'MEET VERA STARK', MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION, 'ONE FOR ALL' Festival and More Set for Douglas Morrisson Theatre's 2015-16 Season
By: BWW News Desk Apr. 07, 2015
The Douglas Morrisson Theatre (DMT) announces the new 2015-2016 season "REVELATIONS," four compelling plays including two regional premieres and a new solo artists festival. The 36th season begins in August with the local premiere of Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, directed by Dawn Monique Williams. In November, we mount the regional premiere of the high octane new musical Love's Labour's Lost, based on Shakespeare's comedy. Next up in February 2016 is the provocative Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw, directed by DMT's Artistic Director Susan E. Evans. In Spring 2016 we'll mount a short festival of local solo artists entitled "One for All." DMT's "REVELATIONS" season concludes in May 2016 with the compelling murder mystery Book of Days,by Lanford Wilson.
Our alternative programming on Monday nights continues this 2015-2016 Season. Alt.Mondays features the Bare Bones staged readings series, Telling Tales storytelling evenings as well as the Fifth Annual Playwrights CageMatch and improvisation nights from Made Up Theatre. Last year's Holiday Open House was so successful we're happy to throw open the doors again this December, and host another day of tours and good cheer for our community in celebration of the holiday season. The Morrisson Theatre Chorus under the direction of César Cancino presents three concerts this Season, including the ever-popular Holiday Concert in December.
"The big reveal. Whether it's Oedipus and his mother, Hamlet and his mother or Harvey and the rabbit, all good theatre has a reveal, a dramatic surprise brought to the surface through the playwright's words, and the craft and magic of the director, actors and designers. It might be subtle, it might be literal, but it's always there. All the plays this 2015-2016 Season at DMT open the curtain onto the unknown, revealing a true identity, a romantic love, a questionable past and an evil deed, and much more " says DMT's Artistic Director Evans.
The Douglas Morrisson Theatre season kicks off in August with the regional premiere of Lynn Nottage's biting satire, BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK.
Riffing off 1930s screwball comedy films, Pulitzer Prize-winning (Ruined) playwright Lynn Nottage tackles and skewers the all-too-topical theme of racial stereotyping in Hollywood. By The Way, Meet Vera Stark takes the audience on a seventy-year journey through the life of Vera Stark. It's 1933 and Vera, a budding African-American actress is working as a lady's maid for a white Hollywood self-dramatizing starlet known as "America's little sweetie pie." When they're both cast in the same Southern epic, ("The Belle of New Orleans"), Vera's career is launched and we become witness to her controversial legacy in front of and behind the cameras. By the Way, Meet Vera Stark is inspired by the life and career of Theresa Harris, a pioneering African-American film star.
Directed by Dawn Monique Williams.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, a musical romp based on the comedy by William Shakespeare with music by Michael Friedman and book adapted by Alex Timbers, premiered in 2013 as part of the Public Theater's Free Shakespeare in the Park Program. In November, DMT is thrilled to be presenting its Northern California premiere as the second show of the 2015-2016 Season.
LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST is a musical adaptation of Shakespeare's loopy comedy that manages to be fresh and contemporary while remaining lovingly faithful to the text. Friedman and Timbers (the Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson team) create a glorious mashup of the Bard and Boy Bands. Romance and revelry abound in this tale of the King of Navarre and his college buddies at their five-year college reunion who take an oath to spend the next three years devoted to study and self-improvement, and remove themselves from worldly temptations ... most especially women. Enter onto the scene four girls from the boys' past and all bets are off!
Directed by Lisa Tromovich, Producing Artistic Director, Shakespeare's Associates.
The Douglas Morrisson Theatre turns next to the still controversial MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION, by George Bernard Shaw,in February 2016.A witty and thought-provoking play by the playwright of Pygmalion and Major Barbara, MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION tackles subjects as topical today as they were a century ago - the fate of women in the marketplace, the choices forced upon women by economic and social pressures and the hypocrisies of middle-and upper-class conventions.
"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. ... The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." - Vivie, Mrs. Warren's Profession
"What is any respectable girl to do but to catch some rich man's fancy and get the benefit of his money by marrying him? - as if a marriage ceremony could make any difference in the right or wrong of the thing!" - Mrs. Warren, Mrs. Warren's Profession
The play centers on the relationship between Vivie, a thoroughly modern, highly educated young woman, and Mrs. Warren, her mother - whom Vivie barely knows. When Mrs. Warren arrives for a surprise visit, Vivie discovers what her mother does for a living, and an epic battle of wills ensues. Directed by DMT Artistic Director Susan E. Evans.
