Doyle Helmed 'CHALK CIRCLE', Mamet's NOVEMBER & 'The Tosca Project' Part of ACT's 2009-10 Season
By: Eddie Varley Mar. 26, 2009
American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) Artistic Director Carey Perloff announced the lineup of the company's 43rd subscription season today. Running from September 2009 to June 2010, the season welcomes some of the best American and international artists to San Francisco and celebrates the 100th anniversary of A.C.T.'s historic theater.
"Imagination is our salvation," says Perloff. "As we face this unique time of uncertainty and hope nationally, we thought, Who at this moment are the master artists with the depth of experience and passion that can be counted on to make us laugh, make us think and what are the great stories that can help us share and process our world together?"
A.C.T.'s 2009-10 season celebrates the art of theater in all its styles and facets with groundbreaking fusion pieces, powerful new works, and visionary reimagining of classics. On programming this season, Perloff says, "A.C.T. has always had a profound commitment to truly theatrical, uplifting, and important dramatic works, to our amazing resident company of artists, to bringing the finest master artists to San Francisco, and to making work in the unique spirit of this town. A.C.T. is an urban theater in a great urban center and is easily accessible in every way. 2009-10 Season will be a season of great masters, great passion, great acting, and bold ideas."
A.C.T.'s historic home, the American Conservatory Theater (formerly known as the Columbia Theater and the Geary Theater), celebrates its 100th anniversary on January 10, 2010. Opened to the general public in 1910 and restored to its original splendor after the 1989 earthquake through the leadership of the Bay Area's incredible philanthropic community, the A.C.T. stage is one of the most recognized and celebrated architectural icons in a city renowned for its urban beauty. A.C.T.'s 2009-10 season will be a yearlong celebration of the legacy of this national landmark from its beginnings as a premiere film house (the world premieres of Citizen Kane and Fantasia took place there) and its long history as a venue for performers of the likes of Sarah Bernhardt, Helen Hayes, Isadora Duncan, Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, and Mae West, to its current standing as one of the country's leading theater companies. In association with its 43rd season, the Tony Award-winning A.C.T. will engage its supporters, subscribers, and the Bay Area community at large with special events throughout the year.
The 2009-10 Season opens with the U.S. premiere of a must-see event that took London by storm and was hailed by critics as "a first-class return to romance" (Daily Telegraph)--Britain's celebrated Kneehigh Theatre's breathtaking and critically acclaimed interpretation of Noël Coward's classic Brief Encounter. Adventurous theatricality reaches astounding heights as England's leading innovative theater company transforms this iconic love story into a jaw-dropping fusion of theater, film, and celebrated songs from the Coward repertoire. "There is no better way to celebrate the career of the incredible Noël Coward than this imaginative take on his gorgeous romance," says Perloff. "Surprisingly filmic and filled with wonderful Coward songs, Brief Encounter is the perfect way for us to introduce the acclaimed and always inventive Kneehigh Theatre Company to Bay Area audiences." In Brief Encounter, forbidden passion brews in a 1945 railway station tearoom when a suburban housewife, over a series of stolen afternoons, falls madly in love with a handsome married doctor. Adapted for the stage by Kneehigh Theatre Artistic Director Emma Rice and nominated for four 2009 Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best Entertainment, Brief Encounter is hailed as "great fun, switching seamlessly between theater and film while retaining the damp-eyed nostalgia of the period that leaves you with a warm and sentimental glow." (The Times)
Next up, November, the newest play from David Mamet, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Speed-the-Plow and Glengarry Glen Ross, is a fiendishly funny skewering of presidential politics. Mamet spares no barbs as he takes a hilarious look at the last days in office of President Charles Smith, the most corrupt, inept buffoon ever to sit in the Oval Office. "November is laugh-out-loud hilarious, yet the stakes of this play are as high as any other day in the Oval Office," says Perloff. "Hitting every base from gay marriage to Presidential libraries to turkey pardoning, November finds Mamet at the peak of his form, detonating language around the stage with absolute comic precision." Under the direction of the award-winning Ron Lagomarsino (Imaginary Invalid, The Gamester at A.C.T.), this West Coast premiere promises to be a farce of presidential proportions.
