FENCES, 1776 & More Set for Mad Cow Theatre's 20th Anniversary Season

In salute of its 20th year celebrating theatre, the word, and the actor in Orlando, Mad Cow Theatre has announced its 2016-2017 season of plays, musicals, and special events. The Mad Cow Theatre complex houses two theatres: the 165-seat Harriett Theatre and the 70-seat Zehngebot-Stonerock Theatre.

Mad Cow Theatre is located at 54 West Church St. (second floor) in downtown Orlando. Season subscription information is available at madcowtheatre.com or by calling 407.297.8788 ext. 1.

Season 20 titles and dates:

The Harriett Theatre

1776
Music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards
Book by Peter Stone
September 23 - October 23, 2016
Join John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and others as they hatch the American Dream. Mad Cow is thrilled to present 1776, a beloved Tony Award-winning musical celebrating a revolutionary moment ... but with a bold new voice: all female. Move over Founding Fathers. The Mothers have arrived!

Pygmalion
By George Bernard Shaw
November 18 - December 18, 2016
With a sly target pinned on the class system, gender stereotypes, language, and middle-class morality, George Bernard Shaw-a Mad Cow favorite-created his most popular play and gave birth to some of theatre's most beloved characters: Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. A play certain to lift your heart and challenge your assumptions, Pygmalion never ceases to entertain. A perfect holiday treat!

Picasso at the Lapin Agile
By Steve Martin
January 20 - February 19, 2017
Einstein and Picasso walk into a bar. Sounds like an opening of a classic joke... In the hands of comic-genius-turned-playwright Steve Martin it becomes so much more: an exploration of creativity, physics, and one-night stands played out in hilarious and thoughtful fashion.

Three Sisters
By Anton Chekhov
March 24 - April 16, 2017
Nostalgic yearning for lively yesteryears preoccupy Masha, Irina, and Olga as time marches on in their provincial 19th century rural Russian town-far from the Moscow of their memory. In one of the greatest masterworks of dramatic literature, Anton Chekhov paints a lyrical portrait of missed opportunities, delicate delusions, and the persistence of life despite disappointments. Mad Cow is thrilled to revisit Chekhov, a playwright whose work is foundational in the theatre's emphasis on ensemble-centered production processes.

Animal Crackers
Music and lyrics by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby
Book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind
June 2 - July 2, 2017
A nostalgic, outrageous, rollicking, laugh-out-loud Marx Brothers musical comedy. Lunacy ensues, dignities are compromised, and romance reigns in a nonstop "profusion of puns, gags, and hysteria with only an occasional pause (or maybe, gasp) for breath." -The Washington Tribune

Fences
By August Wilson
August 4 - 27, 2017
August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences centers on Troy, a middle-aged garbage man who battles crippling disappointment over his stolen ambition to be a professional baseball player. His family and his community share the weight of dreams deferred and racial inequality in a play described by The New York Post, as "one of the richest experiences I have ever had in the theatre. I wasn't just moved. I was transfixed."

The Zehngebot-Stonerock Theatre

The God Game
By Suzanne Bradbeer
October 21 - November 20, 2016
The ultimate litmus test of American politics explores the limits of loyalty, family, truth, ambition, and faith. A cliff-hanger until the very last moment, the play "feels very much of the moment, contemporary and relevant in the best ways, and yet it also addresses eternal questions."-Times-Union

TBA
February 17 - March 19, 2017

Skylight
By David Hare
June 16 - July 9, 2017
A multiple award-winning British drama, Skylight frames the reeling aftermath of an extramarital May-December romance and its subsequent ripples, affecting everyone it touched. David Hare's brilliance is evident, as the Sunday Times notes, "what is happening on the stage is both thrilling and dangerous...," and The Spectator declares Skylight, "the play of the decade."

The Amish Project
By Jessica Dickey
August 11 - September 10, 2017
A single actor. A schoolhouse shooting. Violence. Loss. Forgiveness. Redemption. In The Amish Project, playwright Jessica Dickey gathers up the anxieties of many perplexed by an unthinkable act and coveys it movingly through a single actor. The voices and emotions of those affected merge and melt into a sublime, deeply personal expression of the inexplicable.

Special Events
It Was a Very Good Yule: A Christmas Cabaret
December 8 - 23, 2016
Mad Cow's holiday cabaret returns to celebrate the season. Bring your family and friends.

The 4th annual Science Play Festival
January 27 - 29, 2017
Navigating the world of science, technology, and history through imaginative stories, the 4th annual Science Play Festival features staged readings exploring the many intersections between art and science. Each reading will be followed by a moderated talkback with the cast and experts from related scientific fields.

The 15th annual Orlando Cabaret Festival
April 28 - May 14, 2017
Featuring the best in Broadway, pop, and jazz, the 15th annual Orlando Cabaret Festival is a celebration of song and personality presented in an intimate space. A mix of national headliners and local artists present heartfelt stories through the medium of live music.