UNCLE VANYA Launches Guthrie's 2013-14 Season Tonight

Guthrie Theater presents 12 mainstage shows in its 2013-2014 season. The theater's 51st season includes first-time Guthrie Productions of playwrights Beth Henley and Nina Raine, classics on the Wurtele Thrust Stage directed by Dowling and Marion McClinton, WorldStage Series presentations of returning companies Kneehigh Theatre and Out of Joint, as well as a summertime slate of a beloved musical and a Christopher Durang comedy that is currently a Broadway hit.

"This upcoming season is marked by a terrific balance of classics, contemporary works and playwrights whose work I'm immensely excited to see on our stages," said Dowling. "This is a season that fulfills our mission looking forward toward the Guthrie's next half-century, telling great stories in a way that engages our community and furthers the dialogue of the theater."

The 2013-2014 Guthrie subscription season includes nine productions, beginning on the Wurtele Thrust Stage with Uncle Vanya (tonight, September 14 - October 27, 2013), the 1899 classic by Anton Chekhov about Vanya and his niece Sonya, who work their small estate, living frugally and keeping their emotions tightly reined in when they are visited by a relative and his beautiful young wife, and uncontrolled passions cause their regulated lives to implode. This stripped-down take by Brian Friel, tightening the play's diction in English and sharpening its confrontations, will be directed by Joe Dowling.

The season continues next on the McGuire Proscenium Stage with Tribes (October 5 - November 10, 2013), the story of a young man born deaf into a hearing family who meets a young woman from a deaf family who introduces him to sign language and the confidence and sense of belonging he begins to feel within the deaf community. Nina Raine's play won the 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, and will be directed by Wendy C. Goldberg, the current artistic director of the National Playwrights Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and the director of Dollhouse at the Guthrie in 2010. Tribes will be the first time Raine's work appears at the Guthrie.

Next on the proscenium will be Garson Kanin's (renowned for his Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn films Adam's Rib and Pat and Mike) Born Yesterday (November 23, 2013 - January 5, 2014), in which a corrupt businessman on the rise heads to Washington to influence a senator. He soon realizes that his showgirl Mistress Billie will need polish and education if he's going to get ahead and gets more than he bargained for when Billie begins to piece together her boyfriend's business dealings as well as how to exert some influence of her own. Born Yesterday was made into a 1950 film starring Judy Holliday, after Holliday originated the role of Billie on Broadway. John Miller-Stephany (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1776) will direct.

The Guthrie subscription season continues on the proscenium with the Guthrie Theater's WorldStage Series presentation of Kneehigh Theatre's production of Tristan and Yseult (February 13 - March 23, 2014), by Anna Maria Murphy and Carl Grose, adapted and directed by Emma Rice. A king at war falls in love with his enemy's sister in a tale of forbidden desires and broken hearts. The acclaimed Kneehigh, who previously brought the wildly popular and evocative Noël Coward adaptation Brief Encounter to the Guthrie in 2010, returns with a blend of comedy, live music, grand passions and tender truths. In a five-star review, the U.K.'s The Guardian summed up its judgment succinctly: "I loved it with a passion."

Marion McClinton, whose honors include an Obie Award as well as nominations for the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award, will then direct Othello, the Moor of Venice (March 8 - April 20, 2014) on the thrust stage. One of William Shakespeare's four major tragedies, this story of sweeping passions and murderous jealousy is a meditation about the power of love, and the destructiveness of doubt and suspicion triggered by one of literature's most manipulative villains. The classic Othello remains a devastating story of cultural diversity, race, and the complexities of ambition and trust.

Next on the thrust will be Crimes of the Heart (May 3 - June 15, 2014) by Beth Henley. Henley's warm-hearted and irreverent play depicts the plight of three young Mississippi sisters gathered in their hometown to await news of their hospitalized grandfather. With troubles in life and with the law, the Magrath sisters navigate their pasts to seize the future in an imaginative and touching story for which Henley won the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award, and which will be directed by the Guthrie's Marcela Lorca. This will be the first time that a work by Beth Henley has appeared on a Guthrie stage.

The British international touring company Out of Joint (returning after its 2005 production of Macbeth at the Guthrie Lab) will next perform Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good (May 22 - June 29, 2014) on the proscenium stage, directed by Max Stafford-Clark as part of the Guthrie's WorldStage Series. In this story, a production of a British Restoration comedy is directed by jailers and acted by a cast of criminals in a 1780 Australian penal colony. A Second Lieutenant seeks to advance his career by placing himself in charge-but faces difficulties both from his largely illiterate cast as well as those who believe that criminals are hopeless and irredeemable. Reviews for this production in the U.K. have been glowing, with the Sunday Express review of Our Country's Good and Stafford-Clark's direction noting that it is "...one of the great plays of and about the theatre, staged by one of its greatest living exponents with overwhelming warmth and humanity."

