Seattle Repertory Theatre News

Conor McPherson's recent Broadway hit The Seafarer comes to Seattle Repertory Theatre February 26-March 28, 2009. Set in a forgotten corner of Northern Dublin, the play centers on four old friends as they gather to face the holidays the only way they know how-with a bottle of whiskey and a deck of cards. But when a mysterious stranger arrives and wants a piece of the action, the men find themselves playing a game with devilishly high stakes. Steeped in Irish myth, the play is both darkly funny and surprisingly uplifting.

South Coast Repertory?s final NewSCRipts reading of the 2008-09 season will be The Happy Ones by Julie Marie Myatt. Directed by Oanh Nguyen and commissioned by SCR, The Happy Ones is the 108th play to receive a staged reading as part of SCR?s venerable play reading program. Myatt?s My Wandering Boy received its World Premiere production at SCR in 2007 as part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival. The NewSCRipts reading of The Happy Ones will take place on March 2 at 7:30 p.m. on the Julianne Argyros Stage. Tickets are $12 each and may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office.

Following up on its critically acclaimed inaugural production of The Adding Machine, Seattle?s newest professional theatre company will present something completely different for Valentine?s Day. NCTC?s first annual Love Fest is a concert featuring one of Seattle?s most popular, long-lost bands of the early ?90s, the ska and big band tinged Tiny Hat Orchestra.

Up-and-coming Seattle director Braden Abraham (My Name is Rachel Corrie) stages Harold Pinter's love-triangle-with-a-twist Betrayal at Seattle Repertory Theatre, February 19-March 22, 2009. In this fresh retelling of Pinter's gripping drama, a woman's illicit relationship with her husband's best friend is played out in reverse, from the end of the affair to their first encounter. Betrayal plays in Seattle Rep's intimate Leo K. Theatre. Previews begin February 19, with opening night set for February 25. Tickets are available through the Seattle Repertory Theatre box office seven days a week at (206) 443-2222, toll-free at (877) 900-9285, as well as online at www.seattlerep.org. Director Braden Abraham directed My Name is Rachel Corrie for Seattle Rep in 2007. Other recent projects include Paul Mullin's The Ten Thousand Things at Washington Ensemble Theatre and The K of D by Laura Schellhardt. His cast features Seattle-based actress Cheyenne Casebier (most recently seen as Milady in the Rep's The Three Musketeers) and New York actors Alex Podulke and David Christopher Wells (most recently seen on Broadway in Tom Stoppard's award winning trilogy The Coast of Utopia).

Following up on its critically acclaimed inaugural production of The Adding Machine, Seattle's newest professional theatre company will present something completely different for Valentine's Day. NCTC's first annual Love Fest is a concert featuring one of Seattle's most popular, long-lost bands of the early ?90s, the ska and big band tinged Tiny Hat Orchestra. During the height of the grunge era, Tiny Hat, with its five-piece horn section and infectious and sophisticated original dance music, was an iconoclastic mainstay of the Seattle scene, playing venues like the original grand openings of both the Crocodile Caf? and Moe's (now Neumos), as well as opening nights for SIFF and SAM.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) announced today that the 2009 Shakespeare in the Park summer season will begin in June with a new production of William Shakespeare?s TWELFTH NIGHT directed by Daniel Sullivan and featuring Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway as Viola. TWELFTH NIGHT will run June 9-July 12 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. In August, JoAnne Akalaitis will return to direct Euripides?s THE BACCHAE, translated by Nicholas Rudall, and featuring original music by Philip Glass. THE BACCHAE will run August 11-September 6.

The American Conservatory Theater Master of Fine Arts Program presents Maxim Gorky's Philistines in a fresh new version by Andrew Upton, the co-artistic director of Australia's Sydney Theatre Company and an acclaimed adaptor of Russian plays.

The Board of Directors of California Shakespeare Theater announced this week the appointment of Susie Falk as the company's new Managing Director

The Denver Center Theatre Company continues its climb to the top tier of American new play festivals with the expected arrival this weekend in Denver of nearly 300 theatre professionals and press representatives. Theatre professionals scheduled to attend the fourth annual Colorado New Play Summit February 12 -14 include artistic directors, literary managers, agents, members of the press, actors, dramaturgs and directors.

Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents the east coast premiere of Lydia by Octavio Solis, directed by Juliette Carrillo at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street) beginning February 6 through February 28. Opening Night is Thursday, February 12. Lydia features music composed by Chris Webb; sets by Andrew Boyce; costumes by Amanda Seymour; lighting by Jesse Belsky; sound design, additional music, and arrangements by David Molina; voice and dialect by Beth McGuire; fight direction by Rick Sordelet; dramaturgy by Matt Cornish; and stage management by Donald E. Claxon.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) is proud to announce the full cast for the upcoming New York premiere of Distracted, by Lisa Loomer, directed by Mark Brokaw. Distracted will begin previews on Saturday, February 7th and open officially on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street).

