59E59 Theaters' 2015-16 5A Season to Feature Four New Plays

59E59 Theaters has announced the line up of plays for their second 5A Season. This year, the 5A Season features four tremendous new plays and one brand new musical. 5A Season Subscription Bundle is $245 each, and includes a ticket to each show in the season as well as a 59E59 Membership (a $59.59 value). 5A Season Subscription Bundles go on sale on Monday, April 27 at Noon. The single ticket price for individual shows in the 5A Season is $70 ($49 for 59E59 Members). 59E59 Member single tickets for the 5A Season go on sale Tuesday, May 6 at Noon; for non-members, single tickets will be on sale Monday June 1 at Noon. Tickets are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or by visiting www.59e59.org.

Presenting four new plays (and one more production to be announced) from celebrated theater makers across the U.S., 59E59's 5A Season builds on its already eclectic year-round programming. Kicking off the 5A Season is THREESOME, a new play from Portland, Oregon. Will a couple implode when they invite a stranger into bed with them?

In DESIRE, Tennessee Williams' short stories are adapted by six of the top playwrights in the US: John Guare, Beth Henley, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Gilman, David Grimm and Elizabeth Egloff.

Lauren Gunderson returns to the 5A Season with her Steinberg/ACTA New Play Award-winning play I AND YOU, coming direct from Merrimack Repertory Theatre. Rounding out the season is IDEATION, a new dark comedy that scrutinizes the roots of corporate deception. Plus, there is one more production to be announced at a later day.

The 2015/2016 5A Season at 59E59 Theaters:
Week commencing July 6 - August 23
THREESOME, written by Yussef El Guindi, directed by Chris Coleman

With Alia Attallah (Samuel Beckett's Rockabye, dir JoAnn Akalaitis), Dominic Rains (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night for Vice Films; three Independent Spirit Award noms), and Quinn Franzen (Angels in America at Intiman Theatre Festival)

Produced by Portland Center Stage and A Contemporary Theater (ACT)

Leila and Rashid, Egyptian Americans with ties to Cairo, attempt to solve their relationship issues by inviting a relative stranger into their bedroom to engage in a threesome. What begins as a hilariously awkward evening soon becomes an experience fraught with secrets, raising issues of sexism, possession and independence. This New York premiere comes direct from its extended critically acclaimed run in Portland, where it was called "a dizzying piece...simultaneously funny, thought-provoking, and brave.

An updated version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" by The Portland Mercury.

Week commencing August 24 - October 11
DESIRE Six New Plays Based on Stories by Tennessee Williams, by John Guare, Beth Henley, Marcus Gardley, Rebecca Gilman, David Grimm and Elizabeth Egloff; directed by Michael Wilson

With a cast to be announced

Produced by The Acting Company

Tennessee Williams' life changing stories depict loss of innocence, coming of age, fighting loneliness and isolation, and what it means to love and to lose it. Adapted by some of America's leading playwrights, Williams' striking stories explode off the page.

The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin by Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley is about love, loss of talent and innocence, sexuality and death. The Field of Blue Children is a study in class differences and pride written by Olivier and Pulitzer Prize-nominee Rebecca Gilman. Tent Worms by Elizabeth Egloff is the bittersweet story of death and loss. Oriflamme by David Grimm addresses stemming the tide of dullness and conspiracy. PEN/Laura Pels Award-winner Marcus Gardley's Desire and the Black Masseur is a detective story set during the height of the Cold War, and mired in racism, hatred, and fear. Finally, John Guare adapts Portrait of a Girl in Glass, the short story that inspired The Glass Menagerie.

Week commencing October 12 - November 29
Show To Be Announced

Week commencing January 11 - February 28
I AND YOU, written by Lauren Gunderson, directed by Sean Daniels
With a cast to be announced
Produced by Merrimack Repertory Theatre

Caroline hates poetry. She's also something of a loner. So just about the last thing she wanted was a complete stranger named Anthony walking through her bedroom door to work on a school project about Walt Whitman. But as the two very different teenagers uncover deep bonds, Caroline finds herself opening up in ways she never imagined possible. Their journey is an explosion of thought on art, connection, and identity that will warm your heart, with an ending that will leave you breathless. Winner of the Steinberg/ACTA New Play Award, I AND YOU was called "sharp and funny" by the Washington Post.

Week commencing February 29 - April 17
IDEATION, written by Aaron Loeb, directed by Josh Costello
With Carrie Paff, Mark Anderson Phillips, Michael Ray Wisely and two additional members to be announced
Produced by San Francisco Playhouse

In Aaron Loeb's "devilishly funny and demonically dark comedy" (San Francisco Chronicle), a group of corporate consultants work together on a mysterious and ethically ambiguous project. As the lines between right and wrong are blurred, these corporate cogs must navigate cognitive dissonances and moral dilemmas. Is everything really as it seems?

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