The Guthrie will then present the summer musical My Fair Lady (June 28 - August 31, 2014) with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe, directed by Joe Dowling on the thrust. Based on George Bernard Shaw's classic play Pygmalion, Lerner and Loewe's beloved musical tells the story of Covent Garden flower peddler Eliza Doolittle who agrees to take speech lessons from Henry Higgins in order to fulfill her dream of working in a flower shop. Helping to define the modern theater musical, My Fair Lady includes such unforgettable numbers as "I Could Have Danced All Night," "The Rain in Spain" and "On the Street Where You Live." The original production of My Fair Lady ran on Broadway for seven years, leading to the 1964 film of the same name starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison that won eight Oscars including Best Picture.

Also in the summer of 2014, the Guthrie will present the current Broadway hit Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (July 19 - August 31, 2014) by Christopher Durang, directed by Joel Sass (The 39 Steps) on the proscenium stage. Taking place in present-day Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Durang's comedy depicts Vanya and his stepsister Sonia, who have lived their entire lives in their family's farmhouse while their sister has been traveling the world as an actress and movie star; their cleaning woman warns them about terrible events in their future in a work that mixes characters and themes from Chekhov with hilarious and occasionally touching results.

Dowling also announced two presentations on the proscenium stage in 2013-2014. A Penumbra Theatre Company production of The Mountaintop (March 22 - April 19, 2014) by Katori Hall is a drama that reimagines events the night before the assassination of DR. Martin Luther King, Jr.; after he has just delivered one of his most memorable speeches, the arrival of a stranger sparks King to examine his history-changing achievements, his failures and his unfinished dreams. The Mountaintop received the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Play, and earned Hall the 2011 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; it will be directed by Lou Bellamy. Next the partnership between the Guthrie and the New York-based The Acting Company will enter its sixth year with William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (April 22 - May 4, 2014), in which Shakespeare's story of a Danish prince and his search for vengeance, justice and truth will play in repertory with Tom Stoppard's reworking of the same tragedy from the point of view of two minor characters and their static existence in a world beyond their comprehension.

Dowling also announced productions that will play in the Dowling Studio next season, including David Goldstein's Skiing on Broken Glass (October 29 - November 17, 2013) directed by Dowling, in which a lonely writer and a mysterious young male escort find themselves in an unlikely relationship, and Freud's Last Session by Mark St. Germain (February 25 - March 16, 2014), which depicts Sigmund Freud in the weeks before his death consulting with the young C.S. Lewis on the existence of God, love and the meaning of life.

The Dowling Studio will also be home to the one-person shows Moon Show 143 by Kyle Loven, as well as How to Be a Korean Woman by Sun Mee Chomet. The Guthrie will also welcome Pillsbury House Theatre and The Mount Curve Company, Carlyle Brown & Company, Walking Shadow Theatre Company and Black Label Movement to the Dowling Studio in the 2013-2014 season.

In addition to the nine plays of the subscription season, mainstage presentations and Studio Productions, Dowling announced that Joe Chvala will for a second consecutive year direct Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (November 14 - December 29, 2013), the perennial favorite that received a new adaptation by Crispin Whittell in 2010 and continues the Guthrie's holiday tradition for the 39th year.

Nine plays of the 2013-2014 season are available as part of the subscription series at the Guthrie Theater - Uncle Vanya, Othello, Crimes of the Heart and My Fair Lady on the Wurtele Thrust Stage and Tribes, Born Yesterday, Kneehigh Theatre's production of Tristan and Yseult, Out of Joint's production of Our Country's Good, and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike on the McGuire Proscenium Stage. New season subscriptions range in price from $60 to $559 and go on sale June 23.

Single tickets for A Christmas Carol go on sale September 3. Single tickets for all other shows on the Wurtele Thrust and McGuire Proscenium stages go on sale August 1. Single ticket prices for these shows range from $24 to $85. Discounts are available for students, seniors and children. Single tickets for productions in the Dowling Studio range from $18 to $39 and go on sale August 1.

For more information or to purchase tickets or season subscriptions, call the Guthrie Theater Box Office 612.377.2224 or toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org.

GUTHRIE THEATER 2013-2014 SEASON:

On the Wurtele Thrust Stage

TONIGHT, September 14 - October 27, 2013

Uncle Vanya
by Anton Chekhov
in a version by Brian Friel
directed by Joe Dowling
Opening Night: Friday, September 20

Uncle Vanya and his niece Sonya work their small estate, living frugally and keeping their emotions tightly reined in when they are visited by a relative and his beautiful young wife and uncontrolled passions cause their regulated lives to implode. Brian Friel pens a stripped-down take on this 1899 classic by Anton Chekhov that tightens its diction in English and sharpens in confrontations.

November 14 - December 29, 2013

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens
adapted by Crispin Whittell
directed by Joe Chvala
Opening Night: Saturday, November 20

The Guthrie's perennial holiday favorite, which received a new adaptation by Crispin Whittell in 2010, continues the theater's holiday tradition for the 39th year, telling the story of old miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who learns real compassion when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve.

