Michael Arden & Tinashe Kajese-Bolden to Direct THE PREACHER'S WIFE World Premiere at The Alliance Theatre

The Alliance Theatre has announced the stage directors for its 55th season. The new season will feature award-winning plays, exciting world premieres, a blockbuster musical, and groundbreaking works developed for youth and families. This diverse and distinguished group of creators and storytellers highlight the Alliance’s commitment to delivering “powerful programming that challenges audiences to think critically and care deeply.”

On the Coca-Cola Stage:

·         THE SHINING will be directed by Brian Staufenbiel, creative director for Opera Parallèle where he has directed and created the conceptual designs of the company’s productions since it was founded in 2010.

·         A TALE OF TWO CITIES will be directed by Leora Morris, an award-winning Director who started working with the Alliance as the Yale Directing Fellow.

·         THE PREACHER’S WIFE will be directed by Tony Award nominee & NAACP Award winner Michael Arden and award-winning director and actor, Tinashe Kajese-Bolden.  Kajese-Bolden is also the Alliance’s BOLD Associate Artistic Director and co-interim Artistic Director. 

On the Hertz Stage:

·         ENGLISH will be directed by Theatre/Film director, choreographer, and writer Shadi Ghaheri.  Ghaheri is originally from Iran and is now based in New York. 

·         FURLOUGH’S PARADISE will be directed by award-winning director and actor, Tinashe Kajese-Bolden. 

·         FAT HAM will be directed by Tony Nominated, Obie award winning director, playwright, and cultural worker Stevie Walker-Webb

Youth & Family Series:

·         THE INCREDIBLE BOOK EATING BOY is directed by director, producer, playwright, and dramaturg Jamil Jude, who also serves as Artistic Director for Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre.  Sam Provenzano will serve as this production’s Associate Director.  

·         INTO THE BURROW: A PETER RABBIT TALE will be written and directed by award-winning director Mark Valdez, who also serves as Artistic Director of Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

·         A CHRISTMAS CAROL will be directed by Actor & Director, Caitlin Hargraves. 

THE INCREDIBLE BOOK EATING BOY (musical)

July 1 – 23, 2023
Howard Logan Stillwell Theatre at Kennesaw State University   
471 Bartow Ave NW, Kennesaw, GA 30144

Book by Madhuri Shekar

Music by Christian Magby

Lyrics by Christian Albright 
Directed by Jamil Jude

Associate Directed by Sam Provenzano

Inspired by the book The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers

Jamil Jude is a highly accomplished director, producer, playwright, and dramaturg focusing on bringing socially relevant art to the community. Jamil is the Artistic Director at Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta, Georgia, where he previously severed as Associate Artistic Director. Additionally, he is the Co-Founder of The New Griots Festival, which is dedicated to celebrating, advocating, and advancing the careers of emerging Black artists in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area in Minnesota. Prior to joining the staff at True Colors, Jamil served as the Artistic Programming Associate at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, a Producer in Residence at Minneapolis’ Mixed Blood Theatre, a New Play Producing Fellow at Arena Stage in Washington, DC and co-founded the Colored People’s Theatre. Among his many awards, Jamil has been named the recipient of the Turn The Spotlight Fellowship (18/19), Andrew W. Mellon/TCG Leadership U Fellowship (2015/17), Nautilus Music Theater Management Fellowship (2014/15), NNPN Producer Residency (2011/12; 2012/13), Jerome Foundation/The Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Mentorship (2013/14) and the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship at Arena Stage (2009/10; 2010/11). Jamil received his Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University. 

