San Jose Stage Announces 2018/19 Season

San Jose Stage Artistic Director Randall King announced the company's 36th Season line up. "Looking toward our 36th Season we will continue our mission of producing powerful, provocative, and profound work that illuminates the human condition. We are excited to bring you an explosively charged season with award-winning works by theatre's most masterful playwrights - Martin McDonagh, Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Tennessee Williams - including two Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas, an Obie Award-winning satirical comedy and a newly commissioned world premiere by Luis Valdez."

The Stage kicks off Season 36 with the Obie-winning play 'The Lieutenant of Inishmore' by acclaimed playwright Martin McDonagh; screenwriter, director, and producer of this year's Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture - 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri'. Opening in September 'Lieutenant of Inishmore' is a darkly comedic tale of the extent one Irish Liberation Officer will go to find justice for his feline companion that will have audiences on the edge of their seat simultaneously in shock and laughter. 'Lieutenant of Inishmore' marks The Stage's 5th work by Martin McDonagh previously producing the Leenane Trilogy 'The Beauty Queen of Leenane' (2001), 'A Skull in Connemara' (2002), 'The Lonesome West' (2004) and 'The Pillowman' (2009).

Followed by Stephen Adly Guirgis' Pulitzer Prize-winning 'Between Riverside and Crazy' featuring renowned actor L. Peter Callender, Artistic Director of San Francisco's African- American Shakespeare Company. This explosively gritty comedy, seemingly pulled directly from today's headlines, boldly examines the effects of social injustice.

The centerpiece of The Stage's "Explosively Charged" Season 36 is the revered American Classic by one of the country's most celebrated playwrights, Tennessee Williams. 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' is a fiery collision of generations, mendacity, sexuality, and the ties that bind. This Pulitzer Prize-winning play takes us on a steamy jaunt -- filled with rich southern humor -- through bourbon-soaked lies on a search for the truth.

In what has become one of the most anticipated productions of the year, Season 36 will conclude with a hot new summer musical soon to be announced.

Season tickets are available from $135 - $245, offering savings of up to 30% over single tickets, flexible exchanges, and many more benefits. For more information, call the box office at 408.283.7142 or order online www.thestage.org. Ticket discounts are available for students, seniors and groups.

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2018-19 Season

Martin McDonagh's Obie Winning Satirical Comedy

The Lieutenant of Inishmore

Directed by Joshua Marx

September 26 - October 21, 2018

Opening Night: Saturday, September 29

DARKLY COMEDIC TALE OF REVENGE

McDonagh's edge of your seat satirical comedy jabs at the absurdity of terrorist mentality. Set in 1993 the play follows "Mad Padraic", an Irish Liberation Officer whose methods test the limits of violence within the organization, and his quest for revenge. After receiving threatening news regarding his beloved cat 'Wee Thomas' he immediately returns to his home on the Island of Inishmore. Fueled by passion, he loves his cat more than life itself and someone is going to pay, Padraic sets out on a mission to avenge 'Wee Thomas' by any means necessary. This darkly comedic tale will have audiences captivated simultaneously in shock and laughter.

"I suppose I walk that line between comedy and cruelty because I think one illuminates the other. We're all cruel, aren't we? We are all extreme in one way or another at times and that's what drama, since the Greeks, has dealt with." -- Martin McDonagh

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Stephen Adly Guirgis' Pulitzer Prize-winning Drama

Between Riverside and Crazy

Directed by Jeffrey Lo

November 21 - December 16, 2018

Opening Night: Saturday, November 24

BLISTERING EXAMINATION OF INJUSTICE

Stephen Adly Guirgis' gritty comedic drama boldly examines, with worldly wit, the effects of social injustice. Ex-cop and recent widower Walter "Pops" Washington and his newly paroled son Junior have spent a lifetime living between Riverside and crazy. But now, the NYPD is demanding his signature to close an outstanding lawsuit, the landlord wants him out, the liquor store is closed-and the church won't leave him alone. When his struggle to keep one of New York City's last great rent-stabilized apartments collides with old wounds, sketchy houseguests, and a final ultimatum, it seems that forgiveness is the only path to redemption.

