ARSENIC, PINAFORE, CARNAGE Part Of Guthrie Theater's 2010-11 Season

Guthrie Director Joe Dowling today announced the plays of the Theater's 2010-2011 mainstage season. Highlighting the work of artists both local and international, the season ranges from the world premiere by a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright to classic works by Shakespeare and Shaw.

The subscription season includes seven productions, beginning on the Wurtele Thrust Stage with the previously announced world premiere of The Master Butchers Singing Club by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman, adapted from the novel by Minnesota author Louise Erdrich. Francesca Zambello (Little House on the Prairie) directs a cast led by Lee Mark Nelson (Fidelis), Emily Gunyou Halaas (Delphine), Katie Guentzel (Eva) and Sheila Tousey (Step and a Half). The McGuire Proscenium Stage opens with the hilariously inventive The 39 Steps, under the direction of Joel Sass. A comedic take on Hitchcock's 1935 classic thriller, the two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning play offers up a fast-paced whodunit, perfect for anyone who loves the magic of theater.

The Guthrie subscription season continues in 2011 with Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale on the Thrust, under the direction of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Jonathan Munby, in his Guthrie debut, with Guthrie favorite Helen Carey returning to play Paulina. George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man follows next on the proscenium, with a director to be named later, while Joe Dowling stages the classic American comedy Arsenic and Old Lace on the thrust to mark the 70th anniversary of its first production.

In the summer of 2011, John Miller-Stephany will direct Yasmina Reza's hit 2009 Tony Award-winning Best Play God of Carnage on the proscenium, while Gilbert & Sullivan's musically mirthful H.M.S. Pinafore, under the direction of Joe Dowling, concludes the 2010-2011 season on the thrust.

"Our subscription season is one we're terribly proud of," Dowling said. "I'm particularly excited to have such a wide range of comedies on our stages this coming season, from one of the greatest American comedies ever written in Arsenic and Old Lace to one of the best recent comedies from France, via London and Broadway, with God of Carnage."

In addition to the seven plays of the subscription season, Dowling also announced that the Guthrie has, after 35 years, commissioned a new version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol by British playwright Crispin Whittell. The production will boast new sets and costumes and Dowling will direct this holiday classic for the first time.

Several presentations will appear on the McGuire Proscenium Stage this season, including the previously announced WorldStage Series presentation of Tricycle Theatre's epic theatrical event The Great Game: Afghanistan; a continuation of the partnership with The Acting Company with The Comedy of Errors and Romeo and Juliet; and the third presentation of the work of Penumbra Theatre Company, bringing August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom to the Guthrie.

The Dowling Studio presentations will be announced at a later date.

TICKET INFORMATION

Seven plays of the 2010-2011 season are available as part of the subscription series at the Guthrie Theater - The Master Butchers Singing Club, The Winter's Tale, Arsenic and Old Lace, and H.M.S. Pinafore on the Wurtele Thrust Stage and The 39 Steps, Arms and the Man and God of Carnage on the McGuire Proscenium Stage. New season subscriptions range in price from $56 to $532 and go on sale July 19. Single tickets for The Master Butchers Singing Club go on sale August 1, 2010. Single tickets for A Christmas Carol go on sale September 7. Single tickets for all other shows on the McGuire Proscenium and Wurtele Thrust stages go on sale August 15. Single ticket prices for these shows range from $24 to $69. Discounts are available for students, seniors and children.