ENGLISH (Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Drama)

August 16 – September 17, 2023 

The Hertz Stage at Alliance Theatre 

By Sanaz Toossi

Directed by Shadi Ghaheri

Shadi Ghaheri is a Theatre/Film director, choreographer and writer from Iran based in NYC. She has directed Tosca (Heartbeat Opera), Selling Kabul (Signature Theatre), Conduct of Life (SUNY Purchase), Threshold of Brightness (BMP), Memorial (NYU Tisch), Banned (Broadway Bound), Glimpse (Rattlestick Theatre), Fen (Columbia University), Untitled (Rattlestick Theatre), Lucretia (HERE), Death of Yazdgerd, Titus Andronicus (Yale School of Drama), The Slow Sound of Snow (Yale Cabaret). She co-curated Yale Summer Cabaret season, directing Trojan Women, and Lear. Also, she co-founded/co-curated Emruz Festival, and Peydah Theatre Company. Shadi was a 2016 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow, the 2018 directing fellow at Rattlestick Theatre and the winner of Robert L.B. Tobin Showcase 2019.
 

THE SHINING

September 15 – October 1, 2023

The Coca-Cola Stage at Alliance Theatre

Co-production with The Atlanta Opera

Composer Paul Moravec

Librettist Mark Campbell

Stage Direction by Brian Staufenbiel

Brian Staufenbiel is the creative director for Opera Parallèle where he has directed and created the conceptual designs of the company’s productions since it was founded in 2010. Specializing in multimedia, immersive, and interdisciplinary productions, he actively works across a wide range of artistic disciplines collaborating in film, and with media designers, choreographers and dancers, circus artists, and designer fabricators. His progressive approach to stagecraft has garnered critical acclaim for many of the company’s productions, including Wozzeck, Orphée, Champion and Dead Man Walking. Staufenbiel recently directed films for the online festival season of the Sun Valley Music Festival, a film of Dove/Angelis’ Flight for Seattle Opera, an award-winning graphic novel film of Talbot/Scheer’s Everest with Opera Parallèle, and a feature-length film of Gordon Getty’s opera Goodbye Mr. Chips for Festival Napa Valley.  
 

INTO THE BURROW: A PETER RABBIT™ TALE (world premiere, musical)

October 14 – December 23, 2023

Hertz Stage at Alliance Theatre

Written and Directed by Mark Valdez

Inspired by the stories of Beatrix Potter

Presented by special arrangement with Penguin Ventures and officially licensed on behalf of brand owner Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd.

Mark Valdez is the artistic director of Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis. In his practice he partners with communities, organizations, civic institutions, and others, using theater and creative tools to address community needs and to lift community voices and stories. His work has also been seen at the
 
 
Center Theater Group, Childsplay Theater, Cornerstone Theater Company, East West Players, Guadalupe Cultural Center, Trinity Rep, MACLA, the MiX Center at ASU, Mixed Blood, Native Voices at the Autry, REDCAT, and the Alliance Theatre. His play Highland Park is Here, won the Audience Award at the Highland Park Film festival and was featured in the Re:Encuentro, the national Latina/o/x Theater Festival. At the Alliance, Mark has created performances for the Collision Project (Around Atlanta on $80), directed animated short films (Sit-In and The Curious Cardinal), published a children’s book (The Curious Cardinal), and created immersive performances (Topia). Mark is the recipient of the California Arts Council’s Legacy Artist Fellowship, the Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities, SDCF’s Zelda Fichandler Award, Princess Grace Award, and others. 
 

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

November 11 – December 24, 2023

The Coca-Cola Stage at Alliance Theatre

By Charles Dickens​ 
Adapted by David H. Bell​ 
Directed by Caitlin Hargraves

Based on the Original Direction by Leora Morris​ 

Caitlin Hargraves is an American/Chilean director, actor, producer, and educator based in Atlanta. She received her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and her MA from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Caitlin teaches acting courses as a faculty member at Emory University where she is also the Co-Artistic Director of Theater Emory. She is an executive producer of the SheATL Arts summer theater festival, which celebrates theater makers of marginalized genders, and an executive producer of Cafecito Productions, a film production company whose short film Mi Casa (which Caitlin stars in) is currently playing on all HBO platforms. Caitlin has performed with companies around Atlanta like Theatrical Outfit, Synchronicity, and the Alliance where she has loved being part of the A Christmas Carol family as an actor and is thrilled to take on the new role of director this season! 