The New Year brings unbridled passion to the A.C.T. stage with Phèdre, Jean Racine's sensual classic, in a sparkling world premiere translation by Timberlake Wertenbaker (A.C.T.'s Hecuba and Antigone). Directed by Perloff (Rock 'n' Roll and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore) and produced in association with one of the most thrilling theater companies in the world, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Phèdre will give A.C.T. audiences a rare opportunity to witness exquisite classical acting from this prestigious Canadian company in their Bay Area debut. "Wertenbaker's extraordinary and fresh translation of Phèdre pays homage to the beautiful poetry of the original while sustaining this play's explosive heat and visceral sexuality," says Perloff. "I have admired Stratford's work for many years and am excited to work with the theater where Heather Kitchen, my partner at A.C.T., started her career." The phenomenal Seana McKenna, 17-year veteran Stratford actor, stars as Phèdre, a woman caught in an agonizing love triangle with her husband, King Theseus of Athens, and his son by a former marriage. As passions erupt, will her desire for a younger man overwhelm her duty to her husband, her children, and her kingdom? "Stratford and A.C.T. have an amazing synergy: both are actor-driven theaters deeply rooted in the classics," adds Perloff. "I am amazed at the muscularity of Stratford's acting company, who perform major classics in repertory for eight months in 2,000-seat houses. In particular, McKenna is a remarkable talent, capable of keeping A.C.T. audiences on the edge of their seats through 90 minutes of unforgettable theater."
February brings a celebrated A.C.T. favorite director back to the Bay Area. John Doyle, the creative force behind Sweeney Todd on the West End, Broadway, and at A.C.T. and Broadway's award-winning Company, sets his sights on another classic, the Bertolt Brecht masterpiece The Caucasian Chalk Circle. "After having such an amazing experience with Sweeney Todd, Doyle was very interested in returning to A.C.T., and I was thrilled about the opportunity to have this inventive and imaginative artist and great collaborator back in our midst," says Perloff. "He will be reimagining Brecht's moving story of love, power, and hope specifically for our core acting company and M.F.A. students, and I know his take on The Caucasian Chalk Circle will be a funny and moving production." In The Caucasian Chalk Circle, a servant girl saves The Life of an abandoned baby boy. But when the wealthy mother returns to claim him, their fates lie in the hands of a wily, unpredictable judge whose concern for the poor is rivaled only by his concern for saving his own hide. Translated by A.C.T. Associate Artist Domenique Lozano and featuring Doyle's signature theatricality and an original score, the production will strip down the play to the essence of its beautiful storytelling, employing transformative acting and ingeniously simple theatrical devices to explore what happens to a culture in the throes of huge transition and change.
The season continues with the Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis (Steel Magnolias, Moonstruck, A.C.T.'s Hecuba) and beloved Bay Area actor and Shakespeare Santa Cruz Artistic Director Marco Barricelli (A.C.T.'s Long Day's Journey into Night and A Streetcar Named Desire) starring in Vigil, a comic tour de force written and directed by Morris Panych, the brilliant creator of The Overcoat. "For those of you who remember Dukakis and Barricelli in For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, you know that they possess a unique chemistry and bond that is captivating to watch," says Perloff. "Panych is a major Canadian artist who has had huge success at A.C.T. as a director with his production of The Overcoat, and I cannot imagine a better way to introduce him to San Francisco as a writer than this beautiful piece." In Vigil, Barricelli plays a self-involved bachelor who is summoned to care for an elderly aunt, whom he hasn't seen since childhood. As their relationship evolves in unexpected ways, this dark comedy explores complex emotions of family, friendship, and the human condition.
In May, A.C.T. treats audiences to a new production of Round and Round the Garden, the third installment of popular and prolific British playwright Alan Ayckbourn's hilarious trilogy Norman Conquests. Incisive and actor-driven, the landmark work of one of the world's most produced playwrights was called "explosively hilarious" (London's Guardian) following its recent sold out revival on London's West End. "I adore plays that were written for companies of actors, and Ayckbourn is the master of this, having created over a dozen extraordinary comedies for his marvelous theater in Scarborough," says Perloff. In the play, librarian Norman channels Casanova in his fervent attempts to seduce his two sisters-in-law and estranged wife during a weekend family gathering. Manoel Felciano (Sweeney Todd on Broadway and Rock 'n' Roll at A.C.T.) plays the misguided lothario alongside A.C.T. core acting company members. "Round and Round the Garden feels tailor-made for A.C.T.'s resident company, and is filled with the kind of wit, sexuality, surprise and pathos that is catnip for any actor," says Perloff. "I can't wait to see our astonishing company of actors get their hands on this material!"
The season culminates in the world premiere of a uniquely San Francisco movement and theater event four years in the making. Created and staged by Perloff and San Francisco Ballet choreographer Val Caniparoli, The Tosca Project brings together world-renowned dancers from San Francisco Ballet, including prima ballerina Sabina Allemann and Pascal Molat, with such acclaimed actors as The Overcoat's Peter Anderson. "The Tosca Project is a celebration of North Beach's legendary Tosca Café as a metaphor for all those magical bars around the world in which the ghosts of a million encounters remain present in the air," says Perloff. "This beautiful, emotionally vivid, and magical piece is a unique collaboration between some of the best Bay Area artists and the city we love, offered as a valentine to our extraordinary audience." This radically original fusion of movement and theater imagines a world in which love, betrayal, and hope emerge from the shadows and disappear with a clink of the glass. Steeped in the vibrant history of San Francisco and loosely structured around the themes of Puccini's Tosca, this revolutionary new work is gorgeously choreographed, achingly moving, and scored with some of the best music ever made, from Hendrix to Stravinsky.
