AN ENTOMOLOGIST'S LOVE STORY Premiere, BARBECUE, 'SUNDAY IN THE PARK' and More Set for San Francisco Playhouse's 2017-18 Season

San Francisco Playhouse (Artistic Director Bill English; Producing Director Susi Damilano) marks the company's 15th Anniversary Season with today's announcement of five of the six plays that will comprise its 2017-18 Mainstage Season. The Playhouse's three-play Sandbox Series devoted to developing new works will be announced at a later date.

The San Francisco Playhouse 2017-18 Season will begin with the Bay Area Premiere of Robert O'Hara's Off-Broadway critical hit Barbecue, a ferociously funny and incisive look at poverty, race, and social class. Following a to-be-announced holiday show, The Playhouse will kick off the new year with Garson Kanin's American classic Born Yesterday, a comedy that explores personal and political oppression.

The Mainstage season will continue with the West Coast Premiere of The Effect, Lucy Prebble's critically acclaimed 2012 play that premiered at London's National Theatre. Next, the World Premiere of Melissa Ross's An Entomologist's Love Story-an uproarious, edgy, and explicit look at love in our times-will hit The Playhouse stage. San Francisco Playhouse will conclude their 15th season with Sunday in the Park with George, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical based on the life of artist Georges Seurat.

"As Susi and I look back to San Francisco Playhouse's humble origins in our leaky, cold and tattered black box theatre up on Sutter Street, our hearts are filled with gratitude as we announce our Crystal Anniversary 15th Season," said Bill English, Artistic Director of San Francisco Playhouse. "As always, our plays have been chosen for their capacity to uplift our spirits, deepen self-awareness and nurture compassionate community. Our selections intend to illuminate the issues we face in our current moment in history with perhaps a subtle emphasis on raising our challenged spirits."

BARBECUE
Bay Area Premiere by Robert O'Hara
Directed by Margo Hall
September 26 to November 11, 2017 (Press Opening: September 30th)

The hard-partying, foul-mouthed O'Mallery family is staging an intervention for their drug-addicted sister, Barbara. With a plan inspired by reality TV, they've disguised their meeting as a family barbecue in the park-but soon it's the whole family's problems that are in the spotlight. Barbecue overturns our presumptions about race, poverty, and the American family in hilarious and incisive fashion.

TO BE ANNOUNCED
Directed by Susi Damilano
November 22, 2017 to January 13, 2018 (Press Opening: November 29th)

Harry, a ruthless, thuggish millionaire-with his showgirl fiancée, Billie, in tow-comes to Washington to bribe a senator and enrich his business interests. He soon hires a reporter to clean up Billie's image; but as she awakens to a world full of possibilities, she starts to question corruption's stranglehold over the disadvantaged. Garson Kanin's delightful and dangerous comedy is a timely exploration of politics, profiteering, and the power of female persuasion.

THE EFFECT
West Coast Premiere by Lucy Prebble
Directed by Bill English
March 20 to April 28, 2018 (Press Opening: March 24th)

Connie and Tristan are falling head-over-heels in love-or is that just a side effect? As volunteers in a clinical trial for a new super-antidepressant, they can't really be sure. As their sudden romance heats up, they're left wondering if they can believe their own feelings, and their doctors are forced to consider the ethical consequences of their work. Winner of the UK Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play, The Effect takes on our pill-popping culture with humor and scintillating drama.

AN ENTOMOLOGIST'S LOVE STORY
World Premiere by Melissa Ross
Directed by Giovanna Sardelli
May 8 to June 23, 2018 (Press Opening: May 12th)

Working at the Museum of Natural History has its ups and downs for entomologists Betty and Jeff. As they research the mating rituals of bugs, they find their own complicated relationships increasingly under the microscope. An Entomologist's Love Story is a hilarious, edgy and explicit look at love in our times.

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE
Revival | Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, Book by James Lapine
Directed by Bill English
July 5 to September 8, 2018 (P ress Opening: July 15th)

In the final days before the completion of his masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat is torn between making meaningful art and maintaining a relationship with his lover, Dot. One of the most acclaimed musicals of our time, Sunday in the Park with George won the Pulitzer Prize and was nominated for 10 Tony Awards including Best Musical.

Sandbox Series

The Playhouse's award-winning Sandbox Series of World Premieres will begin its eighth season of new plays in 2017. The lineup for Sandbox Series will be released in a separate announcement this spring.

Founded by Bill English and Susi Damilano in 2003, San Francisco Playhouse has been described by the New York Times as "a company that stages some of the most consistently high-quality work around, and deemed "ever adventurous" by the Bay Area News Group. Located in the heart of the Union Square Theater District, San Francisco Playhouse is the city's premier Off-Broadway company, an intimate alternative to the larger more traditional Union Square theater fare. San Francisco Playhouse provides audiences the opportunity to experience professional theater with top-notch actors and world-class design in a setting where they are close to the action. The company has received multiple awards for overall productions, acting, and design, including the SF Weekly Best Theatre Award and the Bay Guardian's Best Off-Broadway Theatre Award. KQED/NPR recently described the company: "San Francisco Playhouse is one of the few theaters in the Bay Area that has a mission that actually shows up on stage. Artistic director Bill English's commitment to empathy as a guiding philosophical and aesthetic force is admirable and by living that mission, fascinating things happen onstage." San Francisco Playhouse is committed to providing a creative home and inspiring environment where actors, directors, writers, designers, and theater lovers converge to create and experience dramatic works that celebrate the human spirit.

Season Subscriptions are available immediately online at www.sfplayhouse.org, or by calling the box office at 415-677-9596. Packages range from $165 to $440 for Premium Orchestra seating, with savings averaging over 40% off single ticket rates. Single Tickets will go on sale to the public on June 1st, 2017.