VENUS IN FUR, SEMINAR & More Set for Kitchen Theatre Co.'s 23rd Season

The Kitchen Theatre Company is excited to announce that its 2013-14 Season begins September 4, 2013. This marks the start of the Kitchen's 23rd Season and the fourth in its beautiful, LEED-certified, 99-seat space located at 417 W. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street, Ithaca, NY. Led by Artistic Director Rachel Lampert and Managing Director Stephen Nunley, the Kitchen Theatre Company is a professional Equity Theater that produces new and recent plays. "Important conversations happen in the Kitchen" is the catchphrase and the philosophy behind over two decades of thought-provoking work. Subscriptions and single tickets for the eight-play season are on sale now through a new, improved ticketing system added this season. The new number to call for tickets and subscriptions is 607 272-0570, or purchase online at kitchentheatre.org.

The season opens with Heroes by Gérald Sibleyras, translated and adapted by Tom Stoppard (Sept. 4 - 22, 2013). The winner of the 2006 Laurence Olivier Best New Comedy Award finds three French veterans of WWI living in a retirement home and longing to shake off the ennui by planning an escape. 2013-2014 Resident Director Margarett Perry** leads a cast of three. The extraordinary set design is by Kent Goetz.

From White Plains, written and directed by Michael Perlman (Oct. 16 - Nov. 10, 2013), tackles problems of bullying and homophobia and considers the possibility of transformation and forgiveness. The production at the Kitchen follows a sold-out run in NYC last spring. From White Plains brings KTC veteran actors Karl Gregory* and Jimmy King* back to the Kitchen, joined by Kitchen Theatre first-timers Craig Divino* and Aaron Rossini*.

Black Pearl Sings! by Frank Higgins (Dec 4 - Dec 22, 2013) marks the return of director Sara Lampert Hoover** (Yellowman, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Neat, The Tricky Part, the original production of Precious Nonsense among others) to the Kitchen Theatre Company. It is 1933, and musicologist Susannah Mullally is racing to record folk songs before the holders of the legacy are gone. She meets Alberta "Pearl" Johnson in a women's prison in rural Texas. Pearl agrees to help Susannah with her project, but she wants something important in return. Filled with music, Black Pearl Sings! has been delighting audiences across the country.

The start of 2014 will bring a startlingly honest and wickedly sexy production ofVenus in Fur by David Ives, directed by Rachel Lampert. Running from Jan. 22 to Feb. 9, 2014, this daring Tony-nominated play explores power and sexuality. The New York Times described it perfectly as "90 minutes of good, kinky fun."

An off-Broadway hit last season in NYC, c*ckby Mike Bartlett (Feb. 19 - Mar. 9, 2014), directed by Margarett Perry**, will be the regional premiere of this controversial and winning dark new comedy. A love triangle for the 21st century, with every possible outrageous entanglement, this ultra-new theater piece moves ahead at breakneck pace. Who do you love and why?

Director Michele Minnick (director at KTC of The Gene Pool, 1999) has been directing and creating work in the US, Brazil and other distant places, and returns to direct Lungs by Duncan Macmillan (Mar. 26 - Apr. 13, 2014). The play asks - how does a couple make decisions? Especially decisions that are forever, like having a child. Playwright Macmillan opens the private world of a couple traversing life's transitions in a remarkably stripped down structure. A truly contemporary look at the human mind and heart and how we care for each other and our planet.

Seminar by Theresa Rebeck (Apr. 30 - May 18, 2014) will also be under the direction of Margarett Perry**. Four students take a private writing class with a literary luminary. Will they survive the ordeal with their egos intact? Pulitzer Prize nominee Rebeck writes for TV and stage, and her plays have been produced across the country and around the world.

Slashes of Light by Judy Tate will be given its world premiere at the Kitchen Theatre Company. The Kitchen Theatre is working with the Ithaca-based Civic Ensemble to bring this extraordinary new play to the theater from June 11 - 29, 2014. In an all-black parochial middle school on Chicago's south side in 1966, precocious young Sunny befriends the new white history teacher. Her best friend, a budding young radical, doesn't approve, and the older boy she has a crush on is mysteriously quiet. In this coming-of-age story, the characters confront their deepest secrets in a thorny struggle to understand themselves, each other, and the changing world around them.

This season's directors are NYC-based Margarett Perry**, Michael Perlman**, Sara Lampert Hoover**; Baltimore-based Michele Minnick and KTC Artistic Director, Rachel Lampert. The design team is a mix of long-term Kitchen veterans-Kent Goetz, David Arsenault, Tyler Perry, Lisa Boquist-and newcomers Tristan Jeffers, John Eckert, Anthony Mattana and Chad Raines. The company of actors includes professionals from NYC and Ithaca who are in residence for 6 to 8 weeks over the course of the season.

In addition to its 8-play Main Stage season, the Kitchen Theatre is host to many other events: expert talks on subjects related to the plays, performances by other local theater companies, and celebrations for the Kitchen Theatre and a number of community groups. CFCU Community Credit Union is the Community Event sponsor for the season. Don't miss the Kitchen's 2nd Annual Holiday Party on December 17, 2013 or the 4th Annual Dance the Night Away party on March 22, 2014.

Visit our attractive lobby throughout the season for exhibits by some of Ithaca's most exciting visual artists, including Lynne Taetzsch, Amy Cheatle and John Lyon Paul. The Kitchen's season brochure and website feature original artwork by paper artist Rachel Gorman, and the season photographer is Dave Burbank.

The Kitchen Theatre Company receives season support from the New York State Council on the Arts, Shubert Foundation, Tompkins County Tourism Fund, as well as support from many local businesses and individuals.

For more information about the Kitchen Theatre Company, visit the website at www.kitchentheatre.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.