Wilbury Group Announces 2018/19 Main Series Season; Including FUN HOME, THE CRUCIBLE, and More

The Wilbury Theatre Group's Artistic Director Josh Short has announced the Group's 2018/19 Main Series Season. The exciting 6 play season includes plans for revivals of classic plays from the American canon alongside experimental new works by the brightest theatre artists working today, including Paul Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned to Drive, Idris Goodwin's hip-hop inspired drama Hype Man: a break beat play, César Alvarez and The Lisps' 2016 avant-Americana musical Futurity, a minimalist interpretation of Arthur Miller's American classic The Crucible, Nick Payne's Constellations, and the 2015 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori's Fun Home, based on the graphic novel by Allison Bechdel.

"With every production at The Wilbury Group we look to engage, challenge, and inspire our audiences with stories that deal with the issues that matter most to them right now," says Wilbury Founder and Artistic Director Josh Short. "Next season is about learning to leave the past behind and looking to the future. The writers of each of this season's plays are telling stories of wit, style, and substance that will resonate with audiences on an emotional level. More importantly though, they tell the stories that encourage us to be the change, to seize day, and to make the future the way we want it to be.

In addition to this 6-Play Main Series Season, The Wilbury Group will be announcing 3 additional workshop and full-scale productions from our new works and experimental arm Studio W later this year, including a new adaptation of A Servant of Two Masters by Brien Lang, new works by Darcie Dennigan and Matt Requintina, and the National New Play Network rolling premiere of The Red Bike by OBIE Award winning playwright Caridad Svich.

THE WILBURY GROUP'S 2018/19 MAIN SERIES SEASON:

HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE by Paula Vogel
SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2018
A wildly funny, surprising and devastating tale of survival as seen through the lens of a troubling relationship between a young girl and an older man by acclaimed playwright Paula Vogel (INDECENT). Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize and co-winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and of the 1998 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, this 20th anniversary production of HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE presented in the shadow of the #MeToo movement brings even greater resonance to the story of a woman who learns the rules of the road, and life, from behind the wheel.

HYPE MAN: A BREAK-BEAT PLAY by Idris Goodwin
OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2018
Frontman Pinnacle and his hype man Verb have been making Hip-Hop together since they were kids. Now that they've got a top-notch beat-maker in the mix, the group is finally on the verge of making it big-until the police shooting of an unarmed black teenager shakes the trio to its core, and forces them to navigate issues of friendship, race, and privilege. The latest from break beat poet and acclaimed playwright Idris Goodwin (HOW WE GOT ON), HYPE MAN asks us: who has the responsibility to speak up in the face of social injustice?

FUTURITY
Lyrics and Book by César Alvarez, Music by Cêsar Alvarez and The Lisps
NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2018
Two people try to imagine their way out of impossible circumstances in FUTURITY - the avant-Americana musical 2016 Lucille Lortell Award winner for Outstanding Musical by playwright/musician César Alvarez and indie band The Lisps. Julian is a Civil War soldier dreaming of a technological utopia. Ada is a mathematical genius thousands of miles away. Together, they're going to invent a machine to end one of the darkest periods in our history.

THE CRUCIBLE
by Arthur Miller
JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2019
Since its premiere in 1953 Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE has been hailed as a masterful and chilling portrayal of the historic Salem Witch Trials. Written as an allegory for the rise of McCarthyism in the late 1940s, the play has rightfully become an American classic serving as both a cautionary tale and provocation that compels each generation to reflect upon the harrowing world it portrays.
The people of Salem are whipped into a bloodthirsty frenzy by a series of escalating misinterpretations after a group of teenage girls are accused of dancing devilishly in the woods. Fearing retribution, the girls begin a chain of finger-pointing until neighbor turns against neighbor, whispers become testimony, fabrications become facts, and a once powerless teenage girl suddenly has the ability to decide the fate of all those around her.

CONSTELLATIONS
by Nick Payne
MARCH - APRIL 2019
Roland (a bee keeper) and Marianne (a theoretical physicist) meet at a party. In that single moment, an unfathomable multitude of possibilities unfold. Their chance meeting might blossom into a meaningful relationship or a brief affair: it might lead to nothing at all. Each step along those possible paths in turn offers a new series of potential outcomes: a marriage can exist alongside a breakup and a tragic illness can exist on a parallel plane to a happily ever after. In this clever, eloquent and moving story, Roland and Marianne's romance plays out over a myriad of possible lifetimes, capturing the extraordinary richness of being alive in the universe.

Memberships for the 2018/19 season are $65-$135 and are available for purchase online at www.thewilburygroup.org, or by calling the box office at (401) 400-7100.

Founded in 2010, The Wilbury Group is an ever-evolving collaboration of artists committed to presenting adventurous audiences with the highest quality professional theatre. Founded on the belief that quality theatre should be an affordable and accessible means of enrichment to the community; The Wilburys present contemporary, experiential theatre that simultaneously engage, inspire, and provoke thought among audiences.

As an important member of the Providence arts community, and as Olneyville's performing arts center, The Wilbury Theatre Group is committed to providing our diverse and evolving community with affordable access to the performing arts through our Education program, public outreach programs, and professional productions of cutting-edge theatre from around the world.

The Wilbury Theatre Group is supported in part by The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, The Rhode Island Foundation, and the City of Providence Dept. of Art, Culture, & Tourism. www.thewilburygroup.org

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