THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, THE CIRCLE & More Announced for Classical Theatre Company 2022/2023 Season

A 2016 winner of the prestigious National Theatre Company Grant Award by the American Theatre Wing, Classical Theatre Company has announce the lineup for its 2022-2023 15^th Anniversary Mainstage Season. As the only professional theatre company in the State of Texas that solely produces classical drama on a year-round basis, CTC only produces plays that are 100 or more years old.

CTC will be celebrating its landmark season with a trio of plays that will have audiences rolling with laughter. CTC will be returning to the iconic DeLuxe Theater in the historic Fifth Ward. All three Mainstage productions will be housed in this gem of a facility. After opening in 1941 as a movie theater, the DeLuxe spent decades as a landmark location for film. Then in 2015, an agreement with the City of Houston and the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation brought about major renovations to the DeLuxe, bringing it new life as a state-of-the-art performance venue, event hall, and art gallery. Classical Theatre Company is proud to have the DeLuxe Theater as its performance space for the upcoming season. Tickets will go on sale July 1.

The upcoming season's slate will kick off with the long-awaited production, and local professional premiere, of Beaumarchais' The Marriage of Figaro, a brand-new adaptation of Sheridan's The School for Scandal, and the local professional premiere of Maugham's The Circle. "We just produced a season full of dark themes and little comedy," says CTC Executive Artistic Director John Johnston, "I felt like it was important for everyone to have a good laugh. We've never done a full season of comedies, but considering what everyone has been through over the last few years, a trio of laughers across a spectrum of styles was just what the doctor ordered."

The Marriage of Figaro

By Pierre de Beaumarchais

Translated by John Johnston

Directed by John Johnston

November 2022

The Classical Theatre Company will start out of the blocks with the thrice-delayed production of the masterful French farce, The Marriage of Figaro. Following the sale and demolition of the Chelsea Market Theater, The Marriage of Figaro was without a space to perform, and then two years' worth of pandemic-related shutdowns prevented its production. Finally able to put the play on the stage, this comic gem will surely delight.

"Most folks are familiar with the opera, but have no idea that Beaumarchais wrote the Figaro trilogy of plays before the operas were created," says director and translator John Johnston. "This production has been a long time coming, and we're raring to get going on it. We've brought back most of the cast from our production of The Barber of Seville [in 2017]. It's going to be a laugh riot."

This sequel play to The Barber of Seville, takes place a few years after the events of the original. We follow the hijinks of the too-clever Figaro and his duplicitous master, the Count Almaviva, as the servant gets ready to marry the love of his life. Mistaken identities and all the elements of farce abound in this comic masterpiece.

Directed and translated by CTC Executive Artistic Director, John Johnston, who most recently directed last year's Nevermore: Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and appeared on CTC's stage when he reprised the role of Sherlock Holmes in The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

The School for Scandal

By Richard Brinsley Sheridan

Directed and adapted by Philip Lehl

January 2023

The second of the trio of comedies comes in the form of the 1777 Restoration Comedy by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal. This particular adaptation is going to involve a decidedly creative take on the play, utilizing only six actors to fill out a cast of 16 characters. Directed by CTC Company Artist Philip Lehl, whose creative take on The Fair Maid of the West was lauded by critics and audiences alike, this production will no doubt follow suit.

"The School for Scandal is one of the great comedies in the classical canon," says CTC Executive Artistic Director John Johnston. "I am so excited to finally break into the realm of Restoration Comedy. It's an era ripe with plays, but we've never produced one until now."

Directed by CTC Company Artist Philip Lehl, who last directed at CTC with the dynamic production of Thomas Heywood's The Fair Maid of the West in 2019. His other work at CTC includes acting in a number of productions including Uncle Vanya, The Tempest, and most recently in The Merchant of Venice

The Circle

By William Somerset Maugham

Directed by Dana Bowman

April 2023

A smash hit when it was originally produced in 1921, The Circle has been revived on the West End and Broadway on numerous occasions - most recently in 1990 with Rex Harrison, Glynis Johns, and Stewart Granger. It is a delightful comedy of manners in the style of Noel Coward or Oscar Wilde.

The play is an exploration of married life as a young married woman, Elizabeth, contemplates leaving her husband, and turns to an older confidante, Lord Porteus, who had eloped with his love a generation earlier.

"This play is a wonderful examination of the institution of marriage," says CTC Executive Artistic Director John Johnston. "The words and wit are searing, and play no second fiddle to the events in the play."

Directed by Dana Bowman, making her CTC Mainstage directorial debut, she has worked on several CTC productions over the years Assistant Directing Henry V, The Barber of Seville, The Fair Maid of the West, and The Marriage of Figaro.

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