New Rep Announces the 2008-2009 Season
April 24, 2008
New Repertory Theatre, in residence at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, announces the 2008-2009 season.
“Our 25th Season will be filled with works by the best Playwrights of their generations,” says Rick Lombardo, Producing Artistic Director. “Chekhov, McDonagh, Ruhl, Shephard, Fugard, and Kander and Ebb have written exciting, challenging, and thought provoking pieces that our audiences will engage and connect with.”
For the 2008-2009 season, please note that New Rep’s Mainstage press openings will be on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 PM, except for Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Downstage @ New Rep press openings will be on Sunday afternoons at 3:00 PM, except for The Santaland Diaries.
Mainstage Shows in the Mosesian Theater:
Eurydice
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Rick Lombardo
September 14 - October 5, 2008
Press Opening Wednesday, September 17, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
Eurydice wants to speak to you. But she can't speak your language anymore.
From the acclaimed playwright of The Clean House comes this beautiful and devastating story about love and choice. In Sarah Ruhl’s re-imagining of the Orpheus myth, Eurydice’s tragic misstep on her wedding day sends her tumbling into the depths of the Underworld, where she is reunited with her father. Memories are forbidden and language is altered in this world of the dead. Her father re-educates her, while her husband searches for a note she will hear. Will the three find the means to communicate across the divide between life and death?The Lieutenant of Inishmore
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by David R. Gammons
October 26 - November 16, 2008
Press Opening Wednesday, October 29, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
A terrorist… and his cat?
Blazingly funny and bitterly blood-curdling. A brazen and unapologetic farce. This award-winning comedy tells of a ruthless Irish Republican Army enforcer, “Mad” Padraic, and the one thing he loves more than anything else in the world . . . Wee Thomas, his little black cat. But someone has killed Wee Thomas. Was it an accident or an execution? Whoever is responsible had better fess up, or Padraic’s reign of terror will come crashing down on the small Irish island of Inishmore. What ensues is a hilariously bloody, choking farce, quintessential to McDonagh, the playwright who gave us the critically acclaimed The Pillowman.
Cabaret
Book by Joe Masteroff
Based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood
Music by John Kander
Lyrics by Fred Ebb
Directed by Rick Lombardo
Musical Direction by Todd C. Gordon
January 11 – February 1, 2009
Press Opening Wednesday, January 14, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
Willkommen, Bienvenue...
Welcome to the decadence of 1920’s Berlin where Cliff, a lost American writer, enters the Kit Kat Club and gets caught in a sea of painted lips and rouged cheeks. He meets Sally Bowles, a burlesque star, who ensnares him with her wiles. History is in the making as the Nazis rise to power. “Leeff all your troubles outzide,” the Emcee advises, but the club begins to imitate that outside world, and those leering entertainers become more threatening than enticing. Winner of 8 Tony Awards, this popular musical includes such favorites as “Willkommen,” “Maybe This Time,” “Don’t Tell Mama,” and “So What?”
Exits and Entrances
By Athol Fugard
Directed by Chris Jorie
February 22 – March 15, 2009
Press Opening Wednesday, February 25, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
He’s dying of unimportance.
Engulfed in a world defined by the division of apartheid, a young man, addressed only as “the Playwright,” prepares an arrogant and aging star for the evening’s performance of Oedipus Rex. The Playwright struggles to find his voice, and the actor confronts his fear of no longer being admired, needed or wanted. As they debate, the pair find themselves at odds about why art matters and the extent of its impact on the world.
Three Sisters
by Anton Chekhov
Translation by Curt Columbus
Directed by Rick Lombardo
April 19 – May 10, 2009
Press Opening Wednesday, April 22, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
What is keeping these three promising sisters from getting to Moscow?
Raised with the utmost standards of refinement and taste, Olga, Masha and Irina cling desperately to vivid memories of the thriving Moscow they left as children. The play, in a thrilling new translation by Curt Columbus, begins on the anniversary of their father’s death. Feeling suffocated and unable to bear the triviality of their lives, the sisters endeavor to fill them with excitement. Tempers flare, and appetites go unchecked, eliciting feral and treacherous responses, which turn this proper Prozorov home into an emotional minefield.
DOWNSTAGE @ NEW REP SHOWS in the BLACK BOX Theater:
Gutenberg! The Musical!
By Scott Brown and Anthony King
October 4 – October 26, 2008
Press Opening Sunday, October 5, 2008 @ 3:00 pm
Bud and Doug have written the next great American musical, or at least they think they have. When the opportunity to audition for financial backers comes up, the two men, excited by the possibility of a Broadway run, earnestly and hilariously perform all the songs and play all the parts in their ridiculous, historical epic, based on the invention of the printing press. One bright idea, two men with gumption, and lots of hats make for one of the silliest musicals you’ll see this year.
Fool For Love
By Sam Shephard
March 14 – April 5, 2009
Press Opening Sunday, March 15, 2009 @ 3:00 pm
Eddie stalks May two thousand four hundred and eighty miles to a seedy motel on the edge of the Mojave desert in Sam Shepard’s classic, Fool for Love. In this ugly and claustrophobic place, lust turns to violence as wild and buried passions are unearthed. Dark secrets are revealed in an explosive story of gripping jealousy, brutal betrayal, and the deepest kind of love.
Holiday Traditions:
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas CarolAdapted for the stage and
Directed by Rick Lombardo
Mainstage in the Mosesian Theater
December 14 – December 28, 2008
Press Opening Friday, December 19, 2008 @ 8:00 pm
New Repertory Theatre, in collaboration with the Arsenal Center for the Arts and Watertown Children’s Theatre, revives its popular adaptation of Dickens’ classic holiday story, which has all the trimmings of a lavish Victorian Christmas. The production offers a feast for the senses, ranging from a pre-show caroling concert to luxurious period costumes, from singing and dancing – the performers accompany themselves on over a dozen different instruments – to ghosts that fly through the air and evaporate into the London fog. For audience members of all ages, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, now in its fourth year, is the perfect holiday celebration.
The Santaland Diaries
By David Sedaris
Adapted by Joe Mantello
Downstage @ New Rep in the Black Box Theater
December 17, 2008 – January 4, 2009
Press Opening Wednesday, December 17, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
After his second sold-out run last season Downstage @ New Rep, Crumpet, the wickedly funny Macy’s Elf, returns to the Black Box Theater in this strange-but-true account of adventures in holiday retailing. If you’ve had enough of the usual heartwarming holiday fare, it’s the perfect antidote.
Subscriptions:
Subscriptions for New Rep’s 2008-2009 season are on sale now. Information on different membership packages can be obtained by contacting New Rep’s Box Office at 617-923-8487 or via e-mail at info@newrep.org. Please note that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and The Santaland Diaries are not included in any subscription package.
New Repertory Theatre presents provocative and intelligent works of both established and emerging playwrights in an intimate setting that involves and engages the audience. New Rep has earned a reputation for dynamic productions that honor the writers and feature talented professional actors from the New England theatre community as well as guest artists from around the U.S. New Rep has received Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards for outstanding acting, scenic design, direction, and production. Programming at New Repertory Theatre is supported in part by a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, with additional support from Bank of America and CN8, the Comcast Network.