Berkley Rep 2008/09 Season includes 'Arabian Nights,' 'Inish

Berkeley Repertory Theatre proudly announces its 2008-09 season and has also declared its new tiered pricing system a success – so, in the coming season, seats will again be available at the lowest price in 10 years!

Snatch up tickets now for the 2008/09 Season, and travel with us into the future of American theatre. Berkeley Rep is located on Addison Street in downtown Berkeley, close to BART and AC Transit bus lines. For more information, call 510.647.2949 or 888-4-BRT-Tix (toll-free) – or just click www.berkeleyrep.org.

The season kicks off with the world premiere of Yellowjackets, a provocative new play penned by Berkeley native Itamar Moses. The next five shows present a parade of our audience's favorite artists: Delroy Lindo stages August Wilson's masterpiece Joe Turner's Come and Gone; Mary Zimmerman presents an alluring adaptation of The Arabian Nights; Associate Artistic Director Les Waters mounts the world premiere of The Vibrator Play by Sarah Ruhl; former Artistic Director Sharon Ott returns to direct Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment; and Waters tackles Martin McDonagh again in The Lieutenant of Inishmore. The season concludes with David Henry Hwang's Berkeley Rep debut, Yellow Face. This year of fearless theatre is supported by BART and Wells Fargo, the official sponsors of Berkeley Rep's 41st season.

The season kicks off with the world premiere of an incisive play set in Berkeley and written by a Berkeley native. Nationally known playwright Itamar Moses returns to his hometown with a script set just around the corner in the halls of his alma mater, Berkeley High. When the school newspaper publishes an insensitive story, students suddenly find themselves embroiled in a volatile controversy – and even their teachers seem unprepared to deal with the repercussions. Artistic Director Tony Taccone directs Yellowjackets, a compelling collision of race and class that forces us to examine familiar surroundings with fresh eyes. After graduating from Berkeley High, Moses attended Yale and New York Universities – and later taught playwriting at both schools. Although only 31 years old, he's penned popular plays like Bach at Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us, and Outrage that have been produced off Broadway and nationwide. With Yellowjackets, Taccone generates the same mix of intense emotion and timely politics that electrified shows like Continental Divide, Culture Clash's Zorro in Hell, and Taking Over. Commissioned by Berkeley Rep, this new script starts the season on the intimate Thrust Stage.

Next, renowned actor Delroy Lindo returns to Berkeley Rep with the play that netted him a nomination for the Tony Award – but this time, he's in the director's chair. Following last year's triumph with Tanya Barfield's Blue Door, Lindo takes on August Wilson's African-American epic, Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Haunted by seven years on a chain gang, Herald Loomis appears in Pittsburgh to reunite his family. Surrounded by the vibrant tenants of a black boarding house, he fights for his soul and his song in the dawning days of a century without slavery. The late playwright's countless accolades include two Pulitzer Prizes, the Tony Award for Best Play, two Drama Desk Awards, an Olivier Award, and five prizes for Best Play from the New York Drama Critics Circle – including one for Joe Turner's. And, in Lindo's third outing as a director, he works on a bigger stage: Berkeley Rep's state-of-the art Roda Theatre.

Then, in November, Mary Zimmerman returns with The Arabian Nights. The Tony Award-winning creator of Argonautika and Metamorphoses has made her career by reanimating ancient myths, and now she breathes new life into the legend of the 1,001 nights. To save her life, a beautiful bride must spin hypnotic tales of jesters, genies, thieves, and kings – winning her freedom by eventually winning her husband's heart. He falls under Scheherazade's spell, and Zimmerman enchants the audience as well with her signature style that transforms simplicity into the sublime. Amidst a thousand tales of honor, revenge, and humor, only love emerges victorious Don't miss the return of Mary Zimmerman; this is her sixth production at Berkeley Rep, and this time she works her magic on the intimate Thrust Stage. A co-production with Kansas City Repertory Theatre and Lookingglass Theatre Company, this production of The Arabian Nights will transfer to Missouri and Illinois in 2009.

Coming in January, it's the world premiere of The Vibrator Play, written by Sarah Ruhl and staged by Les Waters. Last time these two extraordinary talents teamed up at Berkeley Rep, they gave birth to Eurydice, the beguiling show which went on to New Haven and New York – hitting the year's Top 10 list in the New York Times and Time magazine. Now the prominent pair reunites to consummate another play of love and longing, commissioned by Berkeley Rep. The Vibrator Play illuminates the lives of six lonely people seeking relief from a local doctor – but, despite his expertise with a strange new technology, all they really need is intimacy. It's a tender tale that takes place in the twilight of the Victorian age, an elegant comedy lit by unexpected sparks from the approaching era of electricity, equality, science, and sexuality. The young writer has already earned a MacArthur Fellowship, the Helen Merrill Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a Whiting Writers' Award, and a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize.

