone, hoping to reach out to our entire diverse community. By working with playwright Nilo Cruz for the world premiere of The Color of Desire, and licensing the rights to one of the most interesting plays of our time, August: Osage County, we hope to recruit new theatre supporters who enjoy more dramatic theatre as well as to share in this exceptional programming with our loyal patrons."

The best way to guarantee seats to this exhilarating new season is to become a valued Actors' Playhouse subscriber. Season subscriptions for the 2010 - 2011 Season are on sale now with prices ranging from $185 for preview performances, $239 for Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday matinees, $275 for Friday and Saturday evenings, and $279 for VIP Flexible/Anytime tickets for premium seats in every performance. Opening Night Subscription, which includes invitation to a Gala party and open Bacardi Bar, are $435. Miracle Maker donor subscriptions, including two tickets to opening nights, donor acknowledgement, and two tickets to the annual 20th Annual Reach for the Stars Gala Auction 2010 are $1250. Subscriptions for children 18 years and younger with a full paid adult subscription, and college students, are $105 (restrictions apply). All prices include handling charges and fees. Group rates are available for fifteen people or more through the group sales department. Actors' Playhouse subscribers receive guaranteed best seating and pricing, lost ticket insurance, generous membership benefits to Coral Gables' finest restaurants and discounts on single tickets, among other benefits.

Actors' Playhouse, the resident theatre company and managing agent of the Miracle Theatre, has an agreement with Actor's Equity Association, the union of professional actors, New York. Under the leadership of Executive Producing Director Barbara S. Stein and Artistic Director David Arisco, Actors' Playhouse is a Florida Presenting Cultural Organization and one of twenty-one major cultural institutions in Miami Dade County. In addition to its Mainstage season, Actors' Playhouse produces a year-round five-show season of Musical Theatre for Young Audiences, a National Children's Theatre Festival, and a Theatre Conservatory and Summer Camp Program.

To become part of the Miracle as an Actors' Playhouse subscriber, call 305.444.9293 or visit www.actorsplayhouse.org.

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