VENICE, INISHMAAN, THIS et al. Set for CTG's 2010-2011 Season at Kirk Douglas Theatre; Season Announced

Michael Ritchie, Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group, has set the 2010-2011season at CTG's Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. The new season, which features three productions and four DouglasPlus presentations, will run from October 7, 2010, through  August 28, 2011.

The seventh season at the Kirk Douglas Theatre will include the powerful world premiere production of a CTG-commissioned musical by Eric Rosen and Matt Sax, "Venice"; an acclaimed Irish production of the "The Cripple of Inishmaan" by the inimitable Martin McDonagh; and one of the biggest hits of the 2009 off-Broadway season, "This" by Obie Award-winning playwright Melissa James Gibson.

In addition, DouglasPlus at the theatre will host four adventurous events: Tim Crouch's shattering new work, "The Author"; the evocative new memory piece "Juan and John" by solo performance artist Roger Guenveur Smith; the celebrated theatre collective Rude Mechs and their work "The Method Gun"; and for family fun, Jamie Adkins' inventive "Circus INcognitus."
"We have packed the new Kirk Douglas Theatre season with a remarkable range of theatre fare - from a highly original new musical to several comic-dramas, and from the more traditional theatre to the genre-breaking," said Michael Ritchie.

"I am particularly pleased that we are presenting ‘Venice,' a work we have been developing for several years now with Eric Rosen and Matt Sax (‘Clay'). This marks the first time that a DouglasPlus workshop has moved to a full production, four-week run in a Douglas season.
"And personally, I can't get enough of Martin McDonagh's work. We are currently presenting his ‘The Lieutenant of Inishmore' at the Mark Taper Forum, and that certainly whets the appetite for more of McDonagh's special brand of dark humor and stunning theatricality. I look forward to welcoming the Druid Theatre Company back to Los Angeles and seeing their production of McDonagh's ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan.'"

"Melissa James Gibson's ‘This' is a very funny/sad play about relationships, commitment and coming to grips with middle age," Ritchie said. "How do you deal with all ‘this' is her provocative question, and we all benefit from her remarkable gifts as a playwright to take us on this journey.
"The especially rewarding feature of this new season is the continuing growth of our DouglasPlus programming. We do some of our edgier work here, and this is where we can all watch theatre evolve and take on new shapes and forms. The events in this season's DouglasPlus offer some fascinating, tough, visually intriguing work, plus we get a chance to treat our younger audiences to a visit with that timeless artist, the circus clown."

"Venice"
Book by Eric Rosen Music by Matt Sax
Lyrics by Matt Sax and Eric Rosen
Additional Music by Curtis Moore
Directed by Eric Rosen
World Premiere Production
October 7 - November 14, 2010

For a high-voltage opening of the 2010-2011 season at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, Center Theatre Group will present the world premiere production of the new musical "Venice,"
October 7 through November 14, 2010. The opening date is October 17.

"Venice," a rich story of war, love, betrayal and the quest for peace, boasts a powerful score that fuses elements of hip-hop, R&B and opera. The book is by Eric Rosen, music by Matt Sax, lyrics by Matt Sax and Eric Rosen, and additional music by Curtis Moore. "Venice" was commissioned by CTG and had public workshops in DouglasPlus in April 2009.

"Venice" is presented at the Douglas Theatre as a co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre where the musical opened in April 2010. Richard Zoglin of Time magazine said, ". . . the next major American musical could well be in the making."

"Venice" is set in a not-too-distant future where two brothers clash over how to save their city in the aftermath of a 20-year war. One brother seeks a new era of peace and restoration while the other tries to seize power by keeping the city mired in violence and by derailing his brother's upcoming marriage to a woman whose father had been the city's president in happier days.
"Venice," said Zoglin, is "[an] ambitious and expansive work, combining elements of Shakespeare, Greek tragedy, Brechtian allegory and dystopian political fable, all enhanced by rap narration and a melodic, rock-influenced score that is one of the most winning I have heard onstage in years."
Matt Sax and Eric Rosen were the creators of the one-man hip-hop musical "Clay," the fresh, intense coming of age story written and performed by Sax and directed by Rosen, and presented at the Douglas Theatre in September-October 2007. "Clay" received an Ovation Award nomination.
Eric Rosen, who is the artistic director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre, is a playwright, director and producer. His original plays and musicals include "Winesburg, Ohio," for which he wrote the book and lyrics and he directed (Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award for best new work, and five Barrymore Awards including best musical), "Dream Boy" (Jefferson Award for best direction and production), "Wedding Play," "Dancer from the Dance," "Whitman" and "Undone."
Matt Sax won a Joseph Jefferson Award for best solo performance for "Clay" in its presentation by Lookingglass Theatre and About Face Theatre. "Clay" was also presented at the Lincoln Center Theater where it received Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations, and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Sax also writes for and performs in the two-man, long-form sketch show, "Sax and Dixon."

