Hanesbrands Theatre Announces 2010-2011 Season

The new Hanesbrands Theatre in the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts today announced its 2010-2011 season, filled with plays, dance, opera, films and other visual delights.

Theatre at Hanesbrands Theatre

Opening the new theatre with performances from September 8 to 25 is Bouncers, produced and directed by Mark Woods, and starring Ben Baker, Travis Smith, Lee Spencer and Quentin Talley. This dramatic comedy is about group of working class British bouncers at work and play. It is set in the early 1970s in northern England. The production is in turn endearing and menacing. It is both a warning and a celebration. Whenever a rush of "freedom" follows a period of repression - perceived or real (adolescence to young adulthood; old Soviet Russia to Glasnost; post WW II to late 60s, early 70s America) there is both unbridled joy and great danger. Beneath this very funny play lies some very serious social commentary. The play is a spiritual cousin of the multi-generational hit film Saturday Night Fever but with a bleaker, poverty-stricken North Country English landscape that offers even fewer exits than the American movie's blue collar Queens, NYC. Bouncers is a fun, audience-friendly production with a meaningful plotline and a great soundtrack. Tickets are $20.

Opening October 22 and running through November 7 is The Foreigner presented by Winston-Salem Festival Stage. The Foreigner, with book by Larry Shue, is one of the most popular and widely produced comedies of the past 25 years. It is ultimately about how people "complete" each other - how they help each other when they need it the most. The setting is a resort-style fishing lodge in the rural South. Guests include two "foreigners," both Englishmen - Charlie, who is pathologically shy and inconsolably sad, finding himself privy to gossip about manifold secrets and scandals, and his friend Staff Sergeant Froggy LeSueur; spoiled, introspective Catherine, an heiress and Southern belle; and the reverend who impregnated her and to whom she is reluctantly engaged. Charlie, surprisingly, changes the lives of everyone who lives there through some very bold moves indeed. While uproariously funny, the play also serves up a compelling message about standing up for what we believe in and doing the right thing. The Foreigner, which has won many theater awards, was written by highly acclaimed playwright Larry Shue. It debuted in the '80s, but its theme is even more relevant in today's increasingly interwoven world of blending and merging lives and cultures.

Festival Stage of Winston-Salem is Winston-Salem's new professional theatre that will operate in affiliation with North Carolina Shakespeare Festival (High Point, NC). It will feature actors who are members of Actors' Equity, America's union of professional actors and will present a diverse repertoire of great plays - classic, contemporary and new.

You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown runs from November 13 to November 28 and is part of Winston-Salem's annual event, 6 Days in November. Presented by the No Rules Theatre Company, Washington, DC, and Winston-Salem, the musical let's you laugh at the comics you've loved your whole life and share the joy of musical theater with your whole family. With music and lyrics by Clark Gesner, book by John Gordon and directed by Matt Cowart, Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy and some of your favorite Peanuts characters come to life for No Rules Theatre Company's North Carolina debut in the new theatre.

No Rules Theatre Company was founded by University of North Carolina School of the Arts graduates, Anne Kohn (Producing Director), Joshua Morgan and Brian Sutow (Artistic Directors). No Rules calls both Washington, DC, and Winston-Salem, NC, home, with a mission to present the broadest spectrum of high quality, accessible, truthful theatre that will open the minds and expand the expectations of a diverse audience. Other than this there are no rules. No Rules has performed to rave reviews, with Washington Flyer magazine recently saying, "The new kids in the (Washington DC) district are proving they can hang with the big boys."

Backstage Christmas presented by Twin City Stage gets us ready for the holidays from December 3 to 5. The show is filled with holiday songs from many Broadway favorites including "We Need a Little Christmas," "White Christmas" and the Annie tune, "We're Getting A New Deal for Christmas." The stage will also become the "backstage" for all the shows currently going on throughout the community including The Nutcracker, Black Nativity and A Christmas Carol. It is the perfect mix to launch the holidays for you and your family by the Twin City Stage family.

Opening the new year is No Rules Theatre Company's second production in Hanesbrands Theatre, Touch, written by Toni Press-Coffman and directed by Joshua Morgan, from January 7 to 23, 2011. This is a heartbreaking portrait of what it takes to rebuild your life in the wake of personal tragedy. Come see Touch, the play the New York Times called, "...a gripping, heart-wrenching, tender drama whose scenes shift seamlessly, character-to-character, past to present."