The nonsubscription presentation of Perloff and Paul Walsh's adaptation of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol returns during the holiday season, completing the 2009-10 lineup of A.C.T. offerings. Featuring celebrated Bay Area actor James Carpenter again as Ebenezer Scrooge under A.C.T. Associate Artist Domenique Lozano's direction, A.C.T.'s beloved classic continues to be a Bay Area holiday tradition.
Season subscriptions offer incredible savings, unparalleled access, exclusive benefits, and personalized customer service, and are now available via the A.C.T. subscriptions office. To subscribe or to receive a season brochure, please call 415.749.2250 or log on to www.act-sf.org.
Subscriptions for all seven plays start at $101, for five plays at $85, and for four plays at $70 and subscribers save as much as $92 off single ticket prices. Educators and administrators are eligible for half-price subscriptions. To make subscriptions more affordable, A.C.T. also offers one free seat upgrade and an extended payment plan to all subscribers that allows payment in two easy installments. A.C.T.'s competitive subscriber benefits include easy ticket exchanges up to the day of scheduled tickets, guaranteed best seats, ticket insurance, access to easy prepaid parking one block away from the theater, and discounts for neighbor restaurants and Words on Plays, A.C.T.'s in-depth theater guide for each show. Single tickets for all of A.C.T.'s productions in the 2009-10 season will be available in August.
A.C.T. is supported in part by Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, The Next Generation Campaign, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
2009-10 SEASON IN ORDER OF PERFORMANCE
(All titles and dates are subject to change.)
All performances at
AMERICAN CONSERVATORY THEATER
415 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
A.C.T. Subscription Office:
415.749.2250 / www.act-sf.org
U.S. PREMIERE
A.C.T. and Kneehigh Theatre present
Brief Encounter
Adapted for the stage by Emma RiceSeptember 11-October 11, 2009
Press Night: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, at 8 p.m.
"A first-class return to romance" Daily Telegraph
Adventurous theatricality reaches new heights in this breathtaking interpretation of Noël Coward's Brief Encounter. England's acclaimed Kneehigh Theatre transforms an iconic love story into a jaw-dropping fusion of theater, film, and music. Brief Encounter is "brilliantly done and superbly acted . . . and deserves all the popular success that is surely coming its way" (WhatsonStage.com). Forbidden passion brews in a 1945 railway station tearoom when a suburban housewife, over a series of stolen afternoons, falls madly in love with a handsome married doctor. Featuring songs by Coward, Brief Encounter is "great fun, switching seamlessly between theater and film while retaining the damp-eyed nostalgia of the period that leaves you with a warm and sentimental glow" (The Times).
WEST COAST PREMIERE
November
by David Mamet
directed by Ron Lagomarsino
Press Night: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, at 8 p.m.
"David Mamet has dealt an ace." The New Yorker
David Mamet's fiendishly funny, over-the-top new comedy November, fresh from its smash-hit success on Broadway, offers no mercy in its satirical stab at American politics. Meet President Charles Smith, the most corrupt, inept buffoon ever to sit in the Oval Office. It's the final days of his bid for a second term, but the country is a mess and his poll numbers are "lower than Gandhi's cholesterol." Toss in a lesbian speechwriter longing to marry her sweetheart on national television, a cynical chief of staff, Thanksgiving turkeys awaiting pardon, and enough shady backroom scheming to make even a Glengarry Glen Ross con man blush, and you've got a new Mamet masterpiece.
SPECIAL NONSUBSCRIPTION EVENT
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
Adapted by Carey Perloff and Paul Walsh
Music by Karl Lundeberg
Choreography by Val Caniparoli
Directed by Domenique Lozano
Based on original direction by Carey Perloff
Featuring James Carpenter as Scrooge
December 4-27, 2009
Press Night: Tuesday, December 8, 2009, at 7 p.m.
"The best Christmas Carol ever! A terrific and imaginative production. Highest rating!"
-Jan Wahl, KRON-TV
"This is a Carol built to banish ‘bah humbugs' for years to come!"
-Chad Jones, Oakland Tribune
Scrooge is back, and he's meaner than ever in A.C.T.'s A Christmas Carol, the Bay Area's favorite holiday tradition. Featuring adorable Tiny Tim, those spooky Christmas ghosts, and a multigenerational cast of dozens, A Christmas Carol is a sparkling, music-infused celebration of goodwill that your family will never forget.
