Eric Rosen Announces Selections For 2010-11 Season at Kansas City Rep

The adventure continues. Eric Rosen has announced his selections for Kansas City Rep's 2010-11 season, his third as the theatre's artistic leader.

"I've really tried to build a season that gathers all the success we've realized in my first two years at the Rep and moves us forward a step," said Rosen. "We have a fantastic lineup that includes a joyous, comical new musical; an inspiring story of triumph over adversity; a deeply probing drama about one of the country's most controversial issues and a wild new vision of an Ibsen classic."

The Rep will present a seven-play season with four shows at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus, where Kansas City Rep is the professional theatre in residence, and three productions at Copaken Stage at 13th and Walnut streets in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

Kansas City Rep's 2010-11 season is as follows (dates and titles are subject to change):

Saved!

Music and lyrics by Michael Friedman

Book and lyrics by John Dempsey and Rinne Groff

Directed by Gary Griffin

September 10-October 3, 2010 at Spencer Theatre

Saved! Is a ground-breaking new musical based on the popular movie of the same name. It follows an unforgettable senior year at a Christian high school where a popular girl will do anything to save her boyfriend, including testing the limits of her school and her family's faith in their beliefs and each other. Saved! is a smart, funny and moving new musical by some of the most important artists in the American theatre.

Griffin directed Kansas City Rep's hit production of A Flea in Her Ear, which The Wall Street Journal said was, "direct, vigorous and gimmick-free."

Harriet Jacobs
Adapted by Lydia Diamond from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Directed by Jessica Thebus

October 22-November 21, 2010 at Copaken Stage

A young slave woman's remarkable story of triumph over brutal oppression, Harriet Jacobs is adapted from one of the most important books in the history of the Abolitionist movement, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. After nearly seven years hiding in a tiny garret above her grandmother's home, Harriet Ann Jacobs secretly boarded a boat and escaped to New York and, eventually, to freedom.

Thebus, who co-wrote Winesburg, Ohio with Rosen, is on the faculty at Northwestern University and is a frequent director at Steppenwolf Theatre.

A Special Holiday Event

A Christmas Carol - Thirtieth Anniversary Production

By Charles Dickens

Directed by Kyle Hatley

November 19-December 26, 2010 at Spencer Theatre,

Kansas City Rep brings back its traditional holiday production A Christmas Carol, refreshed for its 30th anniversary production.

Hatley has directed the Rep's productions of The Borderland and its recent hit Broke-ology, a family drama by Nathan Louis Jackson. Hatley is the Rep's assistant artistic director.

Another American: Asking and Telling

Written and performed by Marc Wolf

January 14-February 6, 2011 at Spencer Theatre

Playwright/actor Marc Wolf has created a powerful, provocative performance that brings us face to face with every point of view about the government's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding the rights of gay men and women to serve in the military. Over a three-year period, Wolf interviewed more than 150 people with opinions on both sides of the issue to create his compelling and relevant Obie Award-winning play.

Circle Mirror Transformation - Midwest Premiere

By Annie Baker

Directed by Kyle Hatley

February 18-March 20, 2011 at Copaken Stage

Acclaimed as the debut of the year by one of the most exciting new writers in the country, Circle Mirror Transformation is the hilarious, moving new comedy about five citizens of a rural town who begin a community acting class, each with their own expectations, but soon learn more about each other and themselves than they bargained for. Circle Mirror Transformation has been hailed as one of the most insightful and original new plays of the year.

Cabaret

Music by John Kander

Lyrics by Fred Ebb

Book by Joe Masteroff

Directed by Eric Rosen

March 18-April 10, 2011 at Spencer Theatre

or

A Streetcar Named Desire

By Tennessee Williams

Directed by Eric Rosen

March 18-April 10, 2011 at Spencer Theatre

When Eric Rosen took the post of artistic director two years ago, these two classics were at the top of his list of dream projects for the Rep. The final decision will be made in the coming weeks, pending artist schedules and availability.

Prior to his appointment as artistic director, Rosen directed Metamorphoses and The Trip to Bountiful at the Rep. As the theatre's artistic lead he has directed the world premiere of A Christmas Carol, The Musical!, his original musical Winesburg, Ohio, for which he also wrote book and lyrics, and the hip hop musical Clay (and its Lincoln Center run). He will also direct the upcoming world premiere of Venice.

Peer Gynt

By Henrik Ibsen

Adapted and directed by David Schweizer

April 22-May 22, 2011 at Copaken Stage

Based on a Norwegian folk tale with forty characters and five acts, Peer Gynt, one of Ibsen's most influential and famous plays, is almost never staged. World renowned director David Schweizer has brilliantly adapted Ibsen's "impossible-to-produce" play into a wild and surreal comic adventure.

For subscription renewal information, call the Kansas City Rep Box Office at 816-235-2700. Tickets will go on sale to the general public in late summer. Information about the Rep is available at www.KCRep.org

about kansas city repertory theatre
Now in its 45th season, Kansas City Repertory Theatre is its region's only member of the prestigious national League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and serves as the professional theatre in residence at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). The company produces plays and events at Spencer Theatre, its mainstage theatre on the UMKC campus, and at Copaken Stage at 14th and Walnut streets in downtown Kansas City. The mission of Kansas City Rep is to present productions of excellence that are diverse, literate and timely, and to provide educational and outreach services for students and our community.

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