Kitchen Theatre Company Announces 2020-2021 Season

The Kitchen Theatre Company, Central New York's Off Broadway theatre, is excited to announce plans for it's 2020-2021 season. The Journey to 30: A Celebration of KTC's Past, Present and Future will offer twenty hybrid and online events and culminate in one live, World Premiere production in June of 2021. The season will build towards the theatre's 30th Anniversary next season.

The Journey to 30 is divided into three themes, and offered in four acts (see attached for specific date and titles).

 

 

 

• The Past: Three streaming videos of previous productions recorded live in the Percy Browning Performance Space starring some of Ithaca's favorite actors (Karl Gregory, Susannah Berryman and Erica Steinhagen) capped by a personal retrospective film directed by KTC's Artistic Director Emerita Rachel Lampert.

• The Present: KTC will tackle the vital conversations happening around racial and social justice through our online Script Club. Featuring 5 plays by Pulitzer, Obie and Ovation-award winning playwrights of color, each event will be hosted by some of the best actors and directors of color from around the U.S.

• The Future: The Kitchen will offer a front row seat to the creation of the next generation of American plays through two innovative New Play Development Workshops, performed live and streamed directly from the Kitchen Stage.

The season will conclude with a return to production, with one live, in-person World Premiere, staged outside in June of 2021 - SHAPE by Kara-Lynn Vaeni - with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, Southern Methodist University, and Ithaca's own Advantage Fitness.

"This season is so incredibly rich with great stories" said Interim Artistic Director David Winitsky. "The amazing 30-year story of the Kitchen Theatre itself; the vital stories of Americans of color, shared with the best actors, directors and playwrights of color; and the future story of the American theatre itself in two outstanding new plays. And best of all - I am bursting with excitement to fully return to the (outdoor) stage with Kara-Lynn Vaeni's hilarious and moving story of strength and transformation, SHAPE. I can't imagine a better pandemic season, and I can't wait for our audiences to take The Journey to 30 with us."

The season also has a simple subscription model - one price, $229, which includes 20 events and one ticket to SHAPE. The theater is also introducing a new Pay What You Want subscription for new subscribers. This plan is designed for patrons to invest in the longevity of the theatre while providing the widest access to the arts for our community.

Reanna Lavine, Director of Development and Communications at the theatre says, "Our new subscription model puts our patrons front and center. That's why, instead of asking people to buy seats to a show, we're asking people to subscribe to something beyond attendance. The Kitchen Theatre doesn't exist without the people who see its great value to the community, and this moment is all about supporting the things you value. We're relying on the generosity of our loyal patrons to provide that fundamental support needed to make this season's programming accessible to the greater community.'"

KTC's 30th season is generously sponsored by and/or partners with the following people and organizations:

The Shubert Foundation, Tompkins County Tourism Program, NYSCA, Advantage Sport & Fitness, Inc., National Endowment for the Arts, Village at Ithaca, Cayuga Radio Group, The Lansing Star Online, Cornell University, Barry Chester & Elissa Cogan, WVBR 93.5 FM, The Ithaca Voice

THE COMPLETE 2020-2021 SEASON LINEUP

PROLOGUE: OCTOBER 2, 2020 at 7PM

SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT EVENT

Join us on Zoom to connect with the Kitchen community and to hear all the season details!

ACT 1: DECEMBER 16, 2020 - FEBRUARY 4, 2021

December 16 & 17: SPECIAL EVENT, HOLIDAY PARTY MATCH GAME

Local celebrities compete in our hilarious, one-of-a-kind recreation of the hit game show!

January 14-21: STREAMING PRODUCTION , CRY IT OUT by Molly Smith Metzler, directed by M. Bevin O'Gara and featuring Erica Steinhagen. New mothers Jessie and Lina, with little in common except their new babies, form an unlikely friendship over a series of naptime coffee dates. When another new mom arrives, their concept of motherhood is put to the test.

January 21: SCRIPT CLUB, SWEAT by Pulitzer Prize Winner Lynn Nottage hosted by actor Alvin Keith (Broadway's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Kinsey). The American Dream is on the line at a bar in Reading, PA as the working class collapses in the new millennium.

February 4: SCRIPT CLUB, WHITELISTED by Audible and Showtime writer Chisa Hutchinson, hosted by the playwright with actress Kate MacCluggage (KTC's Grounded). Rebecca is just living her life In all her gentrifying glory, when weird, supernatural stuff starts happening, for no reason she can think of. A revenge horror comedy in a Brooklyn Brownstone.

ACT 2: FEBRUARY 18 - MARCH 19, 2021

February 18-25: STREAMING PRODUCTION, Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan MacMillan and Jonny Donahoe directed by IC Professor Wendy Dann. Ithaca's Best Actor Karl Gregory returns in a tale of a young boy attempting to ease his mother's depression by creating a list of all the best things in the world.

March 4: SCRIPT CLUB, THE GREAT LEAP by Lauren Yee, hosted by Obie-winning actor Francis Jue (Broadway: Pacific Overturesa, M. Butterfly, Thoroughly Modern Millie). A star of the sidewalk basketball courts of San Francisco's Chinatown strong arms his way onto an American college team travelling to Beijing for a "friendship" game.

March 8-19: NEW PLAY WORKSHOP, FINAL BOARDING CALLa?? by Hong Kong playwright Stefani Kuo The human stories of Hong Kong come to life through seven interconnected characters - a brother and sister; a mother and daughter and husband; an American businessman and his Chinese lover. Politics and protest are very personal.

ACT 3: APRIL 1- MAY 8, 2021

April 1-8: STREAMING PRODUCTION, THE ROOMMATE by Jen Silverman, featuring local favorite Susannah Berryman. A laugh-out-loud comedy of moving boxes, new beginnings, questionable business ventures, and a little bit of marijuana.

April 15: SCRIPT CLUB, VIETGONE by Vampire Cowboy's Qui Ngyuen, hosted by Associate Artistic Director Jeffrey Lo of the Tony Award-winning Theatreworks Silicon Valley. A "culturally-savvy comedy" and all-American love story about two very new Americans. It's 1975 and two young survivors meet in a Vietnamese refugee camp in mid-America shortly after the fall of Saigon. Will this strange new land of cowboys, hippies and bikers allow them to fall in love?

April 19-30: NEW PLAY WORKSHOP, TBA

Stay tuned for the thrilling final entry into our Journey to bring the best new work from across the country and around the world right here to Ithaca.

May 8: LIP SINK FUNDRAISER

Our famous annual Lip Sink fundraiser returns - online and in-person!

ACT 4: MAY 13 - JUNE 28, 2021

May 13-20: STREAMING PRODUCTION, BLOOM WHERE YOU'RE PLANTED...A 20 YEAR ARTISTIC JOURNEY produced by Artistic Director Emerita Rachel Lampert, featuring the amazing cast of characters who have made the Kitchen the treasure that it is. The amazing Rachel Lampert tells the story of the Kitchen through archival video, photos, and interviews with some of our community's favorite artists.

June 15: SCRIPT CLUB, FAIRVIEW by Pulitzer Prize winner Jackie Sibbles Drury. There's a couch and a family and a dinner table, but this time they're asking why white people should make space for people of color.

June 6-28: PRODUCTION, SHAPE written and directed by Kara-Lynn Vaeni. Built on adrenaline, determination, transformation, and sweat, this play cracks open fresh conversations about how we relate to our bodies and what we're capable of accomplishing. Come see Puppy lift weights live on stage in this wildly hilarious, riotously honest, and uniquely feminist new play. FYI: laughing burns calories. Watching this play will burn 40 calories and engage your core!

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