SKELETON CREW, OTHELLO, RAGTIME and More Set for Trinity Rep's 2017-18 Season
By: BWW News Desk Mar. 14, 2017
Tony Award-winning Trinity Repertory Company, under the artistic leadership of Richard L. Bready Artistic Director Curt Columbus, announced its 2017-2018 season via Facebook Live today. The company had planned to announce the season at an exclusive event for subscribers and donors at the theater, complete with discussions with artists and special readings, but adapted the plan due to Winter Storm Stella.
The six-play lineup, a mix of exciting new voices and powerful classics, is marked by Trinity Rep's commitment to re-inventing the public square by telling stories that reflect the diverse nature of its community. Columbus and his team have put together a season that focuses on the conversations and relationships we share with one another - as neighbors, family, co-workers, and fellow members of this community. It will feature the talents of Trinity's Resident Acting Company as well as several Brown/Trinity MFA graduates, who will be returning to direct.
"As we planned the 2017-2018 season, we noticed the swell of heightened communication in our country. Even within our own families and communities, we have been speaking with each other with passion or anger, begging each other to understand our point of view," states artistic director Curt Columbus. "This next season is very much about the ways we communicate with each other when we're fighting for our dreams. Each play asks us pivotal questions about ourselves and who we are as a society: What are our values? How did we get here? What are we trying to achieve? Our upcoming season is sure to excite, provoke, and inspire, and I could not be more excited for it to begin."
The season kicks off with a poignant and powerful fall rotating repertory schedule: The American Dream, Then and Now, kicks off the season with the powerful pairing of two plays performed in repertory from September 28-November 26, 2017 that harmonize through history: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller and Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau. Miller's masterpiece of the perilously high cost of the American Dream explodes with moving relevance under the direction of Brian McEleney. More than half a century after Willy Loman struggled for success, Skeleton Crew features a makeshift family of four factory workers in 2008 Detroit as their industry flirts with failure. This fresh from off-Broadway play will be directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene.
Ringing in the holiday season will be the 40th anniversary production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol - now available to subscribers for purchase. A Christmas Carol, this year co-directed by Acting Company members Angela Brazil and Stephen Thorne, will start performances November 9th and will extend through New Year's Eve. Acting Company member Joe Wilson, Jr. will star as Ebenezer Scrooge.
Kicking off the new year will be George Brant's Into the Breeches!, January 25 - February 25, 2018. Taibi Magar, director of past Trinity Rep productions of The Hunchback of Seville and A Christmas Carol, returns to helm the world premiere that was written specifically for Trinity Rep's Acting Company members. A modern and moving comedy set in Providence, RI during World War II, the play is about the singular way art and community reveal our boldest selves.
William Shakespeare's Othello takes the stage next in the Chace Theater February 15 - March 18, 2018, to be directed by Whitney White. An enduring story of race, love, envy, and repentance, Shakespeare's brilliant tragedy unveils the catastrophic results for Othello and his bride Desdemona as a jealousy-fueled Iago betrays him. In a classic Trinity Rep rendition of the Bard's work, this stripped down retelling will expose and uncover the toll of an unraveling mind.
Ever committed to work that provokes as much as it entertains, the fifth play of the season is Karen Zacarias' sparkling comedy of good intentions and bad manners, Native Gardens, to run April 5 - May 6, 2018. A comedy about next-door neighbors, their fences and their land, this contemporary play by the much lauded playwright is as full of dazzling wit as it is sharp social observations.
Rounding out the season will be the Tony Award-winning musical Ragtime by Terrence McNally, music and lyrics by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow. At the turn of the 20th century, the lives of an upper-class white mother, a Jewish immigrant, and a bold African American musician from Harlem intersect in ways that profoundly affect their families' fates. Taking on new relevancy and immediacy, the powerful musical will be directed by artistic director Curt Columbus and run April 26-May 27, 2018.
Subscription packages for the 2017-2018 season are now available, including the popular 6-Play full season package for the best seats and prices, as well as an opening night package and Flex Pass of up to 10 tickets that can be mixed and matched throughout the season to create a custom experience. Subscriber benefits include free ticket exchanges, parking and dining discounts, and invitations to special backstage events. Packages begin at only $114 for six plays.
