Theatre Aspen To Present Works Starring Judith Ivey, Bryce Pinkham And More For 2023 SOLO FLIGHTS FESTIVAL

Today, Theatre Aspen has announced tickets are on sale for the 2023 Solo Flights Festival featuring works and performances starring Tony Award nominee Bryce Pinkham, HBO's Somebody Somewhere's Jeff Hiller, two-time Tony Award winner Judith Ivey, principal American Ballet Theatre dancer James Whiteside, four-time Academy Award-nominated actress and director Marsha Mason, and  Golden Globe and NAACP Award-winning playwright, actor and director Regina Taylor from September 7-14 at Theatre Aspen's Hurst Theatre.

“It's always a joy to introduce new works for the annual Solo Flights Festival to our audiences from Aspen and beyond,” said Producing Director Jed Bernstein. “This year's six new works bring a challenge to Theatre Aspen, which we're excited to undertake, featuring a range of topics and performances we've yet to tackle before.”

This year's Solo Flights Festival will feature six new works, all receiving early developmental support from Theatre Aspen, including: Dead Center, written by principal dancer James Whiteside from American Ballet Theatre with music and lyrics by David Dabbon & James Whiteside and direction by Lorin Latarro (Waitress, Into the Woods); Dignity, with music and lyrics by Tony Award nominee Bryce Pinkham and directed by actor, director and educator Zack Fine; Exhibit, written by and starring Golden Globe and NAACP Award-winning playwright, actor and director Regina Taylor; The Exhibitionist, written by Drama Desk Award-nominated playwright and Broadway actor James Hindman and directed by Executive Producer of Theatre Aspen Michael Rader; First, written by American novelist and National Book Award finalist Kate Walbert and directed by Tony Award nominee Sheryl Kaller; and In That Little Village Near Perm, written by television producer and screenwriter Gary Dontzig and directed by Brooklyn- and Dublin-based director Marc Atkinson Borull.

Additional casting and creative announcements will be made shortly.

Solo Flights is an annual weeklong developmental festival of one-person shows presented in the beginning stages of their making. Launched in 2019, the festival has brought a variety of diverse works and celebrated actors and directors to Theatre Aspen. Past artists have included Beau Bridges, Kaye Winks, Sarah Stiles, Christine Quintana, Emma Ramos, Richard Greenberg, Lameece Issaq, Kate Baldwin, Taylor Trensch, Michael Gaston, James Naughton, and more.

In addition to the performances, Solo Flights features signature events, including talkbacks, creative discussions & panels, and special receptions.

Solo Flights single tickets and passes are available for purchase starting July 27, at 10 AM. New this year, Theatre Aspen is proud to offer “Pay What You Can” tickets starting at just $10 a ticket for matinees during our Solo Flights Festival. All seating is General Admission. Each seat is typically $35. The schedule for Solo Flights is subject to change, please visit TheatreAspen.org for the most up-to-date timing.

In celebration of Theatre Aspen's 40th Anniversary, the organization will present a Community Cabaret on September 6 at 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM, with a special anniversary reception in between the performances that is included for ticket holders. The Community Cabaret will be directed by Tony Award nominee Beth Malone (Fun Home, …Spelling Bee), with music direction by David Dyer, both Theatre Aspen Alums. The cast will include past mainstage performers still residing in the Roaring Fork Valley. Tickets will cost $40 and will be limited to two per household.

In 2022, Theatre Aspen created the Solo Flights Project Advancement Fund. which provided a $10,000 grant to two chosen festival works to support future development. The inaugural grant recipients were Avaaz by Michael Shayan and Sally: A Solo Play by Sandra Seaton. This year a selection panel, to be announced shortly, will choose two works to receive the 2023 grants. Theatre Aspen's Solo Flights Festival is presented in part by Rachel and Rick Klausner, Nancy Wall and Chuck Wall, Juliet Shield-Taylor and the Robins Foundation, Karen Brooks and Maja and Nicholas DuBrul.

Theatre Aspen's 40th Season is currently underway and runs through August 26 at the Hurst Theatre in Rio Grande Park. The season continues with the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical RENT on the mainstage, as well as the summer Cabaret Series at Hotel Jerome and additional education programming and special events for the summer.

