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After a successful 2009-10 season of two productions - STUFF HAPPENS at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, and THE OVERWHELMING, now in its final week of performances at the Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs - Studio 180 Theatre announces its new season for 2010-11. Two premieres will be presented at the Berkeley Street Theatre.
PARADE By Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry December 30, 2010 to January 22, 2011 at the Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs
The first show will be the musical PARADE, in a co-production with Acting Up Stage Company, known for their Popular Productions of acclaimed contemporary musicals, including this season's sold-out THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.The winner of two Tony Awards, for best book and score, and the Drama Desk and New York Critics' Circle awards for best musical, PARADE had its world premiere at Lincoln Center Theater in 1998 and quickly built an international following for its haunting score and powerful narrative.PARADE takes place in 1913 Atlanta, Georgia. After a teenaged factory employee is raped and murdered, Leo Frank, the young Jewish manager of the factory, is charged with the crime. Manipulating witnesses and tampering with evidence, the prosecution succeeds in convincing the jury that the wrongly accused Frank is guilty.
Considered one of the most sensational trials of the early 20th century, the Frank case pressed every hot-button issue of the time: North vs. South, black vs. white, Jewish vs. Christian, industrial vs. agrarian.The musical recounts the press frenzy and public outrage surrounding the trial and conviction, including the crusade for justice amid religious intolerance, political injustice and racial tension fought by Frank's wife Lucille.Written by Jason Robert Brown (music and lyrics) and Alfred Uhry (book), PARADE has been produced around the world. It will finally have its long-awaited Canadian premiere in a production directed by Studio 180 Artistic Director Joel Greenberg, with musical direction by Paul Sportelli (Shaw Festival). The company of 15 actors, who will play the musical's 40 roles, will be announced in the fall.OUR CLASS By Tadeusz Slobodzianek, English version by Ryan Craig April 4 to 30, 2011 at the Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs
The second show of the new season will be OUR CLASS, produced in association with Canadian Stage. Recently staged at the prestigious National Theatre in London, U.K., where it had its world premiere, OUR CLASS earned four-star reviews from the Evening Standard, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Mail on Sunday, Metro, Sunday Express, The Times and Time Out. The Daily Telegraph described it as "a remarkable and powerful play," and The Evening Standard praised the way OUR CLASS "majestically conveys a sense of history as a living organism." A group of schoolchildren, Jewish and Catholic, declare their ambitions: one to be a fireman, one a film star, one a pilot, another a doctor. They are learning their ABCs. This is Poland, 1925. As the children grow, their country is torn apart by invading armies, first Soviet and then Nazi. Internal grievances deepen as fervent nationalism develops. Friends betray each other and violence escalates until these ordinary people carry out an atrocious crime. OUR CLASS is based on true events in the small northern Polish town of Jedwabne during the Second World War, where a massacre led to accusations and counter-accusations of blame that continued long after the end of the war. In 2001 Polish-born historian Jan T. Gross published a controversial book, Neighbors, revealing the true perpetrators of this crime. Based on this book and the facts it brought to light, Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek explores the lasting repercussions of the act by following the fortunes of the 10 one-time classmates of his play from one century into the next. This North American premiere production will be directed by Joel Greenberg. OUR CLASS will be part of the Berkeley Street Project initiative, where Canadian Stage, Studio 180 Theatre and Nightwood Theatre have partnered to transform Canadian Stage's Berkeley Street Theatre into a dynamic home for contemporary performing arts. Casting and creative team details will be announced in the fall.
ABOUT STUDIO 180 THEATRE Studio 180 Theatre is a Toronto-based company with the mission to produce socially relevant theatre that provokes public discourse and promotes community engagement. Since 2003, the company has offered a series of Canadian premieres that tackled difficult and divisive issues and generated powerful audience and community responses.
Studio 180's acclaimed productions include: The Overwhelming (2010), Blackbird (2009), Stuff Happens (2008 & 2009), Offensive Shadows (2008), The Arab-Israeli Cookbook (2006), and The Laramie Project (2003 & 2004).For more information about Studio 180, visit www.studio180theatre.comTickets to OUR CLASS are now available as part of the Canadian Stage 2010-11 subscription packages. Call 416-368-3110 or visit www.canadianstage.com/subscriptionsSingle Tickets to PARADE and OUR CLASS will be available in the fall.
