American Stage Announces Season, Begins With AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY

Wrapping up its record breaking 32nd season, American Stage Theatre Company has announced its 2011-2012 season for its Mainstage Series and American Stage in the Park, headlined by the Tampa Bay area premiere of two of the most important and award winning Broadway dramas in recent history.

"Our 33rd season will be the most memorable in local professional theatre history," said Todd Olson, American Stage's producing artistic director. "We are going to produce the Tampa Bay premieres of AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY by Tracy Letts, which won the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award as well as being chosen as one of the three most important plays of the past 25 years, and RED by Jonathan Logan, which won the 2010 Tony Award for best drama. We are very excited to be the first professional theatre in our area to bring these two very important and amazing plays to theatre lovers."

The rest of the season also highlights several other important plays with Oscar Wilde's classic comedy, AN IDEA HUSBAND; our next chapter in the August Wilson cycle, SEVEN GUITARS; THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW during the 27th annual American Stage in the Park; the Florida premiere of the new musical, VANISHING POINT; and Larry Shue's perfect comedy, THE FORIEGNER.

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY by Tracy Letts
October 18 thru November 6, 2011
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for best play

One of the most bracing and critically acclaimed plays in recent Broadway history, AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY is a portrait of the dysfunctional American family at its finest-and absolute worst. When the patriarch of the Weston clan disappears one hot summer night, the family reunites at the Oklahoma homestead, where long-held secrets are unflinchingly and uproariously revealed. This mammoth play combines epic tragedy with black comedy, dramatizing three generations of unfulfilled dreams and leaving not one of its thirteen characters, or the audience, unscathed. Chosen by Entertainment Weekly as one of the three most important plays of the past 25 years.

Oscar Wilde's AN IDEAL HUSBAND
A co-production with Wellfleet Harbor Actor's Theatre
November 18 thru December 24, 2011

"Scandals used to lend charm to a man - now they crush him." In Oscar Wilde's classic comedy, AN IDEAL HUSBAND, fate catches up to Government Minister Sir Robert Chiltern when a mysterious woman produces a letter which reveals a past misdeed and a choice must be made between public scandal and the private shame of his wife. This Oscar Wilde work is a perfect mix of Wilde wit and intrigue and resonates amazingly with our modern "point and click" scandal of the moment culture.

SEVEN GUITARS by August Wilson
January 20 thru February 26, 2012
Tampa Bay area premiere

Floyd Barton is a natural musician with one hot song who, in the expansive atmosphere after World War II, dreams of the big time. But as the play begins, his wife and friends mourn his death. In his only play constructed in flashback, August Wilson takes us back to explore what happened. Who killed Floyd Barton, but more importantly, why? This will be American Stage's fifth production in it's commitment to produce all ten of preeminent African American playwright August Wilson's plays over a decade's time.

RED by Jonathan Logan
March 16 thru May 6, 2012
Winner of the 2010 Tony Award

"There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend... One day the black will swallow the red." -Mark Rothko

Winner of six 2010 Tony Awards, including "Best Play," RED follows Mark Rothko in his New York studio in 1958-59, painting a group of murals for the expensive and exclusive Four Seasons restaurant. He gives orders to his young assistant, Ken, as he mixes the paints, makes the frames and paints the canvases. Ken, however, brashly questions Rothko's theories of art and his accepting to work on such a commercial project.

27th Annual American?Stage in the Park
THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW by Richard O'Brien
April 11 thru May 13, 2012

It's the biggest and baddest rock ‘n' roll musical ever! On the way to visit an old college professor, two clean cut kids, Brad Majors and his fiancée Janet Weiss, run into tire trouble and seek help at the site of a light down the road. It's coming from the Frankenstein place, where Dr. Frank'n'Furter is in the midst of one of his maniacal experiments. Follow squeaky-clean sweethearts Brad and Janet on an adventure they'll never forget, with the scandalous Frank'n'Furter, rippling Rocky and vivacious Magenta. Get ready for a night of fun, frolics and frivolity in this thrilling production of Richard O'Brien's classic original script! Bursting at the seams with timeless classics, including "Sweet Transvestite," "Damn it Janet" and of course, the pelvic-thrusting "Time Warp," THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW is a non-stop party! Ready to thrill you with its frothy, fun and naughty moments, this is the boldest bash of them all, so sharpen those stilettos for the rockiest ride of your life! Don't dream it - be it!

VANISHING POINT, a musical by Rob Hartmann
June 1 thru July 8, 2012
Florida Premiere

Author Agatha Christie vanished for eleven days in 1926; that same year, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished for three weeks. Amelia Earhart disappeared during her 1937 round-the-world flight. Amelia was never seen again; Agatha and Aimee never spoke of what happened during their disappearances. A musical comedy-fantasy, VANISHING POINT brings these three women together on a road trip through time and space, as they recall their past and explore their future, stepping in and out of one another's lives. The show has a cast of three: the actresses play multiple parts (each other's mothers, husbands, reporters, fans, etc.).

THE FOREIGNER by Larry Shue
July 27 thru September 2, 2012
Winner of two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as "Best New American Play" and "Best Off-Broadway Production"

THE FOREIGNER demonstrates what can happen when a group of devious characters must deal with a stranger who (they think) knows no English. The scene is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia often visited by "Froggy" LeSeuer, a British demolition expert who occasionally runs training sessions at a nearby army base. This time Froggy has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie who is overcome with fear at the thought of making conversation with strangers after his divorce. So Froggy, before departing, tells all assembled that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English. Once alone the fun really begins, as Charlie overhears more than he should when the locals make several hilarious revelations with the thought that Charlie doesn't understand a word being said. What he does fuels the nonstop hilarity of the play and sets up the wildly funny climax that will keep audiences talking.

Mainstage performances and ticket prices are as follows:
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening curtain is 7:30 p.m.
Friday and Saturday evening curtain is 8 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday matinee curtain is 3 p.m.

American Stage Theatre Company at the Raymond James Theater is located at 163 3rd Street North in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. For tickets call 727-823-PLAY(7529) or americanstage.org.

American Stage Theatre Company is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1977. The company's mission is to create the most satisfying live theatre in the Tampa Bay area, accessible to all members of the community. Their vision is to preserve the greatest human stories from our past, while creating the most defining stories and storytelling of our time. American Stage presents its six play Mainstage Series in its brand new, 182-seat Raymond James Theatre each year. The very popular American Stage in the Park celebrates its 27th Anniversary year. The theatre's other programming includes: "After Hours" Series, School Tour, the Hough Cabaret Series and camps and classes for children and adults. The Hough Family Foundation is the Season Sponsor, Raymond James is the Mainstage Sponsor, Bank of America is the Education Partner, WEDU is the Media Sponsor and WUSF 89.7 is the Radio Sponsor of American Stage.

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