AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS and More Set for International City Theatre's 2013 Season

Adventure. Music. Intimacy. Art. Mischief. International City Theatre announces five exhilarating plays for 2013 with characters that are as passionate as they are intriguing.

“I’m struck by how powerfully motivated the characters are in each of the plays we’ve chosen,” says ICT artistic director caryn desai [sic]. “Each is on a passionate quest – be it to beat the clock in Around the World in 80 Days, to grapple with larger questions about the meaning of art in Master Class and Red,for human connection in Dead Man’s Cell Phone, or even to fool their spouses in the hilarious Don’t Dress for Dinner.

ICT launches its 28th season in January with one of the greatest adventure stories of all time, Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days, adapted for the stage by Mark Brown. Stampeding elephants! Raging typhoons! Runaway trains! Unabashed slapstick! It’s 1872 and Phileas Fogg has agreed to an outrageous wager that puts his fortune and his life at risk. With his resourceful servant Passepartout, Fogg sets out to circle the globe in an unheard-of 80 days. But his every step is dogged by a detective who thinks he's a robber on the run. Danger, romance, and comic surprises abound as five actors portraying 39 characters traverse seven continents. A passion for adventure! January 25 – February 17 (previews January 23 & 24).

Opening in March will be Terrence McNally’s Tony Award-winning Master Class. Internationally renowned soprano Maria Callas had a legendary voice and an equally legendary life as one of the world's most celebrated (and gossiped-about) opera stars. In 1971, Callas taught a series of master classes at Juilliard. Outspoken in her artistic beliefs and uncompromising in the musical understanding she sought to communicate to 25 fortunate students, Callas worked through her legendary arias from Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Puccini, and others. Terrence McNally's play finds Callas near the end of her career, her voice almost gone, as she instructs a group of young singers aspiring to the heights of fame and fortune with wicked humor, unrelenting criticism and deeply personal stories. A passion for music! March 22 – April 14 (previews March 20 & 21).

Are we dead when our hearts stop, or when our cell phones stop ringing? Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Sarah Ruhl’s quirky, Helen Hayes Award-winning comedy about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world, opens in June. When the man at the next café table refuses to answer his incessantly ringing phone, Jean discovers he’s dead. Taking the phone, she becomes his self-appointed secretary and sets out to heal the rifts in his family – but on the way, finds that the real transformation may be within herself. A passion for human connection! June 7 – 30 (previews June 5 & 6).

August brings John Logan’s multiple award-winning Red to Long Beach. Winner of the Drama Desk, Drama League and six Tony Awards, Red is an intimate glimpse into the world of abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko. After he lands the biggest commission in the history of modern art, Rothko begins work on a series of large murals with the help of a new young assistant. What takes place between the two men reveals the dynamic relationship between an artist and his creations. A passion for art! August 23 – September 15 (previews August 21 & 22).

The season’s final production opens in October. Don’t Dress for Dinner by Marc Camoletti (Boeing, Boeing), translated by Robin Hawdon, is a sex farce in the true French tradition. Bernard's plans for a romantic rendezvous with his chic Parisian mistress are complete with a gourmet caterer and an alibi courtesy of his friend, Robert. But when Bernard's wife learns that Robert will be visiting for the weekend, she decides to stay in town for a surprise tryst of her own … setting the stage for a collision course of mistaken identities and outrageous infidelities, with more twists than a corkscrew. The cook is Suzette, the lover is Suzanne, the friend is bewildered, the wife is suspicious, the husband is losing his mind, and everyone is guaranteed a good time at this hilarious romp through the French countryside. A passion for mischief! October 11 – November 3 (previews October 9 & 10).

For more information and to subscribe to the 2013 season, the public should call 562-436-4610 or visit online at www.InternationalCityTheatre.com.

International City Theatre, located in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, is Long Beach’s Resident Professional Theater Company and recipient of the Los Angeles Drama Circle's prestigious Margaret Harford Award for “Sustained Excellence in Theater.”

 

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