Wilma Theater Announces 2010-11 Season Feat. Ayckbourn, Rebeck & Ruhl

The Wilma Theater announced the four plays that will make up its upcoming 2010 - 2011 season as it celebrated the World Premiere opening night of Language Rooms on Wednesday March 10, 2010.

The Wilma will open its season with Macbeth, the theater's first Shakespearean production in its 31-season history, directed by Blanka Zizka. Macbeth will be followed by the off-Broadway hit comedy The Understudy by Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck, directed by Jiri Zizka, and In the Next Room, or the vibrator play by Pulitzer Prize nominee Sarah Ruhl, directed by Blanka Zizka. The Wilma will close its 2010 - 2011 season with My Wonderful Day, the most recent work by Tony® winner Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Jiri Zizka.

The four plays that make up this new season show the broad dramatic, intellectual, and thematic range that characterizes the Wilma's work. Anticipating directing Shakespeare for the first time on the Wilma stage, co-Artistic Director Blanka Zizka says, "I'm really excited to show the primal drive that motivates Macbeth, and to create the world of magic the play exists in."

Co-Artistic Director Jiri Zizka, who is directing two playwrights new to the Wilma, says, "Both of these writers are astonishingly prolific and display uncompromising commitment to the craft of comedy, irony, and stage invention. Both make you laugh with one hand while the other pulls on your heart strings and plays with your preconceived perceptions of today's world."

The Wilma Theater is located at 265 South Broad Street in Philadelphia. For more information and tickets, visit www.wilmatheater.org or call (215) 546-7824.

The Wilma Theater's 2010 - 2011 season will include:

Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Blanka Zizka
October/November 2010

After 31 seasons of groundbreaking theater, the Wilma presents its first-ever Shakespearean production with an extraordinary re-imagination of the Bard's final great tragedy. Tempted by the prophecies of three mysterious witches, Macbeth quickly descends into a nightmarish world of evil, deceit, and murder as he clings to fragments of a shattered reality. Featuring spectacular choreography, original music, and stunning visuals, this classic tale of power and madness promises to be like nothing audiences have ever seen on the Wilma's stage.

The Understudy (Philadelphia Premiere)
By Theresa Rebeck
Directed by Jiri Zizka
December 2010/January 2011

A smash hit on Broadway earlier this year, The Understudy is the latest comedy from Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck (Omnium Gatherum, Bad Dates, Mauritius), one of the most produced female playwrights in America. When a Hollywood action star lands a prestigious role in Franz Kafka's newly discovered play on Broadway, things couldn't be better... until he meets his understudy. Hailed by The Wall Street Journal as "a masterpiece of comic clockwork, raucously funny," this hilarious play brings the backstage friction of a frenzied rehearsal center stage with vivacious satire and Kafkaesque theatrics.

In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Philadelphia Premiere)
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Blanka Zizka
March/April 2011

Pulitzer Prize nominee Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House, Eurydice) returns to the Wilma with her latest play hailed by the The New Yorker as "her best to date!" It's the dawn of electricity. Dr. Givings begins harnessing the newfound power to treat hysterical patients at his home with an experimental electric apparatus. But as the peculiar buzzing sounds from his office grow louder, Mrs. Givings' curiosity gets the best of her, exposing cracks in the very foundation of their marriage. Boldly exploring American sexuality and intimacy in the 1880s, In the Next Room dares to push the envelope, combining historical facts with deep emotion and surprising humor.

My Wonderful Day (Philadelphia Premiere)
By Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Jiri Zizka
May/June 2011

My Wonderful Day is the most recent work by Tony® winner Alan Ayckbourn, who has written over 70 plays in the past 50 years including such comic gems as The Norman Conquests and Absurd Person Singular. In this play, Laverne, an Afro-Caribbean cleaning woman, brings Winnie, her 9-year-old daughter, to the house of her wealthy clients in London. What ensues is a wickedly funny and bold comic dissection of a marriage that serves as Winnie's topsy-turvy initiation into Life. The play received glowing reviews in both London and New York last year, and Terry Teachout in The Wall Street Journal declared it "one of the strongest productions I've seen on or off-Broadway in recent seasons; if you miss it, you'll regret it - a lot!"

Subscription prices range from $32-$220, with Flex Subscriptions available that give subscribers the flexibility to choose performance dates over the season. Special discounts are available on subscriptions for seniors, students, and educators. Subscriptions are available by calling (215) 546-7824, visiting The Wilma Theater box office located at 265 South Broad Street in Philadelphia, or online at www.wilmatheater.org. Single tickets for the 2010 - 2011 Season go on sale July 1st.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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