American Repertory Theater Announces its 2010/11 Season

The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), under the Artistic Direction of Diane Paulus, is pleased to announce its 2010/11 Season.

A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus commented: "My first year has been a dream come true for me and I am grateful to our audiences who have embraced the idea of "experiencing the A.R.T." by flocking to Sleep No More in Brookline, keeping The Donkey Show running for over 8 months, supporting new work with Best of Both Worlds and Johnny Baseball, and saluting the Emerging America Festival partnership with the Huntington and ICA. In 2010/2011, I will continue to investigate work that is driven by music, both from the established canon and with world premieres of new work that will take us from Weimar Germany to a future in which robots discuss the meaning of death. We will also delve into the classics with a festival of Greek plays that speak directly to our lives today with questions of civic responsibility when faced with the trauma of war. I promise that our 2010/2011 season will be another year of theatrical events - from rock stars to a robot chorus, mosh pits to the geodesic dome, Sophocles to Lewis Carroll - there will be something for everyone."

The 2010/11 Season includes:

• CABARET
book by Joe Masteroff, based on the play by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood; music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, directed by Steven Bogart
"There was a cabaret, and there was a Master-of-Ceremonies and there was a city called Berlin in a country called Germany. It was the end of the world . . . and I was dancing with Sally Bowles and we were both asleep. . . . " - Cliff in Cabaret
Take your seat at the Kit Kat Klub, the perfectly marvelous cabaret where singer Sally Bowles meets writer Cliff Bradshaw. As the two pursue a life of pleasure in Weimar Berlin, the world outside the Klub begins to splinter. Presiding over it all is singer, songwriter, and former Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer as the Kit Kat Klub's magnetic Emcee, with A.R.T. regulars Thomas Derrah and Jeremy Geidt.
Amanda Palmer said: "I'm over the moon about being able to use OBERON as an artistic playground this fall . . . and this project is long-time dream-collision of working on Cabaret and working with Steven Bogart, whose directing genius will finally find the audience it deserves."
Oberon, September 2010

• ALICE vs. WONDERLAND
based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, adapted by Brendan Shea, directed by János Szász

Lewis Carroll meets Lady Gaga in this fantastical update of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This new adaptation seamlessly blends the lyrical whimsy of Alice with modern pop music, high-octane physical theater, and the dynamic vision of acclaimed Hungarian director János Szász (Mother Courage, Marat Sade, The Seagull). The result is a fresh, funny, and emotional remix of Carroll's classic coming-of-age tale.

" I want to create theater that makes the spectators use their hearts, brains, and nerves. I want to see how the actors react to their characters and I want the audience members to witness everything the actors are feeling. I'm always trying to break down the barriers between the audience and the playing space. - János Szász

"It is a rare to treat to see every single piece of a theatrical puzzle fit so perfectly together. And it is rarer indeed when brilliant is truly the only way to describe a production." - Boston Metro on Szász's production of The Seagull.
Loeb Stage, September 2010

• THE BLUE FLOWER
music, lyrics, script, and videography by Jim Bauer; artwork, story, and videography by Ruth Bauer; directed by Will Pomerantz

Fusing the sounds of Weimar cabaret and country-western music, The Blue Flower takes us on a journey from Belle Époque Paris to the World War I battlefields. As the artist Max Baumann assembles his memories into a spectacular collage, he reveals the story of four friends and lovers trying to make their way through a world in pieces.
"The Blue Flower is the most original and fascinating new piece of musical theater I have come across in years-funny, moving, incredibly theatrical.... It creates a completely personal musical world and yet is enormously evocative and universal. I love it." - Stephen Schwartz, composer of Wicked
(Produced by special arrangement with Stephen Schwarz, Andrew Levine, and Steve Tate.)
Loeb Stage, November 2010

• R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE
written and directed by D.W. Jacobs from the life, work and writings of R. Buckminster Fuller
Journey through the universe on Spaceship Earth with the Leonardo daVinci of the twentieth century as your guide. Futurist, environmentalist, and geodesic dome designer Bucky Fuller takes us on an adventure through his life and times - from his childhood in Massachusetts, to his meeting with Albert Einstein, to his breakthrough moments of invention. A visionary who anticipated many of the challenges the world faces today, Fuller shows us how to save humanity and the planet by doing more with less.