Druid and Atlantic Theater Company production of
"The Cripple of Inishmaan"
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Garry Hynes
April 5 - May 1, 2011

The great tradition of Irish storytelling is at its most savagely funny and heartbreaking in the Druid and Atlantic Theater Company production of Martin McDonagh's "The Cripple of Inishmaan," which will be presented as the second production in the Kirk Douglas Theatre's new season, April 5 through May 1, 2011. The opening is set for April 6.

"The Cripple of Inishmaan" is directed by Garry Hynes, Artistic Director of Druid, and features cast members from the theatre company whose home is in Galway, Ireland.

Set in 1934 on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, "The Cripple of Inishmaan" tells of the day when the local gossip, Johnnypateenmike, finally stumbles upon news that is exciting. A Hollywood director is coming to the neighboring island of Inishmore to film "The Man of Aran" and there's a chance some of the locals will be hired. This chance at stardom interests Helen, the village beauty, her brother Bartley and even Babbybobby, but there is no one more eager to audition than Cripple Billy, if only to break away from his overprotective aunts and the bitter tedium of his daily life.
Ben Brantley of The New York Times called Garry Hynes' production (when presented by Druid and Atlantic Theater Company in 2008 in New York) ". . . first-rate," and said that it ". . . emanates a hearthside warmth and coziness that could well seduce theatergoers . . . Be warned, though: This is a play by Mr. McDongah, which means that sentimental warmth can suddenly scorch . . . ‘Cripple' emerges as a subversive charmer that shows off Mr. McDonagh's skills as an expectation-thwarting master of knotted yarns."

Lyn Gardner of The Guardian (London) said this production ". . . is a break-your-heart, cruelly funny evening directed with an exhilarating ruthlessness and acted with a bracing lack of sentimentality."
The presentation of "The Cripple of Inishmaan" at the Douglas is part of an eight-city, 14-week tour of the United States, the biggest U.S. tour undertaken by an Irish company since the 1930s. This will be Druid's fourth visit to Los Angeles in just three years, having appeared at UCLA Live in 2008 and 2009.

Martin McDonagh, whose current play "A Behanding in Spokane" was presented this past February through June on Broadway, received a 2006 Tony Award nomination for Best Play for "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," a new production of which is currently being presented at the CTG/Mark Taper Forum. His play "The Pillowman" won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2004 and was nominated for a Tony Award in 2005, and he also received Tony Award nominations for "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" (1998) and "The Lonesome West" (1999). In 2005 he won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for "Six Shooter," and his first feature film, "In Bruges," won an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 2008, as well as the BAFTA Best Original Screenplay Award in 2008.

"This"
By Melissa James Gibson
Directed by Daniel Aukin
July 31- August 28, 2011

Melissa James Gibson's witty and insightful new play "This" will be the final production of the 2010-2011 season at the Douglas Theatre, July 31 through August 28, 2011. The opening is set for August 7.

Daniel Aukin is the director of "This," which Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called a ". . . tart, melancholy comedy about a group of close friends entering the choppy waters of middle age," . . . a story told with ". . . scintillating verbal humor, honesty and a keen compassion that upends conventions and avoids the predictable at every turn."

At the heart of the play is Jane, a single mom in her late 30s who has shut down after her husband's death. Her good friends are determined to lift her out of her inertia with the warmth and love and humor of all their years together, but in the process everyone comes face to face with their own vulnerabilities and tries to make sense of unsettling transitions in life.

Isherwood said, "Its confused but lovable characters are drawn with a fine focus and a piercing emotional depth; the dialogue sparkles with exchanges as truthful as they are clever . . . a play about how we process love, hurt and loss. . . ." Michael Kuchwara of A.P. said "This" is ". . . a startling work, canny in the way it slowly draws you into the lives of five people creeping through middle-age. The writing is intellectually quirky yet emotionally satisfying. And if you think the subject matter sounds maudlin, don't worry. ‘This' is surprisingly tough-minded and funny, too."
"This" was first presented by Playwrights Horizons in New York in December 2009 and was called by Isherwood ". . . the best new play to open Off-Broadway this fall."

Melissa James Gibson's other plays include "[sic]" (for which she won an Obie Award for playwriting), "Suitcase or, those that resemble flies from a distance," "Brooklyn Bridge" and "Current Nobody." She has written the book and lyrics for "Post Office," a new musical commissioned by CTG which had a staged workshop in DouglasPlus last February. She has other commissions from the Atlantic Theater Company and Manhattan Theatre Club.

 

DouglasPlus
Jamie Adkins "Circus INcognitus"

Jamie Adkins' one-man circus comedy, "Circus INcognitus," is a special treat for the family and children ages 6 -12, in the DouglasPlus programming. For six public performances, January 15, 16, 22 and 23, 2011, former Pickle Family Circus and Cirque Éloise member Adkins performs in "Circus INcognitus," a show filled with hilarious circus hi-jinks and zany acrobatics as the audience follows Jamie on an adventure about having the courage to try new ideas and not giving up when all goes wrong.

