Mark Taper Forum Announces 2009 Season To Include 'Lydia', 'Pippin', and Donmar's 'Parade'

Michael Ritchie, Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group, has set the 2009 season at the award-winning, newly renovated Mark Taper Forum of the Los Angeles Music Center. The new season, which features six productions, will run from January 15, 2009, through January 24, 2010. Featuring an eclectic mix of highly theatrical productions, the 42nd season at the Mark Taper Forum will include two musicals - the CTG/Deaf West Theatre coproduction of "Pippin" and the Donmar Warehouse production of "Parade"; three dramas - the world premiere of "Palestine, New Mexico" written by Richard Montoya for Culture Clash, "Lydia," the new drama by Octavio Solis, and the Chekhov masterpiece "Uncle Vanya"; and Martin McDonagh's dark comedy - "The Lieutenant of Inishmore."

The 2009 season will be the first full subscription season in the new Taper. The Taper actually re-opens this summer with John Guare's "The House of Blue Leaves," which is the third production of the Taper's current season (two 2007-2008 Taper season plays were presented at the CTG/Ahmanson Theatre while the Taper was closed for renovation). "The House of Blue Leaves" begins previews August 30, opens September 14 and runs through October 19. The final production of the 2007-2008 season is the American premiere of a political thriller set in the 16th century, "The School of Night" by Peter Whelan, October 30 through December 17 (opening night is November 9). Beginning with the 2009 season, the Taper's subscription seasons move to a January to January "calendar year" schedule for the first time since 1973.

"Pippin" A magical musical comedy and the artful expression of sign language are brought together in CTG and Deaf West Theatre's production of "Pippin" for the opening production of the Taper's 2009 season, January 15 through March 15, 2009. Opening is January 25. With book by Roger O. Hirson and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, "Pippin" will be directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, who was at the helm of two previous, highly successful CTG and Deaf West co-productions, "Big River" and "Sleeping Beauty Wakes." "Pippin" is the captivating coming of age story about a young man's search for meaning in his life, as told by a lively band of troubadors in the Roman empire. The episodic quest of Pippin, the son of the powerful Charlemagne, takes him through battlefields, orgies, revolution, and finally, love and domesticity, as he tries to find a place for his "spirit to run free," for his "corner of the sky." When "Pippin" was first presented on Broadway in 1972, the musical won five Tony Awards and was nominated for 11. S

"Lydia," a powerful and passionate new play, will be presented as the second production of the Taper's 2009 season, April 2 through May 17, 2009. Opening is April 15. Written by Octavio Solis and directed by Juliette Carrillo, "Lydia" portrays with a deep, emotional impact the lies and secrets that both bind a family together and create heartbreaking fissures. In the Texas border town of El Paso during the 1970s, a Mexican Americanfamily struggles with the aftermath of an accident that has injured the beloved young daughter, Ceci, and has deeply affected her mother, father and two brothers. Into thisenvironment comes the mysterious Lydia, a sexy, confident young woman who has been  hired as a caregiver.

"Uncla Vanya," Anton Chekhov's masterpiece of hope and longing, will be the third production of the Taper's 42nd season, May 28 through July 12, 2009. Opening is June 7. Filled with Chekhov's subtle blend of comedy, tragedy and psychological insight, "Uncle Vanya" takes place at the turn of the 20th century on a provincial Russian estate where Uncle Vanya and his niece, Sonya, have spent their lives working tirelessly. Both have lived frugally and have kept their emotions tightly reined but when they are visited by Sonya's father and his beautiful second wife, Yelena, their lives begin to implode.

A strikingly original black comedy, "The Lieutenant of Inishmore," by Academy Award-winning, Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated Martin McDonagh will be the fourth production of the Taper's 2009 season, July 23 through September 6. Opening is August 2. "The Lieutenant of Inishmore" will be directed by Wilson Milam, who received a Tony Award nomination for his work on the 2006 Broadway production. A blistering, graphic satire on violence, the play is set in 1993 on the rocky island of Inishmore in County Galway. Padraic, a hard-boiled terrorist considered too angry for the IRA, has been away in Northern Ireland with his busy schedule of torture and assorted Nationalist mayhem, but he is lured home to Inishmore by the news that his beloved cat, Wee Thomas, is doing poorly. When Padraic finds out Wee Thomas has been murdered, he initiates a cycle of revenge-killing that threatens everyone in his path, but perhaps not the lovestruck Mairead, a 16-year-old terrorist groupie with a BB gun.

A shameful event in American history and a poignant love story are at the heart of the fifth production in the Taper's 42nd season. Center Theatre Group presents the acclaimed Donmar Warehouse production of the powerful and engrossing musical "Parade," September 24 through November 15, 2009. Opening is October 4."Parade," with book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, was co-conceived by Harold Prince, and is directed and choreographed by Tony Awardwinning choreographer Rob Ashford. Both Uhry and Brown won 1999 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, respectively, when the musical was first produced in 1998 at the Lincoln Center Theater, where it received a total of nine Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical. The Donmar Warehouse production, which opened in London in September 2007 with Ashford in his directorial debut, received seven 2008 Olivier Award nominations,
including Best New Musical, Best Theatre Choreographer and Best Director. The Taper presentation will be the first time that the Donmar production will be seen in America.

In "Parade" the true story of the arrest, conviction and lynching of Leo Frank in post-Civil War Atlanta, Georgia, is recounted. Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old factory worker, has been murdered on the day of the 1913 Confederate Memorial Day parade. Frank, the factory's superintendent and a Jewish outsider, is immediately cast as a suspect. As the media frenzy ensues, with journalists thirsting for news to boost circulations and ambitious politicians seeking votes, Frank - the transplanted Yankee - becomes the scapegoat.  Alfred Uhry has the distinction of being the only American writer who has won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama (for "Driving Miss Daisy"), an Academy Award (for the adapted screenplay of "Driving Miss Daisy") and two Tony Awards (the play "The Last Night of Ballyhoo" and the book for "Parade").

Modern military spin and ancient mysticism collide in the world premiere of "Palestine, New Mexico," a riveting new drama written by Richard Montoya for Culture Clash. The final play of the Taper subscription season, "Palestine, New Mexico" will be directed by Lisa Peterson, with performances beginning December 3, 2009, and running through January 24, 2010. Opening is December 13. Set on an American Indian reservation in the Southwest, "Palestine, New Mexico" follows the fate of Army Captain Siler who has returned from Iraq with a secret she just can't keep. Determined to set the record straight about the "friendly-fire" death of the tribal chief's son, she discovers she is considered a dangerous outsider rather than a messenger of truth. In the battle to tell her story she unleashes far more history than anyone wanted to hear, or tell. "Palestine, New Mexico" is the fifth Culture Clash project produced by Center Theatre Group. 

For more information about the Mark Taper Forum to purchase tickets please visit centertheatregroup.org

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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