"Spaceship Earth's in danger. Find out what needs to be done. Reform the environment, not Man." - R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE
"Hugely entertaining!" - Los Angeles Times
Loeb Stage, January 2011

• AJAX
by Sophocles, in a new translation by Charles Connaghan, directed by Sarah Benson

As the great warrior Ajax recovers from a bout of madness, he struggles to live with the consequences of his crazed violence and with the trauma of war. A poignant examination of how combat affects the mind of a soldier, Sophocles' tragedy speaks directly to our times. A world premiere translation of this classic work, under the direction of Obie Award-winning director and Artistic Director of Soho Rep, Sarah Benson.

"Impeccably staged by Sarah Benson . . ., Ms. Kane's fierce study in the human instinct for inhumanity still registers off the Richter scale."
- The New York Times on Sarah Benson's production of Blasted
Loeb Stage, February 2011

• PROMETHEUS BOUND - World Premiere
text and lyrics by Steven Sater (from the play by Aeschylus), music composed by
Serj Tankian, directed by Diane Paulus

An outcry against tyranny, the new rock musical Prometheus Bound illustrates one man's struggle against the brute force of a ruthless dictator. Written by Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist and playwright Steven Sater (Spring Awakening) with music by System of a Down lead singer and Grammy Award-winning composer Serj Tankian, this bold new musical is inspired by Aeschylus's ancient Greek tragedy about the suffering of Western civilization's first prisoner of conscience. A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus stages this world premiere production in OBERON, immersing the audience in an environment that has the Dionysian energy and rebelliousness of a rock concert.
"Prometheus Bound feels very timely to me. It's a play about the birth of tyranny, which was written and staged in the golden days of the world's first democracy." - Steven Sater

OBERON, March 2011

• DEATH AND THE POWERS - American Premiere
composed by Tod Machover, libretto by poet-laureate Robert Pinsky from a story by Robert Pinsky and Randy Weiner, directed by Diane Paulus

When the eccentric patriarch Simon Powers downloads himself into The System, his entire house comes to life around his family and friends. A groundbreaking new production developed by the MIT Media Lab in partnership with the A.R.T., Death and the Powers explores what we leave behind for the world and our loved ones, using specially designed technology and an expressively animated stage, including a chorus of robots and a musical chandelier. Machover, called "America's most wired composer" by the L.A. Times, distinctively blends technological and artistic finesse to create a score that is passionately inventive, yet filled with arching melodic lines. Death and the Powers, which receives its world premiere in Monaco in the fall of 2010, is supported by Futurum Association (Monaco), and will be presented in collaboration with Chicago Opera Theater, in association with Opera Boston.

"Death and the Powers examines fundamental questions of love and legacy through a wildly futuristic lens. How exhilarating it has been to create this work with such remarkable collaborators, and with The Combined and complementary forces of the MIT Media Lab and the A.R.T. - Tod Machover
Cutler Majestic, March 2011

The A.R.T. will continue its performances of The Donkey Show on Saturday nights at OBERON; and will present the 2nd annual Emerging America, the festival of theater devoted to supporting and launching the new American voices of tomorrow, in collaboration with the Huntington Theatre Company and the I.C.A., in the spring of 2011.
Subscription renewals will go on sale on May 20, new subscriptions will be available from June 20.

To learn more about the A.R.T. and its upcoming season log on to the A.R.T. website at www.americanrepertorytheater.org or call the A.R.T. InfoLine at (617) 547-8300. The InfoLine is also available 24 hours a day to provide directions to the theater; to order brochures, calendars, and newsletters; and to allow direct access to the A.R.T. Box Office (hours are noon to curtain time on performance days, noon to 5 pm on non-performance days, closed on Mondays).

The Loeb Drama Center, at 64 Brattle Street and OBERON, on the corner of Arrow Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square, Cambridge are accessible to persons with special needs and to those requiring wheelchair seating or first-floor restrooms. Public transportation and discount parking are available nearby.

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