2018/19 Mainstage Season Announced for Baltimore Center Stage

Baltimore Center Stage is pleased to announce its 2018/19 Mainstage Season, which includes a world premiere and a classic family drama, along with provocative political and social justice stories providing a lens into American life across cultures.

"Our 2018/19 Season is going to be a theater-goers' theater season, full of the kind of diverse, smart, entertaining and thought-provoking work you have come to expect from Baltimore Center Stage," said Michael Ross, Baltimore Center Stage Executive Director. "It's a season of acclaimed hits, voices new and returning, and stunning theatricality. "

Our 56th season kicks off with the sultry American classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Award-winning playwright Lauren Yee brings a fresh comedy to the stage with King of the Yees, and Marcus Gardley's A Wonder in My Soul, updated with a Baltimore setting, will be our holiday production. The season will also feature Paula Vogel's highly acclaimed play Indecent, and the 2015 Tony Award-winning musical Fun Home. The world premiere of Christina Anderson's How to Catch Creation will close out the 2018/19 Season.

2018/19 Season

A SULTRY AMERICAN CLASSIC

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

by Tennessee Williams

Sep 13-Oct 14

In this enduring American classic, family ties and layers of lies collide over the course of one simmering Southern summer night. Themes of morality, greed, and desire play across the stage in this explosive drama about what can happen when illusions begin to unravel. Brick, racked with guilt over his best friend's death, numbs his pain with drink. Maggie, his wife, is determined to win even fleeting attention from her neglectful husband. But when three generations come together to celebrate a birthday-and discuss a will-all of the players start to the crack under the pressure and the heat. How long can tensions build in a house boiling over with uncertainty, secrets, and maybe even love?

HEARTFELT HILARITY BRIDGING GENERATIONS

King of the Yees

By Lauren Yee

Oct 25-Nov 18

Playwright Lauren Yee has always felt like an outsider, especially compared to her father, Larry, the unofficial center of their Chinese American community. When Larry suddenly goes missing, Lauren has to chase through time, space, and the fourth wall itself to find her father, save his story, and chronicle a vanishing piece of American culture. Explore the vivid legacy of one changing Chinatown through the vibrant imagination of a new generation in award-winning playwright Lauren Yee's smart and cheeky family comedy.

A STORY OF FRIENDSHIP, FAMILY, AND THE HEART OF A NEIGHBORHOOD

A Wonder in My Soul

By Marcus Gardley

Nov 29-Dec 23

In a Baltimore beauty shop, two longtime co-owners and best friends grapple with a major decision. Remain as the anchor of their beloved neighborhood, or relocate under the pressures of gentrification and crime? In dialogue that resonates with everyday poetry, and filled with music both profound and stirring, A Wonder in My Soul looks at the evolution of one
family and a whole community through the eyes of two best friends and their lifetime of friendship.

A COMING-OUT MUSICAL, BASED ON A TRUE FAMILY

Fun Home

Jan 17-Feb 24

Music by Jeanine Tesori

Book and lyrics by Lisa Kron

Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel

Welcome to the Bechdel family. But just what family is it? Through the searching eyes of daughter Alison-aged 9, 17, and then 42-we meet her ever-shifting and sometimes unreliable memories of brothers, mother, and above all her repressed father, along with recollections from the family funeral home to Alison's coming out. Based on Bechdel's own best-selling illustrated memoir, this poignant tale harnesses every facet of music and theater to explore and unravel the mysteries of childhood and the surprising secrets that shape a life. Winner of the 2015 Tony Award for Best Musical, from the composer of Caroline, or Change and the writer of 2.5 Minute Ride.

WOULD YOU GO TO JAIL FOR WHAT YOU LOVE?

Indecent

By Paula Vogel

Produced in Association with Arena Stage and Kansas City Rep

Feb 28-Mar 31

What is the cost when we sacrifice truth for success? Can radical love be pious, or merely provocative? Does every religion sell God for a price? Follow the true story of a play, a playwright, and a plucky troupe of Yiddish theater artists from 1906 Warsaw to 1923 Broadway, from risky experiment to global sensation-and ultimately shattering scandal. The latest hit from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of A Civil War Christmas, The Baltimore Waltz, and How I Learned to Drive, this highly acclaimed and award-winning drama pays homage to artists ahead of their time and doomed to pay the price.

FROM LOVE TO ART AND BACK AGAIN

How to Catch Creation

By Christina Anderson

May 2-26

In the mid-1960s, a young writer's life turns upside down when her girlfriend drops some unexpected news. Even 50 years later, the reverberations of that moment, and its unexpected consequences, still echo in the intersecting lives of four individuals caught up in a rapidly changing world. This is a bittersweet story of finding and following our passions from Christina Anderson, winner of the Lorraine Hansberry Award. This world-premiere play that explores the universal act of creation-of life, of family, of art-spans space and time to inspire a new generation of makers and lovers.

About Baltimore Center Stage

Baltimore Center Stage is a theater committed to artistic excellence. We engage, enrich, and broaden the perspectives of diverse audiences through entertaining and thought-provoking work and educational programs. Named the State Theater of Maryland in 1978, Baltimore Center Stage has steadily grown as a leader in the national regional theater scene. Under Executive Director Michael Ross, Baltimore Center Stage is committed to creating and presenting a diverse array of world premieres and exhilarating interpretations of established works. Baltimore Center Stage believes in access for all-creating a welcoming environment for everyone who enters its doors and, at the same time, striving to meet audiences where they are. In addition to Mainstage and Third Space productions in the historic Mount Vernon neighborhood, Baltimore Center Stage ignites conversations across Baltimore and beyond through the Mobile Unit, which brings high-quality theater to economically, culturally and geographically diverse communities. The theater also nurtures the next generation of artists and theatergoers through the Young Playwrights Festival, Student Matinee Series, and many other educational programs for students, families, and educators.

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