Olney Theatre Announces 2014-2015 Season

Olney Theatre Center, Maryland's destination for professional theater performance and education, proudly announced its 2015 Season at the opening of its current hit show, Avenue Q, on Saturday, June 16. One of Maryland's two state theaters, Olney Theatre Center continues its commitment to producing great American classics, new works, as well as family-friendly shows in its 77thyear.

"In the year since I came to Olney Theatre Center, our community has cheered great American musicals like A Chorus Line, discovered award-winning new plays like I And You, and reveled in masterpieces like The Piano Lesson," said Artistic Director Jason Loewith. "So we'll continue our three-stream programming to make sure every theatre lover in Montgomery County - and beyond -has at least three good reasons to come join us in 2015."

The journey begins in February 2015 with the sublime harmonies and voluptuous music of Wicked creator Stephen Schwartz's Godspell,directed by Associate Artistic Director Jason King Jones. Next comes one of London's Top Ten Plays of 2013, Grounded, in a first-time co-production with Baltimore's Everyman Theatre, directed by one of the area's most prolific and peripatetic artists, Georgetown University's Derek Goldman.

Loewith helms the theater's April production, Rodgers and Hammerstein's epic achievement Carousel, with the same team that mounted How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying earlier this year. The spring season ends in May with Olney Theatre Center's celebration of theArthur Miller Centennial: his brilliant and powerful tale of two brothers, The Price, directed by Michael Bloom, who has just relocated to Washington, DC following a long and successful tenure as Artistic Director of the Cleveland Playhouse.

Summer at Olney Theatre Center has come to mean great contemporary musicals like last season's Helen Hayes Award-winning A Chorus Line and this season's Avenue Q. The Theatre follows up those achievements with the region's first resident professional production of Mel Brooks' Tony-record-breaking musical The Producers. And as Labor Day rolls in, Olney Theatre Center turns itself into the Bliss family's country estate for Noël Coward's sparkling comedy, Hay Fever, helmed by I And You director Eleanor Holdridge.

Olney Theatre Center joins DC's Women's Voices Theatre Festival in the fall with a contemporary take on the family, the Rolling World Premiere of Jennifer Hoppe-House's explosive new play Bad Dog. And holiday musicals at Olney Theatre Center have become a tradition for thousands of patrons throughout the state... and is there any American musical more classic than Guys and Dolls? Olney Theatre Center invites the whole family for a delightful, delirious stroll through Damon Runyon's New York.

Whether you love richly-performed classics, glittering musicals or make-you-think new plays, Olney Theatre Center has something for everyone in 2015.

OLNEY THEATRE CENTER 2015 SCHEDULE*:

GODSPELL
February 4 - March 1, 2015 on the Mainstage
Book by John Michael Tebelak • Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Conceived and Originally Directed by John Michael Tebelak Based on The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Directed by Jason King Jones

Come sing about love, enjoy all good gifts, and raise your spirits with the Stephen Schwartz Tony-nominated classic, GODSPELL. Told through an exciting array of music and dance, the parables of Jesus Christ come to life in this modern take on a timeless tale of friendship, loyalty, and love. GODSPELL is a part of both the Classic Series and the Family Series.

"A Family-Friendly Show That Deserves To Run Forever" - The Wall Street Journal

GROUNDED
February 25 - March 22, 2015 in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab
By George Brant
Directed by Derek Goldman

GROUNDED is the story of an ace fighter pilot who unexpectedly becomes pregnant and gets reassigned to the "Chair Force," operating drones from a windowless trailer on an Air Force base in the desert outside Las Vegas. Hunting terrorists by day and coming home to her family by night, the boundaries between reality and the screen - between the desert where she lives and the desert where she fights - blur until the pressure becomes impossible to bear. GROUNDED is a co-production with Everyman Theatre in Baltimore and is part of the Contemporary Series.

"A searing, gripping piece of writing...A must-see!" - The Guardian

CAROUSEL
April 15 - May 10, 2015 on the Mainstage
Music by Richard Rodgers • Book by Oscar Hammerstein II • Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on the Play Liliom by Ferenc Molnar as adapted by Benjamin F. Glazer
Original Dances by Agnes de Mille
Directed by Jason Loewith

Following the spectacular success of their first musical hit, Oklahoma, Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote this classic tale of love and redemption that Time Magazine calls the "greatest musical of the twentieth century." After a bank robbery gone wrong, carousel barker Billy Bigelow is given a second chance to make things right for millworker and love-of-his-life Julie Jordan and their unborn child. Featuring some of the form's best loved songs: "You'll Never Walk Alone," "Love Is Bustin' Out All Over," and "If I Love You." CAROUSEL is part of the Classic Series.

