Theatre Pro Rata's 2016-17 Season Set

Today Theatre Pro Rata announces its 2016-17 season with its most strongly comedic line-up to date. The season will feature Henry V by William Shakespeare; a remount of 44 Plays for 44 Presidents by Andy Bayiates et al., Goodbye Cruel World by Robert Ross Parker, and Up: The Man in the Flying Chair by Bridget Carpenter.

"This season features so many great artists. Not only do we have company members working on projects near and dear to their hearts, we also have wonderful artists from the community joining us for shows that are going to be exciting and fun to experience," said Carin Bratlie Wethern, Theatre Pro Rata Artistic Director. The company also celebrates its 15th birthday since premiering at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in 2001.

The season opens with Henry V, directed by Twin Cities mainstay Matt Sciple. The classic Shakespearean play that still resonates with audiences today centers around a young king and the political maelstrom he's been thrust into.

Running concurrently with Henry V, 44 Plays for 44 Presidents was originally performed by Pro Rata during the 2012 presidential election along with 43 other theatres, colleges, and high schools, marking a world record for the most simultaneous productions of a play. The play contains 44 vignettes about each of the men to have held the office of President of the United States. The original cast from Pro Rata's 2012 production returns to present the play, once again with a special Election Night performance.

The winter production, Goodbye Cruel World, continues Pro Rata's tradition of taking a dark subject and turning it on its head. This rollicking farce finds Semyon Semyonovich the victim of a rumor that he wants to kill himself, but instead of talking him out of it, his friends and neighbors urge him to go through with it in the name of their own particular causes, whether it's love, philosophy, or politics. Pro Rata company member Andrew Chambers will direct this production.

The final show of the season, Up: The Man in the Flying Chair by Bridget Carpenter, marks Pro Rata's third and final partnership with Park Square Theatre as part of their Theatres in Residence Series. Bratlie Wethern will direct a cast that includes popular Twin Cities actors and Pro Rata alumni John Middleton and Shanan Custer as dreamer Frank Griffin and his long-suffering wife, Helen. The play draws inspiration from an actual event that occurred in 1982 when a man in California attached several helium-filled balloons to a lawn chair and flew it 15,000 feet in the air.

Throughout the season Pro Rata will also continue its Play Reading Series. During this series, the general public is invited to attend readings of scripts under consideration for future Pro Rata seasons. Audience members are strongly encouraged to provide feedback after the readings which will ultimately help with selecting upcoming seasons. Admission is free and the dates are to be announced.

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