World Premieres of SCHOOL PICTURES and ETERNAL LIFE PART 1 & More Announced for The Wilma Theater 22/23 Season
The 2022/23 season begins this fall with Those With 2 Clocks, created and performed by Tall Order, the artistic collaboration of Jennifer Kidwell.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz May. 17, 2022
The Wilma Theater has announced the complete 2022/23 Season. Subscription packages for the 22/23 Season are on sale now.
"In the 2022-2023 season, we're producing five plays jam-packed with intellect and feeling. Many brilliant and generous voices contributed to the process of selecting this year's offerings, from both new and returning Wilma artists," shared Lead Co-Artistic Director Morgan Green. "The theater we're producing this season asks probing questions of theater itself: Whose stories can we tell and for whom? What is the nature of laughter and how does it heal? How can we leave a place better than we found it?"
The 2022/23 season begins this fall with Those With 2 Clocks, created and performed by Tall Order, the artistic collaboration of Jennifer Kidwell (Underground Railroad Game), Jess Conda (A Hard Time) and Mel Krodman (A Hard Time), and continues with School Pictures created and performed by Milo Cramer (Cute Activist), directed by Lead Co-Artistic Director Morgan Green.
The season continues in 2023 with Kiss, by Guillermo Calderón (Neva) and directed by Fadi Skeiker (University of the Arts); and Eternal Life Part 1 by Nathan Alan Davis (Nat Turner in Jerusalem), directed by Morgan Green. The season will conclude with a new adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, adapted and directed by Co-Artistic Director Yury Urnov.
Earlier this week, The Wilma's Co-Artistic Director James Ijames was honored with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the streaming production of Fat Ham. Directed by Co-Artistic Director Morgan Green, the Pulitzer board called the piece, "a funny, poignant play that deftly transposes "Hamlet" to a family barbecue in the American South to grapple with questions of identity, kinship, responsibility, and honesty."
Streaming performances and safety requirements for entry will be announced at a later date.
The line-up for the 2022-23 mainstage season is:
THOSE WITH 2 CLOCKS
Written and performed by Tall Order
October 6 - 23, 2022
This body-positive sketch comedy busts the patriarchy with bawdy, liberating laughter.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
SCHOOL PICTURES
Written and performed by Milo Cramer
Directed by Morgan Green
November 1 - 20, 2022
A broke and hapless tutor turns his real-life experiences into this charming and insightful one-man musical.
KISS
Written by Guillermo Calderón
Directed by Fadi Skeiker
January 31 - February 19, 2023
A group of American actors performing a Syrian soap opera are shocked to realize the limits of their own cultural understanding.
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
ETERNAL LIFE PART 1
Written by Nathan Alan Davis
April 11 - 30, 2023
This new play, set in the near future, centers on an idealistic family ... and the goose that just came with the house.
TWELFTH NIGHT
Written by William Shakespeare
Adapted and directed by Yury Urnov
June 6 - 25, 2023
The Wilma boldly reimagines Shakespeare's beloved romantic comedy about twins separated by a shipwreck. Set on a beach, this production will translate the jokes for our time.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE WILMA:
About The Wilma Theater
The Wilma creates living, adventurous theater. We engage artists and audiences in imaginative reflection on the complexities of contemporary life. We present bold, original, rigorously crafted productions that represent a range of voices, viewpoints, and styles.
Established in 1973 as The Wilma Project, the Wilma challenged the Philadelphia cultural community to create theatrical productions of original material and to develop local artists. From 1973 through 1979, the Wilma dazzled the Philadelphia public by presenting work with renowned avant garde theater artists, including the Bread & Puppet Theatre, Mabou Mines, Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company, The Wooster Group, Ping Chong & the Fiji Company and Spalding Gray.
In 1979, Blanka and Jiri Zizka, natives of Czechoslovakia, forged a creative relationship with the Wilma as artists-in-residence, and gained acclaim for their bold, innovative productions. The Zizkas assumed artistic leadership of the organization in 1981, and during their tenure the Wilma Theater established a national reputation for provocative work ranging from the international drama of Bertolt Brecht, Athol Fugard, Eugene Ionesco, Joe Orton and Tom Stoppard to new American plays by Tina Howe, Romulus Linney, Quincy Long, Doug Wright, Amy Freed and many others, as well as premiering Jiri Zizka's original adaptations of classic novels. CBS News called the Wilma "one playhouse that has emerged from the shadow of the Great White Way to make history on its own."
In February 2020, the Wilma radically changed its leadership structure. Founding Artistic Director Blanka Zizka invited three additional artists from a variety of histories and experiences to share leadership in a cohort structure, which will last until spring of 2023. Each year, one cohort member acts as lead Artistic Director, with input and support from other cohort members. It is an experiment in shared leadership. In Summer 2021, Blanka stepped back from the Cohort for a consulting role as Artistic Director Emeritus; the Cohort now includes Yury Urnov, James Ijames, and Morgan Green. They work alongside Managing Director Leigh Goldenberg as the leadership of the organization.
During the pandemic, the Wilma has become a leader in digital theater. The May 2020 virtual Fete was one of the first all-digital fundraisers. The digital production of Heroes of the Fourth Turning was named the best of the year in 2020 by The Wall Street Journal and nominated for a Drama League award. The Wilma's 2021 digital production of Fat Ham by James Ijames was named one of the best virtual productions in 2021 by The New York Times, which stated that "The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia perfected beautiful film-stage hybrids." Fat Ham was also honored with the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
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