Open Book Theatre Company Announces 2018-19 Season

Open Book Theatre Company is pleased to announce its fifth season. The award winning professional theatre will present 5 plays, including a Michigan Premiere. Two of the plays won Tony Awards for Best Play, and one of those also earned the Pulitzer.

"We focus on plays that give the audience something to think about. We love to make you laugh, sure, but we really want you to leave the theatre talking about what you saw. We want to explore what it is that connects us as human beings," explains Artistic Director Krista Schafer Ewbank.

The intimate 80 seat space is perfect for that. You're never more than four rows from the action. Being so close allows the audience to connect to the story in a much different way than in a larger space. Audience member Natalia Morris wrote on a comment card that she "love[s] that you guys capture topics that matter and we can connect with."

The theatre consistently wins raves from critics and audiences alike, and this past season received several Wilde Award nominations. The Wilde Awards are Michigan's answer to the Tony's and honor all professional theatre throughout the state. Awards will be given at a ceremony on August 27th.

"Located in a Trenton strip mall, the tiny but well-equipped black box theater continues... to deliver professional, thought-provoking and engaging shows" wrote John Monaghan of The Detroit Free Press. David Kiley, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Encore Michigan, agrees. "If you have not visited this theater in Trenton, you are missing out. The modest exterior in a retail strip center is a front for one of the most consistently good theaters in Michigan in terms of the play selections it makes and productions. Producer and artistic director Krista Schafer Ewbank has skillfully matured this company."

Individual tickets are only $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors, and $15 for students, with all tickets for each opening night gala at $30 each. Season tickets for all 5 shows offer up to a 25% discount: $100 for general admission, $85 for seniors, $65 for students, and $125 for opening nights. Tickets can be purchased online at openbooktc.com. More information can be found online or by calling 734 288-7753.

The season offers 5 shows that are sure to provoke laughter, conversation, and inspiration:

Ada and the Engine (September 7 - October 6, 2018) by Lauren Gunderson, the same playwright who wrote last year's Open Book hit Emilie. Jane Austen meets Steve Jobs in this poignant pre-tech romance heralding the computer age. As the British Industrial Revolution dawns, young Ada Byron Lovelace (daughter of the flamboyant and notorious Lord Byron) sees the boundless creative potential in the "analytic engines" of her friend and soul mate Charles Babbage, inventor of the first mechanical computer. Ada envisions a whole new world where art and information converge-a world she might not live to see. A music-laced story of love, friendship, and the edgiest dreams of the future. "This story is steam powered in many ways: society is waking up to the power of steam engines, it's a perfect intersection of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and art (turning STEM into STEAM), and the relationship between Ada and Charles Babbage is steamy," director Krista Schafer Ewbank says. "Gunderson knows how to make science accessible and inspiring to audiences while revealing the fascinating true stories behind the historical figures." MICHIGAN PREMIERE.

Doubt: A Parable (November 2 - December 1, 2018) this Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play by John Patrick Shanley is an engaging examination of the grey areas between suspicion, certainty and doubt. In this brilliant and powerful drama, Sister Aloysius, a Bronx school principal, takes matters into her own hands when she suspects the young Father Flynn of impropriety. "Many people may be familiar with the film starring Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis," says director Wendy Katz Hiller. "It was a wonderful adaptation of the play, but the theatre allows for a much more intimate setting. As viewers we are right in the scene as these characters struggle with their own doubts and beliefs."

Wonder of the World (January 11 - February 9, 2019) is a comedy by David Lindsay-Abare. and will be directed by Sarah Hawkins Moan. Nothing will prepare you for the dirty little secret Cass discovers in her husband's sweater drawer. It is so shocking that our heroine has no choice but to flee to the honeymoon capital of the world in a frantic search for the life she thinks she missed out on. It's a wild ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel of laughs as Cass embarks on a journey of self-discovery that has her crossing paths with a blithely suicidal alcoholic, a lonely tour-boat captain, a pair of bickering private detectives and a strange caper involving a gargantuan jar of peanut butter, all of which pushes her perilously close to the water's edge.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (March 15 - April 13, 2019) is based on the popular novel by Mark Haddon, and this adaptation by Simon Stephens won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play. 15-year-old Christopher has an extraordinary brain: He is exceptional at mathematics but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched, and he distrusts strangers. Now it is 7 minutes after midnight, and Christopher stands beside his neighbor's dead dog, Wellington, who has been speared with a garden fork. Finding himself under suspicion, Christopher is determined to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington, and he carefully records each fact of the crime. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a thrilling journey that upturns his world.

Fool For Love (May 17 - June 15, 2019) by Sam Shephard is an American classic, a gritty Western love story. May and Eddie have a past, ever since high school. Between an old man's tales, and the arrival of a "man" this night in a run down motel sheds a burning light on the lengths we will go to for love. Director D.B. Schroeder explains "In Fool for Love, Sam Shepard has crafted a relationship where both partners keep knocking the other off center, and the dynamics of their love become fascinating to watch."

Open Book Theatre Company

1621 West Road, Trenton, MI 48138

734 288-7753

www.openbooktc.com

Season tickets (5 shows): $100 for general admission, $85 for seniors, $65 for students, $125 for opening nights

Individual show tickets: $25 for general admission, $20 for seniors, $15 for students and $30 for opening nights.

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