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) presents the east coast premiere of LYDIA by OCTAVIO SOLIS, directed by JULIETTE CARRILLO at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, at York Street) beginning February 6 through February 28. Opening Night is Thursday, February 12. LYDIA features music composed by Chris Webb; sets by Andrew Boyce; costumes by Amanda Seymour; lighting by Jesse Belsky; sound design, additional music, and arrangements by David Molina; voice and dialect by Beth McGuire; fight direction by Rick Sordelet; dramaturgy by Matt Cornish; and stage management by Donald E. Claxon. The cast of LYDIA includes Carlo Alb?n, Christian Barillas, Stephanie Beatriz, Armando Dur?n, Catalina Maynard, Onahoua Rodriguez, and Tony Sancho.

Theatre for a New Audience's Winter-Spring Shakespeare Season which begins with Othello (February 14 - March 7) continues with Hamlet which previews Sunday, March 15, at 7:00pm, opens Thursday, March 26, at 6:30pm and plays through April 19. Both productions play at The Duke on 42nd Street SM, a New 42nd Street? project, 229 West 42nd Street. Hamlet features Christian Camargo in the title role. The production is directed by David Esbjornson. Joining Mr. Camargo will be Alyssa Bresnahan as Gertrude, Alvin Epstein as Polonius, Graham Hamilton as Laertes, Jennifer Ikeda as Ophelia and Patrick Page as Claudius.

Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Founder & Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director) has announced its upcoming 25th anniversary season of new works offering a 3-play series celebrating female playwrights. The 2009-2010 Season will see the world premiere of A Lifetime Burning by Cusi Cram, and the New York premieres of Happy Now? by Lucinda Coxon, and Night Watcher by Charlayne Woodard at Primary Stages at59E59 Theaters (59 East 59 th Street). In a statement, Casey Childs, Founder & Executive producer, said, 'Primary Stages hasalways had a commitment to playwrights and we have been lucky to help nurture andenjoy the success of many extraordinary women writers. We are thrilled to premiere these new works by these three playwrights as a way to celebrate our 25th Anniversary.

Conor McPherson's recent Broadway hit The Seafarer comes to Seattle Repertory Theatre February 26-March 28, 2009. Set in a forgotten corner of Northern Dublin, the play centers on four old friends as they gather to face the holidays the only way they know how-with a bottle of whiskey and a deck of cards. But when a mysterious stranger arrives and wants a piece of the action, the men find themselves playing a game with devilishly high stakes. Steeped in Irish myth, the play is both darkly funny and surprisingly uplifting.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as winners for the Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theatre: The First Grade by Joel Drake Johnson; Birnham Woods by Wendy MacLeod; Right? by Dan Hoyle; and and when we awoke there was light and light by Laura Jacqmin. The selected plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 2-23, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company's fully-staged West Coast Premiere of George Packer's provocative Lucille Lortel-winning play Betrayed (January 23-March 1).

INTAR (Eduardo Machado, Artistic Director/John McCormack, Executive Director/Alina Troyano, Associate Artistic Director), which was scheduled for two engagements, winter and spring, at the now suddenly shuttered Zipper Factory Theater, has found its new home for this season at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street). Performances will begin February 15th and run through March 7th. Opening Night is set for February 18th.

Following up on its critically acclaimed inaugural production of The Adding Machine, Seattle's newest professional theatre company will present something completely different for Valentine's Day. NCTC's first annual Love Fest is a concert featuring one of Seattle's most popular, long-lost bands of the early ?90s, the ska and big band tinged Tiny Hat Orchestra. During the height of the grunge era, Tiny Hat, with its five-piece horn section and infectious and sophisticated original dance music, was an iconoclastic mainstay of the Seattle scene, playing venues like the original grand openings of both the Crocodile Caf? and Moe's (now Neumos), as well as opening nights for SIFF and SAM.

Up-and-coming Seattle director Braden Abraham (My Name is Rachel Corrie) stages Harold Pinter's love-triangle-with-a-twist Betrayal at Seattle Repertory Theatre, February 19-March 22, 2009. In this fresh retelling of Pinter's gripping drama, a woman's illicit relationship with her husband's best friend is played out in reverse, from the end of the affair to their first encounter. Betrayal plays in Seattle Rep's intimate Leo K. Theatre. Previews begin February 19, with opening night set for February 25. Tickets are available through the Seattle Repertory Theatre box office seven days a week at (206) 443-2222, toll-free at (877) 900-9285, as well as online at www.seattlerep.org. Director Braden Abraham directed My Name is Rachel Corrie for Seattle Rep in 2007. Other recent projects include Paul Mullin's The Ten Thousand Things at Washington Ensemble Theatre and The K of D by Laura Schellhardt. His cast features Seattle-based actress Cheyenne Casebier (most recently seen as Milady in the Rep's The Three Musketeers) and New York actors Alex Podulke and David Christopher Wells (most recently seen on Broadway in Tom Stoppard's award winning trilogy The Coast of Utopia).

Village Theatre is excited to announce that The Importance of Being Earnest will open in Issaquah at the Francis J. Gaudette Theatre on Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 8:00 PM. A single preview performance will take place the night before, Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 8:00 PM. The show will open in Everett at the Everett Performing Arts Center on Friday, March 6, 2009 at 8:00 PM.