WORLD PREMIERE
In association with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Ontario, Canada
Phèdre
by Jean Racine
Translated and adapted by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Carey Perloff
January 15 - February 7, 2010
Press Night: Wednesday, January 20, 2010
In Jean Racine's explosive Phèdre, A.C.T. joins forces with one of the most thrilling theater companies in the world, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, giving our audiences a rare opportunity to witness exquisite classical acting from this prestigious Canadian company in their Bay Area debut. Seana McKenna, a 17-year Stratford veteran actor, stars as Phèdre, a woman caught in an agonizing love triangle with her husband, King Theseus of Athens, and his son by a former marriage. As passions erupt, will her desire for a younger man overwhelm her duty to her husband, her children, and her kingdom? In a new adaptation by Timberlake Wertenbaker (Our Country's Good), A.C.T.'s own Carey Perloff (Rock 'n' Roll) directs this potent mix of visceral sexuality and rich poetry in 90 minutes of unforgettable theater.
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
Directed and designed by John Doyle
Translated by Domenique Lozano
February 18-March 14, 2010
Press Night: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
John Doyle is "ferociously inventive." The New York Times
"Gleefully irreverent and bracingly modern" The Times (London)
John Doyle, whose dazzling interpretation of Sweeney Todd electrified A.C.T. and Broadway audiences, returns with a bold new interpretation of Brecht's moving tale of love and power. In the land of Caucasus, a servant girl saves The Life of an abandoned baby boy. But when the wealthy mother returns to claim him, their fates lie in the hands of a wily, unpredictable judge whose concern for the poor is rivaled only by his concern for saving his own hide. Featuring Doyle's signature theatricality and an original score, The Caucasian Chalk Circle soars with humor, romance, unexpected plot twists, and high-stakes intensity.
Vigil
Written and directed by Morris Panych
Starring Olympia Dukakis and Marco Barricelli
March 25-April 18, 2010
Press Night: Wednesday, March 31, 2010, at 8 p.m.
"Wickedly dark . . . hilarious, quirky, and heartfelt" Variety
"An absolute gem . . . extremely perceptive and wise" The Austin Chronicle
Two powerhouse performers return to the stage in a darkly comic tour de force from the creator of The Overcoat. Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis (A.C.T.'s Hecuba) and beloved Bay Area actor Marco Barricelli (A.C.T.'s Long Day's Journey into Night and A Streetcar Named Desire) tackle this moving, surprising new work by major Canadian writer and director Morris Panych. Barricelli stars as a self-involved bachelor who is summoned to care for an elderly aunt, whom he hasn't seen since childhood. As their relationship evolves in unexpected ways, this taut, terrific stunner explores complex emotions of family, friendship, and the human condition.
Round and Round the Garden
April 29-May 23, 2010
Press Night: Wednesday, May 5, 2010, at 8 p.m.
"Left me helpless with hilarity" Daily Telegraph
"Uproarious! Hilarious and heartbreaking" Variety
Librarian Norman channels Casanova in his fervent attempts to seduce his two sisters-in-law as well as his estranged wife during a weekend family gathering. In this brilliantly calibrated comedy, famed British playwright Alan Ayckbourn applies his rollicking wit and charmed affection to a cast of disastrously imperfect characters who expose the tensions and desires that simmer beneath the surface. Alongside a transformative ensemble of A.C.T.'s finest actors, Rock 'n' Roll's Manoel Felciano (Broadway's Sweeney Todd) plays misguided lothario Norman in this "explosively hilarious" (London's Guardian) third installment of Ayckbourn's acclaimed trilogy The Norman Conquests.
WORLD PREMIERE
The Tosca Project
Created and staged by Carey Perloff and Val Caniparoli
June 3-27, 2010
Press Night: Wednesday, June 9, 2010, at 8 p.m.
This radically original fusion of movement and theater explores 100 years in The Life of North Beach nightspot Tosca Café, imagining a world in which love, betrayal, and hope emerge from the shadows and disappear with the clink of a glass. The Tosca Project brings world-renowned dancers from San Francisco Ballet, including prima ballerina Sabina Allemann and Pascal Molat, together with such acclaimed actors as The Overcoat's Peter Anderson. Loosely structured around the themes of Puccini's Tosca, this imaginative new work is gorgeously choreographed, achingly moving, and scored with some of the best music ever made, from Hendrix to Stravinsky.
TICKETS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS:
Subscriptions range from $70 to $570 and are now available at the A.C.T. Subscription Office. For more information or to purchase, please call 415.749.2250 or visit www.act-sf.org. Single tickets for individual productions will be available August 2009.
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