RIGHTS OF PASSAGE, FIERCE LOVE Featured in NCTC 2012/2013 Pride Season Lineup

The New Conservatory Theatre Center presents Pride Season 18. Pride Season 18 features two World Premieres (Rights of Passage, A Marriage), two West Coast Premieres (The Submission, The Bus), a Bay Area Premiere (The Divine Sister), multiple San Francisco debuts (The Marvelous Wonderettes, Dear Harvey) and a revival of a queer-classic (Lisbon Travata).  For tickets and more information, visit:  http://nctcsf.org/.

RIGHTS OF PASSAGE by Ed Decker and Robert Leone
World Premiere
Previews: August 17- 24, 2012
Opening Night: August 25, 2012
Closing Night: September 16, 2012

Rights of Passage is a new play about a gay Hindu named Wayan. Set on the Indonesian Island of Bali, his journey is delicately interwoven with queer and allied life stories about love, dignity and respect from around world. Performed through monologues, scenes, digital media, puppetry, mask and dance, this NCTC world premiere shows us that sometimes it takes a world of courage to just be who you are.

FIERCE LOVE: Stories from Black Gay Life by Pomo Afro Homos
Special Event in Collaboration with AfroSolo
Previews: October 17, 18, 2012
Opening Night: October 19, 2012
Closing Night: October 28, 2012

This “remixed” return of the 1991 hit show examines the vital issues of race, sexuality, identity and the struggles of Black gay men in America. Comedy, tragedy, dance, music and rap blend through a series of vignettes that illuminate the pain, pleasure, and paradox of Black gay life.

THE SUBMISSION by Jeff Talbott
West Coast Premiere
Previews: November 2 - 9, 2012
Opening Night: November 10, 2012
Closing Night: December 16, 2012

Shaleeha G'ntamobi's stirring new play about an alcoholic black mother and her cardsharp son trying to get out of the projects has just been accepted into the nation's preeminent theater festival. Trouble is, Shaleeha G'ntamobi doesn't exist, except in the imagination of white gay playwright Danny Larsen, who created her as a kind of affirmative-action nom-de-plume.When G’ntamobi is invited to attend the festival in person, Danny struggles to figure out how to keep his play afloat and his identity a secret.

THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES created by Roger Bean
San Francisco Premiere
Previews: November 30 - December 7, 2012
Opening Night: December 8, 2012
Closing Night: January 13, 2013

The Marvelous Wonderettes features favorite songs from the '50s and '60s ('Mr. Sandman', 'Stupid Cupid', 'Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me', 'Heatwave', and many, many more). The Marvelous Wonderettes takes you to the 1958 Springfield High School prom where we meet the Wonderettes-Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy and Suzy, four girls with hopes, dreams and voices as big as their crinoline skirts.

DEAR HARVEY by Patricia Loughrey; Music by Thomas Horn
San Francisco Premiere
Previews: January 18 – 25, 2013
Opening Night: January 26, 2013
Closing Night: February 24, 2013

Drawn from interviews conducted by the playwright, Dear Harvey recounts the achievements and vision of the first openly gay man elected to a major public office in the United States, Harvey Milk. Through his personal and political writings, the play paints the portrait of Milk as a leader, and a champion for equality. Marking the 35th anniversary of his assassination and as told by the people who knew him best, Dear Harvey celebrates the stories not found in history books: stories of a love that reached beyond fear.

LISBON TRAVIATA by Terrence McNally
Revival
Previews: February 22 – March 1, 2013
Opening Night: March 2, 2013
Closing Night: March 24, 2013

Mendy, a flamboyantly bitchy and viciously wicked opera queen is on a quest for a very special recording while his friend Stephen, a depressed literary editor and opera fanatic, is on the verge of losing his doctor lover to a considerably younger Columbia University student. Beneath their hilarious banter and biting jabs, we see two men who are tortured by love and their desire to preserve it.

THE BUS by James Lantz
West Coast Premiere
Previews: March 22 - 29, 2013 Pride On Tour
Opening Night: March 30, 2013 May 3-19, 2013
Closing Night: April 28, 2013 Locations TBA

Two boys meet clandestinely at night in a parked bus in the shadow of a powerful church while trying to hide their secret love. When their place of refuge is in danger of being discovered, the teens find themselves in the middle of a conflict between a large church and a small town gas station and the clash proves explosive. Alternatively touching, haunting, humorous and swirling with suspense, The Bus is a provocative look at small town homophobia and is a timely drama about a community at odds with itself.

A MARRIAGE by Tom Swift
Co-Produced with Playground, Artistic Director James Kleinmann
World Premiere
Previews: May 17 - 24, 2013
Opening Night: May 25, 2013
Closing Night: June 29, 2013

Spanning a period of forty years, this is the story of one gay marriage - from the first declaration of love, to the last.

THE DIVINE SISTER by Charles Busch
Bay Area Premiere
Previews: May 31 – June 7, 2013
Opening Night: June 8, 2013
Closing Night: June 29, 2013

The Divine Sister is an outrageous comic homage to nearly every Hollywood film involving nuns. Evoking such films as The Song of Bernadette, The Bells of St. Mary's, The Singing Nun and Agnes of God, The Divine Sister tells the story of St. Veronica's indomitable Mother Superior who is determined to build a new school for her Pittsburgh convent. Along the way, she has to deal with a young postulant who is experiencing visions, sexual hysteria among her nuns, a sensitive schoolboy in need of mentoring, a mysterious nun visiting from the Mother House in Berlin, and a former suitor intent on luring her away from her vows. This madcap romp through Hollywood religiosity from the creator of Die, Mommie, Die! and Psycho Beach Party is Busch at his very best.

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