FURLOUGH’S PARADISE (World Premiere, Winner of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition)

January 31 – March 3, 2024

Hertz Stage at Alliance Theatre

By a.k. payne

Direction by Tinashe Kajese-Bolden

 
Tinashe Kajese-Bolden is the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at the Alliance Theatre. Tinashe is a Princess Grace Award 2019 Winner for Directing, and Map Fund Award recipient to develop her devised new work All Smiles that centers the experience of children on the Autism Spectrum. Recent theatre directing productions include Toni Stone (co-production Milwaukee Repertory Theater/The Alliance Theatre), School Girls, Or the African Mean Girls Play (Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre), Ghost (The Alliance Theater), Native Gardens (Virginia Stage Company), Pipeline (Horizon Theater), Nick’s Flamingo Grill (World Premiere at The Alliance Theatre, Hertz Stage), Eclipsed (Synchronicity Theatre, Suzi Bass Award for Best Director). Upcoming projects: co-directing Everybody with Susan Booth on the Coca-Cola Stage and the world premiere of the 19th winner of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd by Stephen Brown of Juilliard. Tinashe held a salaried Director’s Shadow position during the pilot and second episode development of “Our
 
Kind of People” (Fox Studios) under Lee Daniel’s production company, and was Director Shadow on the season finale of “BMF.” As a director and actor, she has worked On + Off Broadway, including The Imperial Theatre, Primary Stages, 59E59 Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem; and regionally at Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theater Co, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Geva Theatre, CTG’s Kirk Douglas Theatre, among others, as well as recurring roles on TV/Film (Suicide Squad, Marvel’s “Hawkeye,” CW’s “Valor, “Dynasty,” HBO’s “Henrietta Lacks,” Ava Duverney’s “Cherish the Day,” among others.) Love and thanks to my amazing husband Keith, our boys, and Kenny Leon for being a generous mentor. “My mission is the pursuit of what connects our different communities and how we create art that serves that.” 
 

A TALE OF TWO CITIES (World Premiere Adaptation)

February 21 – March 17, 2024

The Coca-Cola Stage at Alliance Theatre

By Charles Dickens

Adapted by Brendan Pelsue

Directed by Leora Morris

Leora Morris is an award-winning Director who started working with the Alliance as the Yale Directing Fellow.  Her directing credits include – Alliance: A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed, Ride the Cyclone, Winnie-the-Pooh, Crossing Delancey, The Dancing Granny, Hey Willy See the Pyramids. Other directing credits include The Sound Inside, Knives in Hens, Orphans (Coal Mine Theatre, Toronto); The Philosopher’s Wife (Toronto); Labour of Love (Olney Theatre Center); Spring Awakening the Musical (Connecticut College); The Wolves (University of British Columbia), He Left Quietly (2014 SummerWorks Best Production Award, Toronto); Amy and the Orphans, Women Beware Women, King John, Riverbank (Yale School of Drama); The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, love holds a lamp in this little room (Yale Cabaret). She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including Toronto’s 2012 Ken MacDougall Award, Yale Julian Milton Kaufman Prize in Directing, O’Neill/NNPN National Directing Fellow, Alliance Yale Directing Fellow. Leora was shortlisted for the international 2020 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Prize and is currently an assistant professor in Directing and Acting at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
 
 

FAT HAM (Winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama)

April 3 – May 12, 2024

Hertz Stage at Alliance Theatre

By James Ijames

Direction by Stevie Walker-Webb

Stevie Walker-Webb is a Tony Nominated, Obie award winning director, playwright, and cultural worker who believes in the transformational power of art. He is Founder of HUNDREDSofTHOUSANDS an arts and advocacy organization that makes visual the suffering and inhumane treatment of incarcerated mentally ill people. He is a recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Theatre, The Lily Award awarded by the Dramatists Guild of America, and a 2050 Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. He's a visiting artist and lecturer at Harvard University and is the Founding Artistic Director of the Jubilee Theatre in Waco, Texas. Stevie has created art and Theatre in Madagascar, South Africa, Mexico, and across America. His work has been produced on and off Broadway including The Public Theatre, The New Group, American
Civil Liberties Union, TONYC, National Black Theatre, and Baltimore Center Stage.
 
