San Jose Stage Company Announces 35th Anniversary Season
By: A.A. Cristi Sep. 15, 2017
San Jose Stage Company Artistic Director Randall King today announced the Company's 35th season. "The Stage's 35th theatrical season is a benchmark of the region's live professional theater" King said "....a celebration we could not have realized without the tremendous patronage we continually experience." The Stage was founded 35 years ago with the mission of producing new works by emerging and established playwrights that explore the human condition. In celebration of their anniversary The Stage presents five works that contribute thoroughly to that mission. Audiences will be prompted to reflect on the polarity of emotions with each piece bringing its own unique analysis on the dividing lines of the human condition. When does pleasure become pain? Love become regret? Good become evil?
The Stage kicks off Season 35 "Truth & Illusion" with the Tony Nominated Broadway hit Hand to God by Robert Askins. Askins voice as a playwright pulls from his turbulent adolescence in southern Baptist America, finding the dark humor in analyzing and dissecting religion. In Hand to God Tyrone is ferocious, vengeful, and on a mission to rid the devoutly religious town of Cypress, Texas of their demons... he's also a hand puppet spewing acidic comedy.
Following this The Stage honors an American Theatre icon who shaped the very core of their organization (having produced six previous works) with their presentation of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love. His passing in July of this year left a hole in the theatre community yet his words and impact live on through his masterful works. Fool for Love is a quintessential Shepard piece, this cowboy romance dissects the poignant causes and effects of love lost through the retrospective eyes of two past lovers.
At Valentine's Day The Stage puts its unique style on a musical masterpiece, with a re-envisioning of the revered Sondheim classic Sweeney Todd. This Tony & Drama Desk winner for Best Musical & Outstanding Musical explores the extent of love effects as Sondheim's masterful music guides us through a tale of bloody retribution.
In the Spring, the World Premiere of The Postman Always Rings Twice by Jon Jory takes the stage. Adapted from the 1934 novel by James M. Cain, this play explores a love affair turned deadly. Breaking the point where pleasure becomes pain Postman highlights the consequences of attempting to escape fate.
In summer 2018, just off of her national tour, the genderqueer East German rock-goddess Hedwig takes The Stage! On a mission to demand redress from Tommy for stealing her songs, her fame, and her love; Hedwig and her band The Angry Inch perform Stephen Trask's soaring rock songs "Tear Me Down", "The Origin of Love", "Sugar Daddy" & "Wig in a Box" While John Cameron Mitchell's poetic words take us through Hedwig's journey from East Berlin as Hansel to the Kansas trailer park as Hedwig.
Season tickets are available from $135 - $245, offering savings of up to 30% over single tickets, flexible exchanges, and many more benefits. For more information, call the box office at 408.283.7142 or order online www.thestage.org. Ticket discounts are available for students, seniors and groups.
2017-18 Season
Tony & Drama Desk Nominated for Best Play & Outstanding Play
Hand to God
September 20 - October 15, 2017
Opening Night: Saturday, September 23
FAITH AND INSTINCT MINGLE IN THIS ACIDIC COMEDY
He's the most vengeful, foul-mouthed, ruthless creature to ever release a reign of terror in Cypress, Texas... he's also a hand puppet. Tyrone has come to life to expose this devoutly religious southern town's deepest secrets from the hand of Jason, a meek teen who finds himself joining his Fundamentalist Christian Church's Puppet Ministry. Jason's complicated relationships with the town pastor, the school baddass, his crush, and-most especially-his mother are thrown into comedic upheaval when Tyrone takes on a shocking and unfiltered personality all its own. Through hilarious unspoken truths Tyrone satirically brings to light the flaws in their logic causing them to question their lives. "The thing about a savior is you never know where to look. Might just be the place you saw the devil before."
Pulitzer Prize Finalist 1984
Obie Winner Best New American Play
Fool for Love
By Sam Shepard
November 22 - December 17, 2017
Opening Night: Saturday, November 25
FATEFUL ROMANCE BATTLING PERCEPTION AND REALITY
This quintessential work by American Theatre icon Sam Shepard examines, with searing truth and dark humor, the destructive causes and effects of love lost through the retrospective eyes of two past lovers. Eddie, an old flame and childhood friend, finds May holed up in a seedy motel on the edge of the Mojave Desert and threatens to drag her back into the life from which she had fled. Forced to unpack the deep secrets and dark desires of their tangled relationship, they passionately tearing each other apart. Reality and dream; truth and lies; past and present mingle in an explosive, emotional experience.
Tony Winner for Best Musical
Drama Desk Winner for Outstanding Musical
Sweeney Todd:
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Book by Hugh Wheeler
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Based on an adaptation by Christopher Boyd
Feb. 7 - March 18, 2018
Opening Night: Saturday, February 10
A BLOODY TALE OF LOVE AND RETRIBUTION
A contemporary envisioning of the classic & infamous tale of Sweeney Todd, an unjustly exiled barber returns to London seeking vengeance against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his young wife. The road to revenge leads Todd to Mrs. Lovett, a resourceful proprietress of a failing pie shop, above which, he opens a new barber practice. Mrs. Lovett's luck sharply shifts when Todd's thirst for blood inspires the addition of a unique ingredient into her meat pies that has the people of London lining up... and the carnage has only just begun! Sondheim's score masterfully guides us along the border of love and vengance.
World Premiere
The Postman Always Rings Twice
A New Adaptation by Jon Jory
April 11 - May 6, 2018
Opening Night: Saturday, April 14
PLEASURE BECOMES PAIN IN THIS DEADLY TEST OF FATE
Jam-packed with thrills, sex and violence; The Stage proudly presents the World Premiere of a new adaptation of James M. Cain's notorious 1934 novel. Frank Chambers, a young drifter, makes a pit stop at a rural California diner for a meal and ends up working there. After beginning a passionate sadomasochistic love affair with the diner's operator, Cora, things become deadly as they plot to murder her husband in order to start a new life together without losing the diner. After a failed first attempt they soon realize escaping your fate is not that simple. The authorities get involved putting their relationship to the test. Breaking the point where pleasure becomes pain one must make a decision to save themselves or save the other.
Tony Award & Drama Desk Winner "Best Musical Revival" 2014
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Book by John Cameron Mitchell
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Trask
May 30 - July 23, 2018
Opening Night: Saturday, June 2
A ROCKIN' TOUR SPLIT IN TWO
This Obie winning rock-musical tells the captivating story of Hedwig a fourth-wall smashing genderqueer East German rock 'n' roll goddess. Backed by her punk rock band "The Angry Inch" Hedwig weaves her tragically beautiful journey; escaping East Berlin as Hansel and arriving in the Kansas trailer park as Hedwig. Through the soaring rock songs and side splitting monologues we follow Hedwig as she stalks Tommy Speck's world tour. Divided between conqueror and victim Hedwig demands redress from Tommy for stealing her songs, her fame, and her love. Hedwig and the Angry Inch perform directly across from his concerts in restaurants adjoining the stadiums. Aided by her assistant, back-up singer and husband, Yitzhak Hedwig tells her life story with songs like "Tear Me Down", "The Origin of Love", "Sugar Daddy" & "Wig in a Box". This rockin' ride exposes the polarity in us all and is ultimately inspiring to anyone who has felt life gave them an inch when they deserved a mile.
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