RLTP Announces 2012-13 Season

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) today publicly announced its 2012-2013 Season, which RLTP Artistic Director Scott Behrend has favorably referred to as RLTP's 'Year of the Woman.' The 2012-2013 Season includes works by five female playwrights, three of whom have Western New York (WNY) affiliations. Among the schedule are two world premieres, two WNY premieres, and a unique revival.

RLTP will launch its 2012-2013 season with a revival of From the Mississippi Delta , by WNY playwright Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland. Dr. Holland was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for this historical melodrama, which world premiered in Buffalo in 1986 before moving Off-Broadway for a successful New York run. Original cast member Verneice Turner will return to direct this tribute to "the extraordinary women who are the backbone of the African American community." From the Mississippi Delta is scheduled to open September 14 ^th , 2012 and run through October 7 ^th , 2012.

Three local playwrights will enjoy the spotlight in the second slot of the season. End Of The Road: The 2012 Plays is an evening of three interrelated world-premiere plays by local playwrights April Jones, Mark Witteveen, and RLTP Resident Playwright Jon Elston. Directed by Behrend and starring Bob Grabowski and Barry Williams, the offbeat anthology will focus on eight strangers in one room on December 21 ^st , 2012…which Behrend reminds us will be "the end of the Mayan Calendar and, possibly, the end of the world as we know it!" End Of The Road: The 2012 Plays is scheduled to run from November 9 ^th , 2012 through December 2 ^nd , 2012.

Behrend promises that the New Year 2013 will see the WNY premiere of Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker. Named one of the Ten Best Plays of 2010 by both the New York Times and The New Yorker , this gentle comedy "unfolds like a quirky indie movie" as it focuses on the motley crew of small-town locals who enroll in first-time acting coach Marty's inaugural "Adult Creative Drama" class. Behrend will direct and Lisa Vitrano will star as Marty. Circle Mirror Transformation is scheduled to run January 18 ^th 2013 through February 9 ^th , 2013.

In the spring of 2013, RLTP will unveil a world-premiere selection from its Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop and WNY writer Donna Hoke, the Artie Award nominated author of the 2010 smash hit comedy The Couple Next Door. In Hoke's new play, Seeds , identical twins Josephine (a mother of three) and Marjorie (childless) make an unusual arrangement that may provide Marjorie with the baby she's always wanted…but at what cost? Kristen Tripp-Kelley will direct. Seeds is scheduled to run from March 1 ^st , 2013 to March 24^th , 2013. 

RLTP's 2012-2013 Season concludes with a WNY premiere of another finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama: Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House . A contemporary fable of love, class, and mortality, the play is a tale of an aspiring-comedienne-slash-Brazilian-housekeeper who loses her will to clean yet magically manages to reorganize and beautify the home, hearts, and lives of her employers. Directed by Derek Campbell, Behrend promises this tragicomedy from the author of  In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)  will have you "in stitches one moment and reaching for your handkerchief the next." The Clean House is scheduled from April 19 ^th , 2013 to May 12 ^th , 2013.

Behrend remarked that the 2012-2013 Season was not originally conceived of as female-centric, but that the large number of "great plays by women" on his short-list to produce inspired him to build a season around the theme. RLTP has previously produced plays by local female playwrights Hoke, Annette Daniels-Taylor, Lisa Vitrano, and Melody Von Smith.

RLTP 2012-2013 Season Subscriptions are available for $99 before June 1 ^st , 2012 and $125 after June 1 ^st , 2012. Flex subscriptions (in which one may pre-pick to attend any three of the five plays) also are available for $75, regardless of the purchase date. A subscription form and more information about ticketing are available at www.roadlesstraveledproductions.org .   

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