In her 13 years as artistic director of Berkeley Rep, Sharon Ott led the company to new artistic heights, national prestige, and a well-deserved Tony Award. Now this gifted friend returns to stage a gripping production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's classic Crime and Punishment. As a police inspector interrogates a man about murder, we journey through the mind of a criminal. What did he do? Why did he do it? And what would you be capable of in certain circumstances? Before Law & Order, there was Crime and Punishment. Performed with only three actors, this chamber piece compresses all the tension and pathos of the novel into a powerful evening of theatre. The play's premiere earned Chicago's prestigious Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Adaptation Dive into the greatest crime story ever written, A Tale of murder, motive, and redemption that plumbs the depths of the human soul – when Sharon Ott returns to the Thrust Stage.

April is the cruelest – and most hilarious – month at Berkeley Rep, when Les Waters lets loose with another shocking script from Martin McDonagh. Last season, the Obie Award-winning director scored a direct hit with his extended run of The Pillowman; since then, the Academy Award-winning author released his first feature film, the sardonic and celebrated In Bruges. Now Berkeley Rep reenlists these seasoned artists for another vicious comedy: The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Like all of McDonagh's work, Inishmore employs explosive dialogue and a perfectly oiled plot that is brutal, bloody, yet irresistibly funny. As part of an I.R.A. splinter group, Padraic thinks nothing of murdering and mutilating his enemies in Northern Ireland – but the sudden death of his beloved cat leaves him heartbroken. Amidst the comedy and carnage that ensues, McDonagh delivers a cutting commentary on the endless cycle of violence that engulfs our world. The Roda Theatre overflows with blood and laughter when Waters and McDonagh band together for another gruesome adventure.

Finally, the Thrust Stage hosts a show fresh from an extended off-Broadway run. David Henry Hwang – the first Asian American to win the Tony Award for Best Play – makes his Berkeley Rep debut with Yellow Face, a satirical self-portrait of a writer caught in a controversy of his own creation. A long-time crusader for the rights of ethnic actors accidentally casts a white performer for an Asian role. As he attempts to hide his own hypocrisy, he's drawn into an amusing, embarrassing, and ultimately harrowing dilemma. From the author of M. Butterfly and Golden Child, it's a disarmingly honest play that blurs the line between fiction and reality – drawing all of us into a discussion about race, artistic integrity, and the ethics of journalism.

For its 40th birthday, Berkeley Rep launched an innovative series of initiatives to make theatre a luxury everyone can afford – and these new traditions will continue in the 2008/09 Season. The audience can enjoy free pre-show tastings with local culinary artisans, 30-minute docent talks before every Tuesday and Thursday performance, events like 30 Below and night/OUT that draw a new generation of theatregoers, and a local, organic, sustainable menu that offers delicious intermission treats and pre-show delights for discriminating palates. Even better, Berkeley Rep will retain its new pricing policy that lets more people experience the best theatre in the Bay Area. These ticket prices make Berkeley Rep more affordable to people in the community who are just starting school, starting careers, and starting families – because lower prices are now available for every performance!

Get the best seats at the lowest price by subscribing to Berkeley Rep. The Full Season package includes tickets to all seven shows, and the five-play package includes all the Main Season productions. It's also possible to "choose your own" subscription of three or more plays: not only do you get to select the shows you want to see, you can pick which performances to attend. With every package, subscribers receive valuable benefits such as discounts when purchasing tickets for guests, the right to reschedule for free, and the opportunity to secure seats before the general public for special events like No Child…. Berkeley Rep also offers generous discounts for senior citizens, theatregoers under 30, and employees of preschools and K-12 schools. Subscriptions begin as low as $66 – and subscribers save up to 29% on every ticket! Subscriptions go on sale today; individual tickets go on sale on Sunday, August 17.

Snatch up tickets now for the 2008/09 Season, and travel with us into the future of American theatre. Berkeley Rep is located on Addison Street in downtown Berkeley, close to BART and AC Transit bus lines. For more information, call 510.647.2949 or 888-4-BRT-Tix (toll-free) – or just click www.berkeleyrep.org.

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