"GREATEST MUSICAL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY!" - TIME Magazine

THE PRICE
May 13 - June 21, 2015 in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab
By Arthur Miller
Directed by Michael Bloom

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Arthur Miller's birth with this brilliant, powerful, and deeply moving play. With compassion, humor, and rare insight, the play examines the relationship of two long-estranged brothers who meet after many years to dispose of their late father's belongings. THE PRICE is part of the Classic Series.

"...one of the most engrossing and entertaining plays that Miller has ever written." - The New York Times

THE PRODUCERS
June 24 - July 26, 2015 on the Mainstage
Book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan • Music and Lyrics by Mel Brooks • Based on the 1968 Film

The names "Bialystock and Bloom" should strike hysteria in anyone familiar with Mel Brooks' best comedy. What could possibly go wrong when washed-up Broadway producer, Max Bialystock, and his mousy accountant, Leo Bloom, scheme to make a mint by raising a million bucks to produce a 100,000 dollar flop in the form of a gay romp entitled Springtime for Hitler? THE PRODUCERS is a truly "boffo" hit, winning a record twelve Tony Awards and wowing capacity crowds night after night with its modern, outrageous, and in-your-face humor. THE PRODUCERS is part of the Contemporary Series.

HAY FEVER
September 2 - 27, 2015 on the Mainstage
by Noël Coward
Directed by Eleanor Holdridge

Hoping for a quiet weekend in the country with some guests, David Bliss, a novelist, and his wife Judith, a retired actress, find that an impossible dream when their high-spirited children Simon and Sorel appear with guests of their own. A house full of drama waits to be ignited as misunderstandings occur and tempers flare. With Judith's new flame and David's newest literary 'inspiration' keeping company as the children follow suit, the Bliss family lives up to its name as the 'quiet weekend' comes to an exhausting and hilarious finale worthy of Feydeau. HAY FEVER is part of the Classic Series.

"Light, luminous, and charming, and hilariously funny." - The New York Post
BAD DOG (Rolling Word Premiere)
September 30 - October 25, 2015 in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab
by Jennifer Hoppe-House

After ten years clean and sober, Molly Drexler falls off the wagon and drives her Prius through her living room wall. With a hole in the house as big as the hole in their hearts, Molly's two sisters, mother, father, and wicked stepmother descend on the house for an "intervention" that doesn't play out the way anyone thought it would. BAD DOG is part of the Contemporary Series.

GUYS AND DOLLS
November 11 - December 27, 2015 on the Mainstage
Book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows • Music and Lyrics by Frank Loesser
Based on The Idyll of Sarah Brown and characters by Damon Runyon

Considered by many to be the perfect musical comedy and featuring great musical theatre classics like "Luck Be A Lady," "A Bushel and a Peck," and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," GUYS AND DOLLS weaves a tale of old-time gangsters, hot-box girls, and gambling. This musical has received nearly unanimous positive reviews from critics and has won a bevy of awards including Tonys, Drama Desks, and Oliviers. GUYS AND DOLLS is part of both the Classic Series and the Family Series.

"Gleeful, rousing, and eye-popping" - The New Yorker
*Plays, artists and dates are subject to change.

ABOUT OLNEY THEATRE CENTER
Olney Theatre Center is an award-winning, nonprofit, Equity theatre. Located just north of Washington, D.C. in arts-rich Montgomery County, Maryland, Olney Theatre Center offers a diverse array of professional productions year-round. Olney Theatre Center is situated on 14 acres in the heart of the beautiful Washington-Baltimore-Frederick "triangle," within easy access of all three cities. Olney Theatre Center is home to the National Players, America's longest-running touring company and led by Artistic Director Jason Loewith and Managing Director Amy Marshall. For more information please visit www.olneytheatre.org.

Follow Olney Theatre Center on Twitter @olneytheatre or twitter.com/olneytheatre and on Facebook at facebook.com/olneytheatre.

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