Cal Rep CSULB Theatre Arts Announces Spring 2019 Season

Artistic Director and Chair of the CSULB Theatre Arts Department Jeff Janisheski continues his 3rd season strengthening partnerships with artists in our community. This season features artists from across the creative spectrum: Welcoming professional directors such has Ovation-nominated Kari Hayter and Bootleg Theater co-founder Jessica Hanna, and Bruce A Lemon Jr., Artistic Director of Watts Village Theater. Jeff Janisheski says, "Cal Rep's spring season celebrates community: those that are already in our orbit, the new voices we champion, and the community partners and artists we want to work with."

Cal Rep's spring season includes the premiere of CSULB Alumna Tahirih Moeller's A Live Mixtape featuring the diverse voices of Los Angeles County, beautifully woven together with hip-hop, rap, gospel, and opera. A Live Mixtape won 2nd place in the "Hip Hop Theatre Creator Award" at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. A Live Mixtape was further developed in 2018 when Moeller was Cal Rep's Playwright-in-Residence.

Cal Rep is proud to present their final show of the 18-19 season with the esteemed Long Beach Opera. This dynamic collaboration weaves together Philip Glass' opera In The Penal Colony - adapted from Franz Kafka's short story - and incorporates devised elements created from interviews with Project Rebound, a group of formerly incarcerated students. Professional artists, students, and faculty will explore this urgent issue of capital punishment through workshops hosted by Long Beach Opera's Community Advisory Committee and the CSULB Theatre Arts Department.

CABARET

Book by Joe Masteroff

Music John Kander Lyrics by Fred Ebb

Based on the play by John Van Druten

and Stories by Christopher Isherwood

Directed by Kari Hayter

Performances: February 21 - March 3, 2019

Unforgettable songs in a dark and tumultuous night club create the soundtrack for romance, violence, and a never-ending party. Set in late 1920's Berlin, this iconic musical holds a mirror up to our time.

Directed by Ovation Award-nominee Kari Hayter, who recently directed Parade at the Chance Theatre and Urinetown, The Musical for the Coeurage Theatre Company.

A LIVE MIXTAPE

by Tahirih Moeller

Directed by Bruce A. Lemon Jr.

Performances: March 14 - 23, 2019

This new play features characters from your neighborhood and the rhythms of Los Angeles. With a new perspective on every track, witness the exploration of the American Dream in the streets we thought we knew.

Directed by the Artistic Director of Watts Village Theater Company, Bruce A. Lemon, Jr. is an actor, director and radio host who works to reimagine his community through his work. A storyteller born and raised in Watts, California, Lemon has worked with numerous theatre companies in LA including LA Opera, Son of Semele, Company of Angels, Illyrian Players and many more.

THE REVOLUTIONISTS

by Lauren Gunderson

Directed by Jessica Hanna

SoCal Premiere

Performances: March 21 - 29, 2019

During the French Revolution, a former Queen, an assassin, a playwright, and a Caribbean spy walk into a room...These four uncompromising women try not to lose their heads in an irreverent and rebellious comedy.

Directed by Jessica Hanna, the Co-Founder and Producing and Managing Director of Los Angeles's Bootleg Theater. She has worked as an actor, director, choreographer and producer all over Los Angeles, including Center Theatre Group, Open Fist, and Sacred Fools. Her focus has been on developing new work with local artists.

IN THE PENAL COLONY

An opera by Philip Glass

Libretto by Rudolph Wurlitzer

Based on the Story by Franz Kafka

A collaboration with Long Beach Opera

Part of Cal Rep's Devising Democracy Series

Directed by Jeff Janisheski

SoCal Premiere

Performances: April 25-May 5, 2019

An explorer visits an island where blind conformity has no rational connection between crime and punishment. Kafka's ingenious metaphor about man's inhumanity to man is heightened by Glass' hypnotic score. An innocent bystander faces the dilemma...to act or do nothing?

A Devising Democracy Production: The actors will create a devised, verbatim theatre piece connected to the opera which draws upon interviews with members of Project Rebound, a CSULB group of students who were formerly incarcerated.

Tickets for Spring 2019 shows will go on sale February 1st. Check calrep.org for updates.

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