SWEET CHARITY, LOVE IN HATE NATION, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN and More Slated for Penn State Centre Stage's 2017-18 Season

Penn State Centre Stage, Penn State's professional theatre training program, has announced its 2017-18 season.

"As you may have noticed, the guy to your left is new. Well, kind of new. Though I've been at Penn State for a while, I'm new in the role of director for the School of Theatre. Our commitment to you and to our students will continue to guide us on the next phase of our journey.

"We are fortunate to have students at every level of development in technology, design, performance, directing, musical theatre, stage management, and the study of the rich and diverse historical, social, and literary traditions of the theatre. We encourage them to stand firmly in the present day, with all its complexities, challenges, and needs, while also investigating the past for the traditions that continue to influence our present. We expect our students to move fluidly and expertly between classics, musicals, and new and devised work, while developing skills that will serve their efforts to build and sustain full lives and careers. Preparing, educating, and training our students for a life in the arts is at the heart of our season selection process.

"We also believe we continue to find new and compelling ways to entertain you, engage you, and offer you experiences that allow you to share directly in our students' growth and development. We count on you to make sure we never forget the value of our relationship with the audience, a relationship as old as time. Please join us as we work to understand the human condition in all its mess and glory, which is the privileged work of making theatre.

"To quote the great Peter Allen,

Don't throw the past away
You might need it some rainy day
Dreams can come true again
When everything old is new again.

"I look forward to seeing you at the theatre!" - William J. Doan, Ph.D., Director, School of Theatre, Producing Artistic Director, Penn State Centre Stage

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SEPTEMBER 6-13
PENN STATE DOWNTOWN THEATRE CENTER
YOUR BLUES AIN'T SWEET LIKE MINE
By Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Directed by Steve Broadnax III

An Upper West Side dinner party invitation brings an unlikely group together, spawning a passionate and explosive debate on America's relationship to race. Tony Award-winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson brings humor and poignancy to one of the most potent conversations in American life. In our shared history, we all sing the blues. But are your blues sweet like mine?

Purchase Tickets Here
Evenings: $20 * Preview/Matinee: $18.50 * Penn State Student (with valid PSU ID): $12.50
Opening Night Reception in the Woskob Family Gallery, Fri., Sept. 8: $30 (DOES NOT INCLUDE SHOW TICKET) (Includes pre-show hors d'ouevres and desserts. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.; show begins at 7:30 p.m. Purchase show ticket separately.)

OCTOBER 3-8
PLAYHOUSE THEATRE
SWEET CHARITY
Music by Cy Coleman *
Lyrics by Dorothy Fields *
Book by Neil Simon *
Directed by Erin Farrell Speer

Meet Charity Hope Valentine, the optimistic dance hall hostess who sings, dances, and pours her heart out to one undeserving man after another in her pursuit of finding true love. Emboldened by her girlfriends at the Fan-Dango Ballroom, she and the other hard-working women declare their intent to obtain the better lives that they deserve.

Purchase Tickets Here
Evenings: $25 * Preview/Matinee: $20 * Penn State Student (with valid PSU ID): $12.50

OCTOBER 24-NOVEMBER 3
PAVILION THEATRE
ARGONAUTIKA
By Mary Zimmerman *
Adapted from The Voyage of Jason and the Argonauts
Directed by Steve Snyder

Written by Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman, Argonautika is a modern take on an old tale of ambition, deception, heroism, love, and unintended consequences. Jason is on his ancient quest for the Golden Fleece-an epic journey of love and loss, hubris and honor, danger and adventure. Jason confronts giants, kings, sirens, nymphs, centaurs, sea monsters, and one heartsick sorceress. In this perilous voyage, Zimmerman shows us that love is the bane of all mankind-and yet it's all that we know of heaven on this earth.

Purchase Tickets Here
Evenings: $20 * Preview/Matinee: $18.50 * Penn State Student (with valid PSU ID): $12.50

NOVEMBER 15-16
PLAYHOUSE THEATRE
COSI FAN TUTTE
Composed by W.A. Mozart *
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte *
Directed by Ted Christopher

The schools of Theatre and Music present Mozart's Cosí fan tutte, a fully produced opera with chamber orchestra, sets, and costumes.

Thinking himself worldly and experienced, Don Alfonso decides to relieve his young friends, Ferrando and Gugliemo, of their faith in romantic love. He challenges them to a bet, promising that within 24 hours their fiancées will prove unfaithful. They accept, but find the challenge too painfully revealing and difficult to withstand. Disguised as exotic 'Albanians', the two men break their own hearts and the hearts of their fiancées. A comedy that is a tragedy underneath is the perfect stuff for the uncanny genius of Mozart, so clearly revealed in this dazzling score.

Purchase Tickets Here
Evenings: $25 * Penn State Student (with valid PSU ID): $12.50

FEBRUARY 13-24
PENN STATE DOWNTOWN THEATRE CENTER
LOVE IN HATE NATION
Music, Lyrics, and Book by Joe Iconis *
Directed by John Simpkins

Love in Hate Nation is a romance set in a 1960's juvenile hall for girls. It uses classic "bad girl" movies as the inspiration for a story of young people caught between eras of a changing America and their attempt to break out of the boxes society has created around them.

Love in Hate Nation is the first project in a new musicals initiative in Penn State Musical Theatre. A writing team visits the junior musical theatre majors each spring - the students sing for the writers, get to know each other artistically, and the writers depart and write the first draft of a musical. They return throughout the students' senior year to work on the development of the show, culminating in New York and State College performances.

Purchase Tickets Here
Evenings: $20 * Preview/Matinee: $18.50 * Penn State Student (with valid PSU ID): $12.50
Opening Night Reception in the Woskob Family Gallery, Fri., Feb. 16: $30 (DOES NOT INCLUDE SHOW TICKET) (Includes pre-show hors d'ouevres and desserts. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.; show begins at 7:30 p.m. Purchase show ticket separately.)

APRIL 3-7
PLAYHOUSE THEATRE
KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN
Music by John Kander and Fred Ebb *
Book by Terrence McNally *
Directed by Darcy Evans

Winner of the 1993 Tony Award for Best Musical, Kiss of the Spider Woman follows Luis Alberto Molina, a homosexual window dresser in prison in a Latin American country for corrupting a minor. He lives in a fantasy world to flee the prison life-the torture, fear, and humiliation. His fantasies turn mostly around movies, particularly around a vampy diva, Aurora. He loves her in all roles, but one scares him: That is the spider woman, who kills with her kiss.

Purchase Tickets Here
Evenings: $25 * Preview/Matinee: $20 * Penn State Student (with valid PSU ID): $12.50

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