"The best play in the world is not going to make peace. But it's going to create a community to perform it, and it's going to be performed for a community, and when those communities are spicy, when there's different ingredients in the pot, that to me is the most beautiful thing." --Stephen Adly Guirgis

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Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning Masterpiece

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Directed by Lee Sankowich

February 6 - March 3, 2019

Opening Night: Saturday, February 9

SIZZLING COLLISION OF TRUTH AND MENDACITY

Tennessee Williams' masterpiece sizzles in this hot tale of the ties that bind. On a steamy night on the Mississippi Delta the Pollitt Plantation swarms with angst as the family gathers to celebrate the 65th birthday of their hot-tempered patriarch, Big Daddy. The heat begins to rise as the Southern family is thrust into crisis when Big Daddy announces he must choose one of his sons to inherit his estate. As Brick, his favorite favorite son, and his wife Maggie struggle to guard their demons the rest of the family claws at any opportunity to topple their dynasty. With the future of the family in peril-- accusations swirl, ulterior motives are exposed and mendacity reigns.

"When I write I don't aim to shock people, and I'm surprised when I do. But I don't think that anything that occurs in life should be omitted from art, though the artist should present it in a fashion that is artistic and not ugly. I set out to tell the truth. And sometimes the truth is shocking." -- Tennessee Williams

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Luis Valdez's World Premiere

In partnership with El Teatro Campesino

Adios Mama Carlota

Commissioned through support from

The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation

and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Theatre Commissioning Award

Directed by Kinan Valdez

April 3 - 28, 2019

Opening Night: Saturday, April 6

ENDURING TALE OF LOVE AND COUNTRY

Narrated by Empress Carlota in her private chamber in Bouchout Castle, Belgium, 1927, 60 years have passed since the death of her beloved Maximillian before a firing squad in Mexico. Revisiting the rise and fall of Emperor Maximilian in Mexico invoking her role as Empress, she's haunted by her memories, holding royal court entertaining several distinguished ghosts, including; Maximilian, Napoleon III, Benito Juarez and Abraham Lincoln. Carlota questions her survival: WHY has she lived so long without a husband, children, or relatives that no trace of her world remains? Carlota's real dilemma pivots on her guilt and self-doubt on her abandonment of Maximilian and their unfinished love story.

"It's absolutely essential for every generation to capture that social responsibility. Injustice grows like weeds. The injustices of the world are like weeds, and if you do nothing they'll choke your whole garden, man." -- Luis Valdez

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Soon to be Announced

Hot New Summer Musical

From May 29, 2019

Opening Night: Saturday, June 1

Season tickets are available from $135 - $245, offering savings of up to 30% over single tickets, free exchanges and many more benefits. For more information, please call the box office at 408.283.7142 or order online www.thestage.org. Discounts are available for students, seniors, and groups.

Now in its 36th season, San Jose Stage Company is recognized as the South Bay's leading professional theatre company, having earned a reputation for artistic excellence through powerful, provocative, and profound work that illuminates the human condition The Stage is devoted to new, cutting-edge work and reinterpreting American literature and world classics using innovative stagecraft, multi-media that propels the narrative, and accomplished, local actors in true repertory style. With the farthest seat in the house no more than 15 feet from the three-quarter thrust stage, the connection between actor and audience is profoundly visceral.

Attracting more than 30,000 patrons to downtown and employing more than 150 local artists annually, San Jose Stage Company continues to be a vital force in the region's economic and creative landscape. As a strong community partner, The Stage has been the creative home for more than 500 performance groups including San Jose Jazz and Notre Dame High School - working together to engage, provoke, and inspire current and future theatre participants and arts advocates.

The Stage has produced 165 productions, including 14 world premieres and 47 new works and is ranked as the 2nd largest professional theatre and 8th largest performance arts organization in Silicon Valley (Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal).

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