 

THE PREACHER’S WIFE (World premiere; Musical)

May 11 – June 9, 2024

The Coca-Cola Stage at Alliance Theatre

Book by Tituss Burgess & Azie Dungey

Music & Lyrics by Tituss Burgess

Direction by Michael Arden & Tinashe Kajese-Bolden

Based upon the motion pictures The Bishop’s Wife produced by Samuel Goldwyn; The Preacher’s Wife produced by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., and the novel The Bishop’s Wife written by Robert Nathan

Michael Arden is a Tony-nominated director for his revivals of Spring Awakening, Once On This Island, and Parade which is currently playing on Broadway after a sellout run at New York City Center. Other works include: the Los Angeles premiere of The Pride by Alexi Kaye Campbell, My Fair Lady at Bay Street Theater, and Annie at the Hollywood Bowl. Michael won an NAACP Award for his production of Merrily We Roll Along at the Wallis Annenberg, where he served as Artist in Residence. His new adaptation of
Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starring Tony Winner Jefferson Mays garnered eight Ovation Awards and recently played Broadway this past Christmas. Michael also recently directed the new musical Maybe Happy Ending at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta. He is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts and alumni of the Interlochen Arts Academy and The Juilliard School.
 
Tinashe Kajese-Bolden is the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at the Alliance Theatre. Tinashe is a Princess Grace Award 2019 Winner for Directing, and Map Fund Award recipient to develop her devised new work All Smiles that centers the experience of children on the Autism Spectrum. Recent theatre directing productions include Toni Stone (co-production Milwaukee Repertory Theater/The Alliance Theatre), School Girls, Or the African Mean Girls Play (Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre), Ghost (The Alliance Theater), Native Gardens (Virginia Stage Company), Pipeline (Horizon Theater), Nick’s Flamingo Grill (World Premiere at The Alliance Theatre, Hertz Stage), Eclipsed (Synchronicity Theatre, Suzi Bass Award for Best Director). Upcoming projects: co-directing Everybody with Susan Booth on the Coca-Cola Stage and the world premiere of the 19th winner of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition, The Many Wondrous Realities of Jasmine Starr-Kidd by Stephen Brown of Juilliard. Tinashe held a salaried Director’s Shadow position during the pilot and second episode development of “Our Kind of People” (Fox Studios) under Lee Daniel’s production company and was Director Shadow on the season finale of “BMF.” As a director and actor, she has worked On + Off Broadway, including The Imperial Theatre, Primary Stages, 59E59 Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem; and regionally at Yale Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theater Co, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Geva Theatre, CTG’s Kirk Douglas Theatre, among others, as well as recurring roles on TV/Film (Suicide Squad, Marvel’s “Hawkeye,” CW’s “Valor,” “Dynasty,” HBO’s “Henrietta Lacks,” Ava Duverney’s “Cherish the Day,” among others.) Love and thanks to my amazing husband Keith, our boys, and Kenny Leon for being a generous mentor. “My mission is the pursuit of what connects our different communities and how we create art that serves that.” 
 

Memberships for the Alliance’s 55th season are on sale now.  For more information, visit www.alliancetheatre.org/memberships.
 
Single tickets for individual productions and events will go on sale in July 2023. 
 

 

ABOUT THE Alliance Theatre

Founded in 1968, the Alliance Theatre is the leading producing theater in the Southeast, reaching more than 165,000 patrons annually.  The Alliance is a recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award® for sustained excellence in programming, education, and community engagement.  In January 2019, the Alliance opened its new, state-of-the-art performance space, The Coca-Cola Stage at Alliance Theatre.  Known for its high artistic standards and national role in creating significant theatrical works, the Alliance has premiered more than 120 productions including nine that have transferred to Broadway.  The Alliance education department reaches 90,000 students annually through performances, classes, camps, and in-school initiatives designed to support teachers and enhance student learning.  The Alliance Theatre values community, curiosity, collaboration, and excellence, and is dedicated to representing Atlanta's diverse community with the stories we tell, the artists, staff, and leadership we employ, and audiences we serve.