In April 2016, we celebrate the amazing diversity of solo performers in the Bay Area with a two-week solo theatre festival entitled ONE FOR ALL: A Solo Artists Festival. The Bay Area is blessed with a myriad of exciting and inventive solo artists who demonstrate the ability to captivate audiences with their personal, or fictional, narratives. Such well-known names like Geoff Hoyle, Dan Hoyle, Josh Kornbluth and Brian Copeland have sprung from The Marsh in San Francisco and Berkeley which continues to provide a stream of nurtured talent. It's time for Hayward to get in on the act and be exposed to the wealth of both established and up-and-coming solo artistry! Still in the planning stages, DMT's ONE FOR ALL Festival will offer an eclectic mix of local solo artists with a wide range of styles and stories.
In May 2016 DMT completes its exciting 2015-2016 lineup with BOOK OF DAYS, an enthralling, multi-layered murder mystery by American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson.
Welcome to Dublin, Missouri, a small town in the American Heartland, dominated by a Cheese Plant, a fundamentalist church, and a Community Theater. When a violent murder shocks the town, Ruth Hoch goes on a one-woman crusade to root out the truth amidst all the petty jealousies, greed and lies. With echoes of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the characters in BOOK OF DAYS are forced to reexamine the world and values they thought they knew and embraced. Lanford Wilson's mesmerizing play unfolds like a page-turning mystery.
ALT. MONDAYS
Bare Bones Staged Readings - Douglas Morrisson Theatre is in its third year of the Bare Bones staged readings series of provocative and compelling pieces by emerging new theatrical voices. Past readings have included the works of Sarah Treem, Melissa James Gibson, Rajiv Joseph, Christopher Shinn, Adam Bock, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Nathan Louis Jackson, Rolin Jones and Julia Cho. Open seating and all tickets are $10.
September 28, 2015: Play TBA
January 11, 2016: TBA
March 28, 2016: TBA
June 27, 2016: TBA
Telling Tales
DMT continues the storytelling series successfully launched last Season. We invite our lively storytelling community inside our doors to share their personal true- life tales with no script and no notes. Each evening will have a theme announced in advance, and an open mic for those inspired to share on the spot. Open seating and all tickets are $5.
October 5, 2015
November 16, 2015
February 22, 2016
March 21, 2016
Improvisation Evenings
DMT welcomes back Made Up Theatre for hilarious evenings of improvisational comedy. Made Up Theatre is an official five-time participant in the San Francisco Improv Festival and voted one of the Best Comedy Venues in the South Bay by CBS. DMT's shows will feature an all-star cast of improvisers who use nothing but audience suggestions to create fresh and hilarious improvised scenes.
Dates to be announced.
Playwrights CageMatch
FREE EVENT
June 13, 2016
DMT's Fifth Annual Playwrights CageMatch challenges playwrights from far and wide to square off - and only one will emerge victorious! DMT's artistic staff picks a theme, sends it out into the playwright's universe and then narrows the field to a few short plays we present as staged readings. The audience takes part in the action by voting for its favorite play. One night only and admission to the CageMatch is free.
DMT's Holiday Open House
FREE EVENT
December 19, 2015
Douglas Morrisson Theatre hosts an open house in celebration of the holiday season. Come make merry with our theatre staff - tour the theatre, enjoy carol singing, give Santa Claus your wish list, listen to seasonal stories and much more!
Morrisson Theatre Chorus
THREE CONCERTS
Holiday Concert: December 10-13, 2015
Spring Concert: March 18-20, 2016
Summer Concert: July 22-24, 2016
Full season subscriptions and package options will soon be available and offer amazing savings, benefits and personalized customer service. Subscribers save substantially off non-subscriber prices and subscriber benefits include exchange privileges, and a choice of the best seating in the house. Discounts for seniors, students, educators and groups are also available as DMT is committed to making theatre affordable to its community.
About The Douglas Morrisson Theatre - The Douglas Morrisson Theatre is a program and facility of the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District, enjoying its 71st year. The Douglas Morrisson Theatre is located at 22311 N. Third St. in Hayward, next to the Senior Center and the Japanese Gardens. The Box Office is open Tuesday through Friday, 12:30 to 5:30 and can be reached at (510) 881-6777. Information is also available at www.dmtonline.org.
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