| Classic Stage Company Announces 2024-2025 Season | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 12:23 pm EDT 06/25/24 | |
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| ANNOUNCES COMPLETE PROGRAMMING FOR 2024/2025 SEASON WINE IN THE WILDERNESS BY ALICE CHILDRESS DIRECTED BY L ACHANZE BUS STOP BY WILLIAM INGE DIRECTED BY JACK CUMMINGS III A CO-PRODUCTION WITH NAATCO AND TRANSPORT GROUP THE REDISCOVERY READINGS AMPLIFYING VOICES OF THE WOMEN WHO SHAPED AMERICAN THEATER JOINING THE PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED ARLEKIN IN RESIDENCE PRODUCTIONS OF OUR CLASS BY TADEUSZ SLOBODZIANEK DIRECTED BY IGOR GOLYAK SEPTEMBER 12 – NOVEMBER 3, 2024 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY IGOR GOLYAK NOVEMBER 22 – DECEMBER 22, 2024 (June 25, 2024 – New York, New York) Classic Stage Company (Jill Rafson, Producing Artistic Director) announced today complete programming for their 2024-25 Season. "CSC's new season is all about shining a spotlight in every corner of the American Theater – highlighting voices, points of view, and stories that deserve to be put center stage," said Producing Artistic Director Jill Rafson. "We're redefining what a classic can be by making sure that women-forward plays are louder than ever. We're reimagining the way mid-century Americana is seen through an exciting collaboration with our friends at the invaluable NAATCO and Transport Group. And our theater will be more active than ever, with concerts, readings, community events, and Arlekin Theater's fall residency. There's not a moment wasted in the year ahead on East 13th Street." In Spring 2025, Classic Stage Company will present the previously postponed production of Wine in the Wilderness, written by Alice Childress and directed by Tony Award winner LaChanze in her New York directorial debut. The season continues in Summer 2025 with William Inge's Bus Stop, directed by Jack Cummings III in a co-production with The National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) and Transport Group. In Fall 2024, CSC welcomes Arlekin in Residence, presented by the MART Foundation. Their productions will include the off-Broadway transfer of Our Class, written by Tadeusz Slobodzianek and directed by Igor Golyak, as well as a new adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, adapted and directed by Golyak. Throughout the fall, CSC will also produce a new reading series, The Rediscovery Readings, which will amplify the voices of women who shaped the American Theater in the early 20th Century. WINE IN THE WILDERNESS Written by Alice Childress Directed by LaChanze March – April 2025 Fortune has smiled on artist Bill Jameson – his friends just introduced him to a model for the final piece of his triptych on Black womanhood. But this woman, Tomorrow Marie, is no mere muse, and she's about to give Bill much more than he bargained for. Set against the backdrop of the 1964 Harlem riot on a hot summer night, Wine in the Wilderness is a rarely-seen play from the brilliant mind of Alice Childress, whose Trouble in Mind recently took Broadway by storm. That production's star, Tony-winner LaChanze, brings her deep connection to Childress's work to her New York directing debut. BUS STOP Written by William Inge Directed by Jack Cummings III Co-produced with NAATCO and Transport Group May – June 2025 On a snowy night in Kansas, a diner can be an oasis, a prison, a place to hide, or a place to discover yourself. When a bus is forced to take shelter from stormy weather outside, a mismatched group of dreamers and cowboys, waitresses and outcasts find unexpected warmth in one another. In William Inge's 1955 classic, this great playwright of the Midwest gives voice to memorable characters who'll linger like the perfect cup of diner coffee. This production of Bus Stop will be the first to feature an all-Asian American cast taking on this quintessential play of the Midwest. THE REDISCOVERY READINGS September 2024 – February 2025 In our 2024-25 season, CSC will shine a light on American women who were writing the classics of the early 20th Century but whose legacies have been muted by time. Join us for four play readings that will take you from 1900 through the 1950s, all leading up to CSC's much-anticipated production of Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress, in which the women of the 1960s have their say! The Arlekin in Residence productions are: OUR CLASS Written by Tadeusz Slobodzianek Directed by Igor Golyak September 12 – November 12, 2024 Our Class follows ten Polish classmates, five Jewish and five Catholic, growing up as playmates, friends, and neighbors, who then turn on one another with life and death consequences. The piece comes at a time when the world is facing an increase in antisemitism across the globe. Our Class was a featured production of the 2024 Under the Radar Festival, and has received multiple award nominations: a Drama League Award Nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Play; an Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination for Outstanding Featured Performer in an Off-Broadway Play (Gus Birney); and a Drama Desk Award Nomination for Outstanding Projection and Video Design (Eric Dunlap). Critics raved about the New York Premiere production of Our Class at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The Wall Street Journal cheered, "An epic and intimate drama…stark and uncompromising," and the Boston Globe agreed, saying "this production is a dead-serious indictment of antisemitism and bigotry from a dizzyingly kaleidoscopic array of angles. "The entire cast is excellent!" The New York Times praised director Igor. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE Written by William Shakespeare Adapted and directed by Igor Golyak November 22 – December 22, 2024 This highly entertaining adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, directed by Ukrainian-born, Jewish theater artist Igor Golyak, is a wild ride that takes a startling and tragic turn, leaving the audience stunned and unable to stop the inevitable and unbearable consequences. Starring Richard Topol as Shylock with a stellar ensemble cast, this is Shakespeare for our time — a full force experience, urgent, deeply human, and full of questions. Performance schedules, casting and full creative teams will be announced at a later date. Memberships for CSC's new season are on sale now and include access to discounted tickets to the Arlekin productions in fall 2024. To learn more about joining CSC's patron program, please visit https://www.classicstage.org/patron. ABOUT CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY Classic Stage Company (CSC) challenges the traditional perception of classic work by exploring and reimagining great stories across the world's repertoire that illuminate our common humanity. As a home for the classics, CSC collaborates with artists to produce work that is inclusive, relevant, and accessible. CSC believes that theater can both reflect and improve society by reaching across cultural divides in order to foster shared empathy and understanding. In 1967, director Christopher Martin founded CSC Repertory in a 100-seat theater at Rutgers Presbyterian Church on West 73rd Street. Following short stints in small spaces, CSC grew to the point where it needed a permanent home. In 1973, the theater moved to its present premises on 13th Street, an intimate space that was formerly an East Village carriage house. In the 57 years since, CSC has become a leading Off-Broadway theater that is a home for new and established artists, as well as audiences seeking epic stories intimately told. Productions have been cited by all major Off-Broadway theater awards including the Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. ABOUT NAATCO NAATCO was founded in 1989 by Mia Katigbak and Richard Eng to assert the presence and significance of Asian American theater in the United States, demonstrating its vital contributions to the fabric of American culture. The company presents the following repertory: European and American classics as written with all-Asian American casts; adaptations of these classics by Asian American playwrights; new plays – preferably world premieres – written by non-Asian Americans, not for or about Asian Americans, but realized by an all Asian American cast; and; new plays by Asian American playwrights that incorporate other performative arts and media. NAATCO puts into service its total commitment to Asian American theater artists to more accurately represent onstage the multi- and intercultural dynamics of our society. By doing so, they demonstrate a rich tapestry of cultural difference bound by the American experience. The enrichment accrues to each different culture as well as to America as a whole. NAATCO was the recipient of the OBIE's Ross Wetzsteon Award, the Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women and the Rosetta LeNoire Award from Actors' Equity Association in recognition of its contribution toward increasing diversity and non-traditional casting in American theater. NAATCO was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play, as well as Outstanding Costume Design for a Play for their acclaimed production of Henry VI: Shakespeare's Trilogy in Two Parts. Additionally, NAATCO Actor-Manager and Co-Founder Mia Katigbak was honored in 2019 with a Special Drama Desk Award. ABOUT TRANSPORT GROUP Transport Group is a New York-based, off-Broadway theatre company that stages new works and radically-reimagined revivals by American writers. Since 2001, Transport Group has crafted risk-taking thoughtful, acclaimed productions of plays and musicals that widen the lens on our American experience. By centering unlikely protagonists, embracing nontraditional casting, and incorporating daring design, we create unexpected theatrical experiences that allow audiences and artists to collaboratively explore what we mean by an ‘American identity.' Our work subverts expectations and challenges narrative conventions to create space for new American perspectives that deepen our shared capacity for empathy and understanding. |
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