Shakespeare Theatre Company Announces 2013-2014 Season

The Shakespeare Theatre Company has announced the addition of a sixth mainstage production, plus two intriguing presentations to complete the 2013-2014 Season. The Stephen Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum will round out the mainstage season while South Africa's Mies Julie and Baryshnikov Productions' Man in a Case will both be part of the STC Presents Series.

STC Associate Director Alan Paul will make his STC mainstage directing debut with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which will complete the previously announced season. Featuring one of Sondheim's most popular scores, the musical will run in Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW) from November 21, 2013-January 5, 2014. "I am tremendously excited to make my STC mainstage debut with Forum," says Paul. "This musical has a dynamite score and a ton of laughs, and I can't wait to share the fun with D.C. audiences next fall. Forum elicits the kind of pure joy that only a classic musical comedy can." The Importance of Being Earnest will now be produced starting in January 2014 at the Company's Lansburgh Theatre.

Mies Julie, a production from The Baxter Theatre Centre at the University of Cape Town in Association with South African Theatre Association, received huge critical acclaim when it played at St. Ann's Warehouse in New York. Based on August Strindberg's Miss Julie, the production was hailed as "stunning, the temperature never stops rising" by The New York Times. The play enjoyed a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland and garnered a string of prestigious awards and accolades during its international tour. Mies Julie will play at STC's Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th Street NW) from November 9-24, 2013.

On the heels of Mies Julie, Baryshnikov Productions brings Chekhov's Man in a Case, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, to STC. Currently playing at Connecticut's Hartford Stage (through March 24) where it is receiving rave reviews, Man in a Case will take the stage at the Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th Street NW) from December 5-22, 2013. The production fuses together theatre, dance, music and video from Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, the team behind the internationally acclaimed Big Dance Theater.

Both Mies Julie and Man in a Case will be part of the STC Presents Series. "I'm very pleased to bring both of these plays to Washington; they are going to give D.C. audiences an experience that they are not going to get otherwise," says STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn. "I'm excited about Mies Julie because it's simply a tremendously, visceral thrilling production of the play. The adaptation, which is done by an extremely interesting young director/writer Yael Farber, really encapsulates South Africa and the volatility of South Africa at the moment. Regarding Man in a Case, I'm a great admirer of Baryshnikov and I have been so interested in the fact that he has been choosing theatre pieces over the last several years. Aside from the artistry and the actors in Man in a Case, it's a terrific example of what is happening in theatre all around the world right now in terms of the use of video, spoken word, movement. It's unlike anything that we've seen in Washington."

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