Yale Repertory Theatre (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) will present the world premiere of POP!, a new musical with book and lyrics by Maggie-Kate Coleman and music by Anna K. Jacobs, directed by Mark Brokaw, at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street), November 27-December 19, 2009. Opening Night is December 3.
ABOUT POP!
Who shot Andy Warhol? The fabulous drag queen Candy Darling hosts a happening whodunit musical in which the famous-and infamous-denizens of Warhol's legendary Factory all have motives to pull the trigger. But the pop art icon unravels an even bigger mystery as he confronts not only the prime suspects, but also his art and his own greatest creation: himself.
(POP! contains strong language and adult content.)
MAGGIE-KATE COLEMAN (Book, Lyrics) is the author Stepmommy Dearest, a song cycle written with Anna K. Jacobs; and From a Childhood, written with Erato Kremmyda, produced at Montclair State University in April 2009. Her work has been featured at The York Theatre Company's NEO Cabaret (with composer Daniel Maté), Joe's Pub, Barrington Stage, Laurie Beechman Theater, Prospect Theater Company (with Julia Meinwald), Goodspeed Musicals, The Darlinghurst Theatre, and New York Theatre Barn. Current projects include rainsong, a dance theatre piece with composer Erato Kremmyda and choreographer Clare Cook; an adaptation of Ludwig Tieck's Der Blonde Eckbert; and a full-length musical inspired by poems from Rainer Maria Rilke's Book of Images. A graduate of Ithaca College and Tisch School of the Arts at NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program, she also trained at the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
ANNA K. JACOBS (Music) is a composer-lyricist from Sydney, Australia. Her other credits include Stella and the Moon Man (Sydney Theatre Company/ Theatre of Image/ Australian Youth Orchestra, 2005), which won a Helpmann Award, and Stepmommy Dearest, a song cycle written with Maggie-Kate Coleman. Her music and lyrics have been featured at Joe's Pub, The York Theatre, Theatre Row, NYTB at The Duplex, Barrington Stage, Goodspeed, Don't Tell Mama, The Darlinghurst Theatre, and the Art Gallery of NSW. Current projects include music for Harmony, Kansas, about a gay men's chorus in rural Kansas, and lyrics for Shooting from the Hip, a song cycle commissioned to open the 2010 Sydney Festival. She is a graduate of NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program and the University of Sydney, and also studied composition at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
Yale Repertory Theatre'S 2009-10 SEASON
The world premiere of POP! completes Yale Repertory Theatre's 2009-10 season, which also includes:
THE MASTER BUILDER
By Henrik Ibsen
Directed by Evan Yionoulis
University Theatre (222 York Street)
September 18-October 10, 2009
Opening Night: September 24
Halvard Solness, a brilliantly successful architect, has willed his unspoken desire into reality at every turn-but not without a price. Now he lives in fear that the next generation will rise up and cast him aside. When Hilda Wangel, a bewitching young woman, arrives to collect on a decade-old debt, she breathes new life into the Solness home but also rekindles painful memories. Will she help him reach the pinnacle, or will she be the one to finally knock the Master Builder from his tower?
Directed by OBIE Award winner Evan Yionoulis (Yale Rep's Richard II and Black Snow), The Master Builder is a taut psychological drama by Henrik Ibsen, author of A Doll's House and Hedda Gabler.
ECLIPSED
By Danai Gurira
Directed by Liesl Tommy
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)
October 23-November 14, 2009
Opening Night: October 29
Set in 2003, Eclipsed unearths the wreckage of Liberia's vicious civil war and celebrates women who navigate the most brutal of circumstances. The "wives" of a rebel commanding officer form a community in a hostile warzone. Their world is transformed by the arrival of two newcomers and the unceremonious return of a former "wife" turned rebel soldier. Each woman finds her own means of survival, but at what cost?
Eclipsed, a new play by Danai Gurira, the OBIE Award-winning co-author of In the Continuum, is a chilling, humanizing, and surprisingly funny portrait of transformation and renewal, directed by Liesl Tommy (Angela's Mix Tape and The Good Negro).
World Premiere
COMPULSION
By Rinne Groff
Directed by Oskar Eustis
A co-production with The Public Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)
February 5-February 27, 2010
Opening Night: February 11
Sid Silver wants nothing more than to bring Anne Frank's story to an American audience, and he believes he's the right man to translate the young girl's diary and adapt it for the stage. But his passion spirals into a lifelong obsession when a New York publishing house reveals its own plans for what would become one of the most powerful and enduring documents of the 20th century.
Imaginative and moving, Compulsion marks the Yale Rep debuts of Rinne Groff, whose plays have been praised for their "kaleidoscope style" (The Village Voice), and Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of The Public Theater.
THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS
Adapted by Constance Congdon
From a translation by Christina Sibul
Directed by Christopher Bayes
University Theatre (222 York Street)
March 12-April 3, 2010
Opening Night: March 18
Identities are mistaken, engagements are broken, and lovers are reunited in Carlo Goldoni's commedia dell'arte masterpiece when the wily-and chronically hungry-servant Truffaldino hatches a zany scheme to double his wages (and his meals) by serving two masters at once.
The virtuosic physical comedy and mayhem of The Servant of Two Masters is directed by Christopher Bayes, whose hilarious choreography is featured in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps on Broadway.
Please note: The Servant of Two Masters is Yale Rep's 2009-10 Will Power! production. The run includes three 10:30AM performances available only to middle and high school student groups. For information on Will Power! performances, please contact Ruth M. Feldman at (203) 432-8425 or rm.feldman@yale.edu.
BATTLE OF BLACK AND DOGS
By Bernard-Marie Koltès
Translated by Michaël Attias
Directed by RoBert Woodruff
Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street)
April 16-May 8, 2010
Opening Night: April 22
Set in a remote corner of Africa, Battle of Black and Dogs is a politically, sexually, and culturally charged tale of psychological warfare that erupts at an isolated construction compound. When a hired man mysteriously dies, his brother arrives at the compound to collect the body-and the site manager, his fiancé, and a young soldier all become embroiled in the cover up of the worker's death.
The haunting thriller by acclaimed French writer Bernard-Marie Koltès is directed by visionary theatre artist RoBert Woodruff, whose 2009 production of Notes from Underground was hailed as "a brilliantly original work of art" (The Boston Globe).
ABOUT Yale Repertory Theatre
Yale Repertory Theatre is a leading professional American theatre dedicated to the production of new plays and bold interpretations of classics that make immediate connections to contemporary audiences.
A champion of new work, Yale Rep has produced well over 100 premieres-including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists-by emerging and established playwrights, brought to thrilling life by the theatre's most daring directors, innovative designers, and celebrated actors.
Eleven Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, and countless other plays first produced at Yale have been presented at theatres across the country. Our productions have garnered more than 40 Tony Award nominations and eight Tony Awards, and Yale Rep itself is the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.
2009-10 TICKET PACKAGE INFORMATION
Yale Repertory Theatre offers a variety of packages for audiences to enjoy the entire season, starting at just $25 a ticket available at www.yalerep.org, by phone (203) 432-1234, and in person at the Yale Rep Box Office (1120 Chapel Street).
Group Sales are available by calling (203) 432-1572.
Individual tickets for the entire season will be available beginning August 31.
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