March 8 - April 20, 2014

Othello, the Moor of Venice
by William Shakespeare
directed by Marion McClinton
Opening Night: Friday, March 14

One of Shakespeare's four major tragedies, this story of sweeping passions and murderous jealousy is a meditation about the power of love, and the destructiveness of doubt and suspicion triggered by one of literature's most manipulative villains. Renowned director Marion McClinton interprets this devastating story of cultural diversity, race, and the complexities of ambition and trust.

May 3 - June 15, 2014

Crimes of the Heart
by Beth Henley
directed by Marcela Lorca
Opening Night: Friday, May 9

Beth Henley's warm-hearted and irreverent play depicts the plight of three young Mississippi sisters gathered in their hometown to await news of their hospitalized grandfather. With troubles in life and with the law, the Magrath sisters navigate their pasts to seize the future, in an imaginative and touching story that won the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

June 28 - August 31, 2014

My Fair Lady
book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
music by Frederick Loewe
based on Pygmalion
by George Bernard Shaw
directed by Joe Dowling
Opening Night: Friday, July 4

Based on George Bernard Shaw's classic play Pygmalion, Lerner and Loewe's musical tells the story of Covent Garden flower peddler Eliza Doolittle who agrees to take speech lessons from Henry Higgins in order to fulfill her dream of working in a flower shop. Helping to define the modern theater musical, My Fair Lady includes such unforgettable numbers as "I Could Have Danced All Night," "The Rain in Spain" and "On the Street Where You Live."

On the McGuire Proscenium Stage

October 5 - November 10, 2013

Tribes
by Nina Raine
directed by Wendy C. Goldberg
Opening Night: Friday, October 11

Billy, a young man born deaf into a hearing family, meets a young woman from a deaf family who introduces him to sign language and the confidence and sense of belonging he feels within the deaf community. Along with the rest of his family, Billy embarks on a journey of expression, finding his voice in the world and understanding the meaning of the "tribes" that each of us are born into.

November 23, 2013 - January 5, 2014

Born Yesterday
by Garson Kanin
directed by John Miller-Stephany
Opening Night: Friday, November 29

When a corrupt businessman on the rise heads to Washington to influence a senator, he soon realizes that his showgirl Mistress Billie will need polish and education if he's going to get ahead. He hires a newspaperman for the task, but gets more than he bargained for when Billie begins to piece together her boyfriend's business dealings as well as how to exert some influence of her own.

February 13 - March 23, 2014

The Guthrie Theater's WorldStage Series
presents
a Kneehigh Theatre production of
Tristan and Yseult
by Anna Maria Murphy & Carl Grose
adapted and directed by Emma Rice
Opening Night: Friday, February 14

A king at war falls in love with his enemy's sister in a tale of forbidden desires and broken hearts. The acclaimed Kneehigh Theatre, who previously brought Brief Encounter to the Guthrie, returns with a blend of comedy, live music, grand passions and tender truths.

March 22 - April 19, 2014

The Guthrie Theater presents
a Penumbra Theatre Company production of
The Mountaintop
by Katori Hall
directed by Lou Bellamy
Opening Night: Friday, March 22

DR. Martin Luther King, Jr. has just delivered one of his most memorable speeches and is trying to craft the next one when a mysterious woman arrives and a reflective, often funny and touching conversation begins. Taking place the night before Dr. King's assassination, The Mountaintop reimagines events in which he examines his history-changing achievements, his failures and his unfinished dreams.

April 22 - May 4, 2014

The Acting Company in association with
the Guthrie Theater presents
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
directed by Ian Belknap
and
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
by Tom Stoppard
directed by John Rando
Opening Night: Friday, April 22

Shakespeare's story of a Danish prince and his search for vengeance, justice and truth plays in repertory with Tom Stoppard's reworking of the same tragedy from the point of view of two minor characters and their static existence in a world beyond their comprehension.

May 22 - June 29, 2014

The Guthrie Theater's WorldStage Series
presents
an Out of Joint production of
Our Country's Good
by Timberlake Wertenbaker
based on The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally
directed by Max Stafford-Clark
Opening Night: Friday, May 23

The British international touring company Out of Joint presents the story of a production of a British Restoration comedy that is directed by jailers and acted by a cast of criminals in a 1780 Australian penal colony. When a Second Lieutenant seeks to advance his career by placing himself in charge, he faces difficulties both from his largely illiterate cast as well as those who believe that criminals are irredeemable.

July 19 - August 31, 2014

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
by Christopher Durang
directed by Joel Sass
Opening Night: Friday, July 25

In present-day Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Vanya and his stepsister Sonia have lived their entire lives in their family's farmhouse while their sister has been traveling the world as an actress and movie star; their cleaning woman warns them about terrible events in their future in this comedy that mixes characters and themes from Chekhov with hilarious and occasionally touching results.

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