Southern Rep Theatre's 28th Mainstage Season to Feature BROOMSTICK, BOUDIN & More

Fresh off of the success of its previous Season, and particularly its most recent, acclaimed production of THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA by Tennessee Williams, Southern Rep is pleased to announce its 2014-15 Mainstage Season, featuring four productions by, or about, Louisianans: BROOMSTICK by John Biguenet (regional premiere), DETROIT by Lisa D'Amour (regional premiere), BOUDIN: The New Orleans Music Project curated by Matt Callahan, Sean Daniels, Aimée Hayes (world premiere), and SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER by Tennessee Williams, in partnership with the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival.

We had so much success 'taking a trip' with New Orleans audiences this past Season, but like anyone who has been on the road can understand, we began this year ready to get back to our roots. More than anything else, Southern Rep is Louisiana theatre, and since our inception in 1986, we've spent Season after Season creating the high-caliber productions for which our home state can be proud.

I'm excited to say that we'll spend our 28th Season getting back to basics - celebrating that heritage and producing the best stories from, and about Louisiana with the vision, care, and high-caliber production values that have become Southern Rep's industry trademark.

Born in New Orleans, matured into the premiere theatre company in the Gulf Coast South. We're Southern Rep. We're Home. Grown.- Aimée Hayes, Producing Artistic Director

See individual production details below for details. Dates, times, and locations of the productions will be announced at a later date.

In BROOMSTICK, a witch confesses all: her first love affair, how she discovered her powers, how she has used them. A completely unsentimental moralist who knows everything about the human heart-having been both its victim and avenger all her long life-she metes out inexorable justice, immune to our pleas for mercy, cackling at our excuses. In BROOMSTICK, whiners wind up in a casserole.

BROOMSTICK, the winner of a National New Play Network Continued Life of New Plays Fund award, will premiere at New Jersey Rep Company, Playwrights Theatre, Montana Repertory Theatre, and The Fountain Theatre. Southern Rep's production will mark its regional premiere in New Orleans.

BROOMSTICK
By John Biguenet
Directed By Lisa Wolpe
Featuring: Liann Pattison

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In a first-ring suburb just outside a city that might be Detroit, Ben and Mary see sudden signs of life at the deserted house next door and invite their new neighbors Sharon and Kenny over for a barbecue. As the action unfolds we learn that Sharon and Kenny met at rehab, neither is employed, and they don't own a stick of furniture. The quintessential American backyard party turns quickly into something more hilarious - and potentially more dangerous, too.

DETROIT was a finalist for the Pulitzer and Susan Smith Blackburn Prizes. The play premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2010 and subsequently ran Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in fall 2012. Detroit won the Obie Award for Best New American Play for 2013. Southern Rep's production will mark its regional premiere in New Orleans.

DETROIT
By Lisa D'Amour
Directed By: Aimée Hayes
Featuring: Jessica Podewell, Todd D'Amour, Laura Friedmann, and Mike Harkins

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A brand-new play about one of the oldest New Orleans art forms - music! Southern Rep will ask locals of all stripes and backgrounds to respond to this question: "How has New Orleans Music Saved My Soul?" Funny, poignant, heartwarming, and jazzy, these true stories of New Orleanians' personal histories will be hand-picked, harvested, mixed in with local playwrights' original vignettes, and then served up hot for the world-premiere production of BOUDIN: The New Orleans Music Project!

Featuring set pieces designed by local visual artists, musicians, and musician-actor greats like Troi Bechet and Clint Johnson who will perform the stories and play the songs that have touched so many of our lives, BOUDIN: The New Orleans Music Project will be a celebration of New Orleans' musical heritage, the strength of our community, and an innovative, joyful way to "pass a good time" at the theatre.

BOUDIN: The New Orleans Music Project
Curated by Matt Callahan, Sean Daniels and Aimée Hayes
Featuring: Troi Bechet, and Clint Johnson

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Considered one of Tennessee Williams' most poetic, sensual and evocative works, this "moral fable" set in the Garden District of New Orleans follows a wealthy New Orleans society matron, Violet Venable, who attempts to lobotomize her niece Catherine in a struggle to cover up the truth about her son Sebastian's sudden death. Venable temps a young doctor with the promise of a million dollar grant if he will perform the radical surgery. When the doctor tries to unravel the mystery of Sebastian's death, will Catherine share the shocking and terrible truth of what happened, or succumb to the pressure to protect the legacy of an influential and powerful family? Tennessee Williams' autobiographical masterwork, SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER, raises bold questions about mental illness, sexuality, guilt, brutality, and the search for truth.

SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER
By Tennessee Williams
In Partnership with the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival
Directed By: TBA
Featuring: Brenda Currin

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