Cygnet Theatre Announces 2010-2011 Season

Cygnet Theatre Company's Artistic Director Sean Murray and Executive Director Bill Schmidt are proud to announce the 2010/2011 line-up to be performed on Cygnet's Old Town Stage. Cygnet's eighth season will offer productions ranging from a world renowned classic to a world premiere and kicking it all off will be something never before done at Cygnet Theatre - a trilogy of connected plays performed in repertory! The new season officially begins July 28th, 2010.

To start the season, Cygnet is delighted to present Alan Ayckbourn's (Cygnet's Award-Winning Communicating Doors) trilogy, The Norman Conquests - a hilarious and often touching look at the lives of six family members, over one weekend, in a home in the English countryside. All three of the plays - including Table Manners, Round and Round the Garden and Living Together - revolve around Norman, a charming assistant librarian, and the women in his life. Each play can be enjoyed entirely on its own. However, the true fun is in seeing the entire trilogy as each play depicts the same weekend but from separate parts of the house and, in turn, reveals unique secrets, surprising answers and loads of laughs. Directed by Artistic Director Sean Murray and Associate Artistic Director Francis Gercke, The Norman Conquests will run in rotating rep with the same six actors. Cygnet plans on offering a real theatre-goers treat by performing all three plays on selected days throughout the run. The Norman Conquests will play July 28th through November 2nd, 2010.

For the holiday season, Cygnet is very happy to reintroduce San Diego to the fifth annual production of It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, adapted by Joe Landry. Each year, Cygnet audiences delight in this new-found wintertime tradition. Tom Andrew will return with his San Diego Critics Circle Award winning performance as George Bailey, and the brilliant Scott Paulson will reign over Bedford Falls with his live, old-fashioned Foley sound effects 'orchestra'. For Cygnet, the holidays wouldn't be the holidays without the fictitious "WCYG Theatre of the Air" and the recreation of the classic story in a "live" 1940's radio broadcast filled with music and the beloved characters from the film. It's a Wonderful Life runs November 26th through December 31st, 2010.
Cygnet is incredibly honored to begin 2011 with the world premiere of The Commons by Stephen Metcalfe (author of the screenplays Pretty Woman, Arachnophobia and Jacknife based on his off-Broadway play Strange Snow). The powerful work, which focuses on a retired La Jolla school teacher, his wife and the threatening of their beloved home, received overwhelming response in one of its premiere staged-readings performed at Cygnet Theatre and will now receive its premiere production with the same cast. Old Globe Associate Artist Jim Winker and Associate Artistic Director Francis Gercke headline this moving, electrifying production. The Commons will play January 20th through February 20th, 2011.

In the Spring, Cygnet Theatre welcomes you to the Cabaret! Set in the tumultuous city of Berlin, just before Hitler's rise to power, and based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories, Cabaret introduces the interlocking stories of cabaret singer, Sally Bowles; the American writer, Cliff who takes her in and the other local denizens of a quickly changing society. Sean Murray directs the dark, daring and provocative musical that won 8 Tony Awards and includes the musical numbers Willkommen, Mein Herr and Maybe This Time. Set in the seamy, sleazy Kit Kat Klub, almost anything - including love - is possible. Production dates for Cabaret are March 17th through May 15th, 2011.
Cygnet Theatre will close its season Thornton Wilder's Our Town. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town stunned its audience when it was first presented for its audacious, almost avant garde simplicity. Director Sean Murray, picks up from there and brings a contemporary sensibility to the staging of one of the most beautiful and moving plays ever written. Playwright Thornton Wilder explores the essence of life and living by focusing both on the minutia of daily life's routines and necessities as well as the larger place mankind holds on the cosmic plane of our universe. The always surprising Our Town, with its sparse, lofty stage and 23-member cast, promises to take us on an exploration of our humanity. Performances for Thornton Wilder's Our Town will run June 9th through July 10th, 2011.

This season, Cygnet begins its new twilight performances on Saturdays at 4pm. In addition, performances of all three installments of The Norman Conquests will be available on select Saturdays at 12pm, 4pm and 8pm throughout its run. The regular Cygnet performance schedule for all shows will be Wednesdays & Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 4pm and 8pm and Sundays at 2pm and 7pm.

For more information regarding subscriptions and other theatre packages please contact the box office at 619-337-1525 or visit www.cygnettheatre.com. Tickets can also be purchased in person by visiting Cygnet's main box office located at the Old Town Theatre, 4040 Twiggs Street, in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.

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