Subscribing now also provides immediate access to discounted pre-sale tickets for A Christmas Carol. The Trinity Rep box office is located at 201 Washington Street, Providence, RI, 02903, and can be reached by calling (401) 351-4242.
2017-2018 Season | September 2017 - May 2018:
The Fall Rep: The American Dream, Then and Now
September 28 - November 26, 2017
The 2017-18 Season begins with the powerful pairing of two plays performed in repertory that harmonize through history. Both plays - one by an American theatre icon, and the other by an important contemporary theatrical voice - bring distinct, yet complementary, perspectives to the role of the American worker and the quest for the American Dream.
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Directed by Brian McEleney
This classic tale of the perilously high cost of the American Dream explodes with poignancy and relevance. Willy Loman desperately craves success for himself and his sons, but stark reality cannot live up to his dreams. The wall of delusions he has constructed quietly crumbles around him while a devastated and demoralized man searches in vain for a hidden path to greatness. Death of a Salesman is a Pulitzer-Prize winning masterpiece that everyone should see performed live.
Skeleton Crew by Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Tiffany Nichole Greene
In Detroit, as the Great Recession begins, a makeshift family of four factory workers toil as their industry flirts with failure. With their future uncertain, Faye, Shanita, Dez and foreman Reggie must decide how they will balance their own desires, their loyalty to one another, and their survival. More than a half century after Willy Loman struggled for success, this fresh, off-Broadway play shows us that the quest for the American Dream endures.
Into the Breeches! by George Brant
directed by Taibi Magar
January 25 - February 25, 2018
Providence, 1942: Oberon Play House's director and leading men are off at war. Determined to press on, the director's wife sets out to produce an all-female version of Shakespeare's Henry V, assembling an increasingly unexpected team united in desire, if not actual theater experience. Together they deliver a delightful celebration of collaboration and persistence when the show must go on! A surprisingly modern and moving comedy about the singular way art and community reveal our boldest selves even in the darkest times.
Othello by William Shakespeare
directed by Whitney White
February 15 - March 18, 2018
Friendship and betrayal, love and jealousy. Once Othello's most trusted confidante, Iago's envy-fueled passions unleash a betrayal with catastrophic results for Othello and his beloved bride Desdemona. Shakespeare's profound tragedy is an enduring story of race, love, envy and repentance. This stripped down retelling is the portrait of an unraveling mind amid a society engulfing and destroying its very best.
Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias
April 5 - May 6, 2018
Pablo and Tania are new to the neighborhood. Virginia and Frank have been fixtures in the area for decades. They all agree that the chain link fence separating their yards has got to go! A quick replacement with a stately wooden fence will arrive just in time to impress both Pablo's bosses and the judges viewing Frank's elaborate English garden. Everyone starts off on the right foot, but when the truth about that old fence is revealed and Tania's vision of native plants and wild flowers doesn't align with Frank's pesticide-dependent masterpiece, a sparkling comedy of good intentions and bad manners blooms.
Ragtime book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow
Directed by Curt Columbus
April 26 - May 27, 2018
Based on the celebrated novel, the Tony Award-winning Ragtime reflects America at the turn of the 20th century-where optimism and possibility are as prevalent as burgeoning racial and social volatility. The lives of an upper-class white mother, a Jewish immigrant, and a bold African American musician from Harlem intersect in ways that profoundly affect their families' fates. A passionate, vibrant, Tony Award-winning score heightens the tenderness and tension that infuses these characters' lives.
Non-subscription Holiday Programming
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens with original music by Richard Cumming
Directed by Angela Brazil and Stephen Thorne
November 9 - December 31, 2017
Trinity Rep's annual production of this holiday classic has completely sold out the past six years.
Celebrating 40 years at Trinity Rep, Rhode Island's family holiday tradition brings Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Tiny Tim, and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future to the stage in a glorious re-telling of the classic story that has delighted and inspired millions.
Plays, dates, prices, and artists subject to change.
The State Theater of Rhode Island, Trinity Repertory Company is now in its 53rd season. Since its founding in 1963, Trinity Repertory Company has been one of the most respected regional theaters in the country. Featuring one of the last permanent resident acting companies in America, Trinity Rep presents a balance of world premiere, contemporary, and classic works for an estimated annual audience of approximately 110,000. Since 1963, the theater has produced 67 world premieres, mounted national and international tours, and trained hundreds of new actors and directors through its MFA program.
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