Imagination Stage Announces 2012-13 Season: Roald Dahl in Rep and More

The 2012-13 Season, beginning late September and running through August 2013, starts with a remounted production of P.Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical, followed by Seussical; Anime Momotaro; James and the Giant Peach; The Magic Finger; and Peter Pan and Wendy.  Imagination Stage's Artistic Director Janet Stanford describes this new season as "upbeat and uplifting.  As always at Imagination Stage, our shows reflect our mantra of 'serious fun.'  The plays have important themes that relate to growing up, making good choices, and showing courage in the face of adversity.  We love to make our audiences laugh and cheer.  And we promise fine performances from the best Washington area actors, beautiful stage designs and costumes, and lots of music and movement."

 

Imagination Stage will "hit repeat" to open its season with the popular P.Nokio: A Hip-Hop Musical.  This super-fly show, written by and starring Psalmayene 24, was Helen Hayes recommended during the 2011-12 season and also enjoyed a successful tour to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.  The Washington Post called this updated retelling of Pinocchio "inspired and quirky."

 

The next show, Seussical, is an enchanting musical that transports audiences to a world where "a person's a person, no matter how small."  The beloved characters of Dr. Seuss, including Horton the Elephant, Gertrude McFuzz, and the Cat in the Hat, embark on an adventure as they learn that anything is possible.  This show will feature actors Matt Anderson, Shayna Blass, Kirstin Riegler, and Ayanna Hardy, and will be directed by Janet Stanford.

 

Anime Momotaro will have its energetic East Coast premiere at Imagination Stage after originating at Honolulu Theatre for Youth.  This innovative "anime-style" staging of Japan's most famous folktale, Peach Boy, teaches powerful lessons about inner strength and how creativity, kindness, and cooperation win out over brute force.  Eric Johnson, Artistic Director at Honolulu Theater for Youth, will direct.

 

In the spring, Roald Dahl's stories come to the stage as James and the Giant Peach and the world premiere of The Magic Finger play in repertory, featuring Imagination Stage favorites Megan Graves, Phillip Reid, Matthew Schleigh, and Joe Brack.  Stanford explains the thinking behind commissioning and developing The Magic Finger for the stage: "Over the last forty years, the work of Roald Dahl has grown in popularity worldwide and spawned multiple movie and musical theatre versions.  Simply put, kids everywhere love Roald Dahl's stories.  But why?!  Dahl said in an interview once that he exaggerated his evil characters as a means of making them funny for children.  I also think that he understood from traditional fairy tales that children welcome stories where the moral landscape is black and white.  I believe children begin to sense at an early age that life is complicated."

 

Directed by Stanford, James and the Giant Peach explores the adventures of young, orphaned James Trotter, who finds himself aboard a trans-Atlantic flying peach, along with some unusual new friends.  Dahl's lesser known The Magic Finger is Imagination Stage's latest of more than two dozen world premieres, and will be directed by Associate Artistic Director Kathryn Chase Bryer.  Lucy, an eight-year old girl with a passion for what's right, has a "magic" index finger that doles out justice.  When Lucy sees something she thinks is unfair, she simply points her finger at the problem and waits for the zany results. 

 

In the summer, audiences will be taken on a journey to Neverland with Peter Pan and Wendy.

In this swashbuckling adventure, which allows the audience to participate in the action, our heroes must decide if growing up is really all that bad.  This show will be directed by Bryer, with musical direction by Chris Youstra.