As Theatre Aspen celebrates its 40th Anniversary season in 2023, it continues to rekindle a sense of discovery in audiences who live in and visit the Roaring Fork Valley by producing big theatre in a small space with intimate storytelling. Each season, Theatre Aspen promises to bring world-class theatre dramatically closer, with innovative and imaginative productions of both plays and musicals. These productions are complemented by an assortment of community events, including cabarets, educational programs and performances, collaborations with other Aspen arts organizations, and new works presentations. Theatre Aspen also boasts an impressive Apprentice Program, one of the largest in the country, devoted to training the next generation of theatrical artists and administrators. The Theatre Aspen Box Office is open Monday - Saturday from 10AM – 4PM, to learn more about Theatre Aspen, visit TheatreAspen.org or call (970) 925-9313.

2023 SOLO FLIGHTS NEW WORKS

Dead Center

Written by James Whiteside

Music & Lyrics by David Dabbon & James Whiteside
Directed by Lorin Latarro

Starring James Whiteside
September 12 at 4 PM | September 14 at 7 PM

James Whiteside is a thrilling multifaceted artist whose personal story is as unique as his artistic virtuosity as one of the world's greatest ballet dancers. James uses dance, song, and high camp to process the death of his complicated and beloved mother, and the near death of his dance career after a brutal knee injury. He reminds us all that there is life after change and the only way through… is through. Join us for the most fun funeral you'll ever attend.

Dignity

Written by Bryce Pinkham

Directed by Zack Fine
Starring Bryce Pinkham

September 11 at 4 PM | September 13 at 7 PM

The lights come up to reveal a small island surrounded by water, at the center of which is a broken-down baby grand piano. Out of it crawls The Performer, a shaggy, 21st-century Buster Keaton-type fellow. He was a performer before he washed up on this island. At least he thinks he was. He's been stranded longer than he can remember. His name is...well actually he can't remember that either, but before all this, he was certain he was a star. His companion is an imaginary piano player named Bobby and an island of memories washed ashore that he must somehow use to put on one last show that's sure to “fix it all” before the final curtain falls.

Exhibit

Written by and starring Regina Taylor

September 8 at 7 PM | September 13 at 4 PM

An African-American woman, Iris, recalls pieces of her childhood as she integrated a school in Muskogee Oklahoma. Her personal recollections are flashes of a sharply polarized America in transition as the civil rights movement

rolls forward.   Iris's memories of her martyred innocence for a cause are triggered by things she thought she'd never see again in her lifetime- the enactment of today's roll back of the social tides of change.

The Exhibitionist

Written by James Hindman

Directed by Michael Rader

Starring Jeff Hiller
September 7 at 7 PM | September 9 at 4 PM
 

Amidst the hushed buzz of anticipation, Justin strides confidently toward the McMillon Arts Museum's audience gathered to witness the unveiling of a recently discovered painting by Vincent Van Gogh. Little do they know that, just one floor below, Justin – an intern at the museum – is under scrutiny as one of a hundred other aspiring artists competing to have his artwork chosen as the grand prize winner, thrusting him onto the career trajectory of his dreams. The Exhibitionist delves deep into the nuances of what it means to be an artist and the lengths we will go to define our worth and success. 
 

First

Written by Kate Walbert

Directed by Sheryl Kaller

Starring Judith Ivey

September 12 at 7 PM | September 14 at 4 PM

It's the winter of 1968, and in a dirt-floor kitchen in Watkinsville, Georgia, the country's first congresswoman, now eighty-seven, prepares to head to Washington for the Women's March against the Vietnam War. Inspired by the life and activism of Jeannette Rankin, First presents this complicated, irascible, and mostly forgotten character from history as she walks us through her story — beginning in 1916, before national suffrage, when she was elected to represent Montana in U.S. Congress: one woman swimming upstream in a sea of four-hundred and thirty-four men.

In That Little Village Near Perm

Written by Gary Dontzig

Directed by Marc Atkinson Borull

Starring Masha Mason
September 7 at 4 PM | September 9 at 7 PM

Olga, Masha, and Irina, Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, have become some of the most beloved characters in theatre history. The last time we saw them, they were embracing outside their home in an unnamed Little Village near the Ural Mountains and the town of Perm. They were all going through major transitions, wondering what meaning they could find in their lives, while facing uncertain futures: the loss of a life, the loss of a love, and the possible end of their dream to return to Moscow.  Decades have passed, a revolution has taken place, two world wars have been fought, it is now 1950. In Russia, Stalin has been in power for 28 years; in America, HUAC is investigating the existence of communists in Hollywood; Bette Davis and Joan Crawford are in the midst of a years-long feud, and we find that the three sisters are part of it all.