"The Author"
By Tim Crouch

In his remarkable theatrical event "The Author," Tim Crouch boldly tests the relationship of the audience to the performers and to the material in the play. This production breaks down all four walls of traditional theatre as the audience, seated on the stage with four actors, becomes complicit in the story being told alternately by an ‘author' of a successful and shocking play about violent abuse, two actors who had appeared in the play, and a man who saw it. What emerges in what the London Guardian called ". . . this bold, brave, playful piece" is a "devastating riff on ways of seeing and turning a blind eye to our own moral choices."
"The Author" was first produced at The Royal Court Theatre in London in September 2009. It will be presented in DouglasPlus February 16 through 27, 2011.

"Juan and John"
Created and Performed by Roger Guenveur Smith
Sound and Video by Marc Anthony Thompson

One of the most infamous incidents in baseball is the springboard for a powerful discussion of retribution and forgiveness in "Juan and John," the new work created and performed by Roger Guenveur Smith, with sound and video by Marc Anthony Thompson, the creative team behind the Obie Award-winning "A Huey P. Newton Story."

Smith recalls an event he witnessed on TV as a youth - the day in August 1965 that Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants repeatedly struck Los Angeles Dodgers catcher John Roseboro in the head with his bat and the bench-clearing brawl that ensued. Marichal and Roseboro eventually reconciled their differences and Smith, in the telling of their story, poignantly draws upon the violent history of the 1960s and also of more personal memories of his parents and his childhood.
"Juan and John" had its world premiere in December 2009 at The Public Theater in New York.
Smith's "The Watts Towers Project" was presented at the Douglas in 2006 as part of "Solomania!".
Performances of "Juan and John" in DouglasPlus are scheduled for May 17
through 29, 2011.

"The Method Gun"
Created by Rude Mechs
Written by Kirk Lynn
Directed by Shawn Sides

The Austin-based theatre collective Rude Mechs bring their characteristically inventive, lively and playful approach to theatre with "The Method Gun" in DouglasPlus, June 14
through 26, 2011.

Created by Rude Mechs, written by Kirk Lynn and directed by Shawn Sides, "The Method Gun" follows the disciples of the obscure acting teacher Stella Burden long after she has mysteriously moved to South America, leaving behind her acting technique. Her followers begin to question what they have learned and how to finish a project they have been rehearsing for nine years - a version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" performed without the characters of Blanche, Stanley, Stella and Mitch.

Jeanne Claire van Ryzin of Austin American-Statesman said, "‘The Method Gun' is nothing short of the best work this theatre collective has done in its 13 years as it has carved out its well-respected reputation on the international indie theatre scene. This is the Rude Mechs doing what they do best: crafting a rich series of stunning and surprising visual moments, lacing those moments with kinetic physical movement and wrapping it all together with a script both lyrical and cheeky. Sweet, irreverent and terribly funny, ‘The Method Gun' pays homage to the creative process itself as something of the ultimate ‘theatre about theatre' play."
"The Method Gun" had its world premiere in April 2008 at The Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin.

Funding for all of DouglasPlus is provided by The James Irvine Foundation's Artistic Innovation Fund and the Leading for the Future Initiative, a program of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

2010-2011 Season is Currently Available by Season Ticket Memberships Only

The 2010-2011 season at the Douglas is currently available by season ticket memberships only, starting as low as $72. The season includes "Venice," "The Cripple of Inishmaan" and "This," plus a 50-60 percent discount is available to season ticket members for any of the DouglasPlus events.
The Lounge in the Douglas Theatre's lobby is the perfect place to enjoy a full bar, conversation and tasty treats from some of Culver City's finest eateries. A variety of special events are held in The Lounge including pre- and post-show gatherings and Sunday afternoon wine tastings.
Two performances from each of the three season productions will have post-play discussions - Stage Talks - scheduled. Also available for each production is AfterWords, which takes place after the show has closed and encourages audience members to come back to the theatre for a fun social hour of refreshments and a discussion of the play.

For information and to charge season tickets by phone, call the Exclusive Season Ticket Membership Hotline at (213) 972-4444. To purchase online, visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org. For information regarding Project D.A.T.E. (audio description and sign language interpreted performances), discount memberships are available by calling TDD/Voice (213) 680-4017 or (213) 972-7444.

Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre is located at 9820 Washington Blvd. in Culver City. Free covered parking is available for Douglas patrons at Culver City Hall. Many restaurants are within walking distance.

Center Theatre Group, a non-profit organization, is one of the largest and most active theatre companies in the nation, programming subscription seasons year-round at the 739-seat Mark Taper Forum and the 1,600 to 2,000-seat Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. In addition to providing theatre of the highest caliber to the rich, diverse communities of Southern California and beyond, CTG supports a significant number of play development and arts education initiatives.

Photos: Uzo Abduba in VENICE; Credit: Don Ipock. Tadhg Murphy in CRIPPLE OF INNISHMAN; Credit Ros Kavanaugh. Melissa James Gibson, Author of THIS; Credit Heather Weston