Winston-Salem Festival Stage returns to Hanesbrands Theatre for Lunch at the Piccadilly from February 4 to 21, 2011. With the book by Clyde Edgerton, this brand new musical features a splendid and spirited blend of comedy and poignancy. Based on a best-selling novel by Clyde Edgerton, the play focuses on fed-up rebels at a nursing home who seize control of Rosehaven Convalescence Center in Listre, NC. Led by three unforgettable women - Beatrice, Lil' Olive, Clara - and retired preacher L. Ray Flowers, the rebels cut loose with original - and powerful - song after song after song that work together seamlessly to deliver a triumphant story. North Carolina native and former Red Clay Rambler Mike Craver teams up with Edgerton to create a musical experience offering a two-part harmony between lump-in-the-throat emotion and rousing good fun.

Rounding out the 2010-2011 theatre season is The Glass Menagerie from May 13 to 22, 2011. Written by Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie, a highly charged emotional drama by Tennessee Williams, tells the story of the Wingfield family's inability to embrace reality. After one-time Southern belle Amanda's husband abandons her and the children, Tom and Laura, they immerse themselves in their separate and private worlds of illusion. Laura, who has the weakest grasp on reality, lives in a world populated by glass animals, her menagerie, as fragile as it is fanciful. This theater classic, recreated from Tom's memory, poignantly explores failures of family, broken promises and reconciliation. The Glass Menagerie, winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, is about tough choices people make for themselves and how their choices inevitably impact others... and themselves.

Dance at Hanesbrands Theatre

Masterful choreography distinguishes the Winston-Salem Festival Ballet corps which creates engaging performances that thrill and delight. This company's 2010-2011 season at Hanesbrands Theatre includes Legend of Sleepy Hollow & Dracula on October 8, 9, and 10; Angels from April 1 to 3, 2011; Craft of Choreography Conference from July 11 to 31, 2011; and Summer Performance from August 12 to 14, 2011.

Opera at Hanesbrands Theatre

Piedmont Opera presents Live in HD from the Met Opera, broadcasting 12 live simulcasts of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. All events are at 1 p.m. (unless otherwise stated) on Saturday afternoons. The schedule includes:

-- Wagner's Das Rheingold: October 9, 2010
-- Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov: October 23, 2010 [12 Noon start time]
-- Donizetti's Don Pasquale: November 13, 2010
-- Verdi's Don Carlo: December 11, 2010 [12:30 PM start time]
-- Puccini's La Fanciulla Del West: January 8, 2011
-- Adam's Nixon in China: February 12, 2011
-- Puccini's Iphigenie en Tauride: February 26, 2011
-- Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor: March 19, 2011
-- Rossini's Le Comte Ory: April 9, 2011
-- R. Strauss' Capriccio: April 23, 2011
-- Verdi's Il Trovatore: April 30, 2011
-- Wagner's Die Walkure: May 14, 2011 [12 Noon start time]

The Met: Live in HD series is made possible by a generous grant from its founding sponsor, The Neubauer Family Foundation. Global corporate sponsorship of The Met: Live in HD is provided by Bloomberg. The HD Broadcasts are supported by Toll Brothers.

Music at Hanesbrands Theatre

Hanesbrands Theatre creates an intimate space for live music performances. On October 2, The Legendary Mavis Staples, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and a National Heritage Fellowship Award recipient will add a new chapter to her historic career with her bold new album, You Are Not Alone.

Film at Hanesbrands Theatre

The RiverRun International Film Festival is one of the country's fastest-growing regional film festivals. The festival has added Hanesbrands Theatre to its roster of film spaces for viewings from April 2 to 15, 2011. The festival annually presents a rich blend of new films by established and emerging filmmakers, showcasing a diverse collection of cinematic voices from around the world. The festival screens a wide variety of feature-length and short films from all genres, and also presents a broad range of special events, including high-profile regional premieres of significant films, celebrity tributes, family matinees and classic retrospectives as well as a full mixture of panel discussions and parties.

About Hanesbrands Theatre

On September 10, 2010, the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts opens in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The new Hanesbrands Theatre anchors the Center and is a 300-seat black-box theatre, affording a variety of stage and seating configurations for dance, theatre, music and film productions. The Theatre has a dramatic lobby that features a mirrored cymatic paint exploration by noted international painter, Jimmy O'Neal, of Madison County, NC. This work is a study in visible sound and vibration.

Hanesbrands Theatre is located at 209 North Spruce Street, Winston-Salem NC. Call 336-747-1414 for tickets. New performances are added regularly, so check the website, http://www.rhodesartscenter.org/, for current information; or visit http://www.cityofthearts.com/.

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