TheatreWorks 2011-2012 Season To Include PITMAN, SECRET GARDEN

Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley and Managing Director Phil Santora of TheatreWorks, the nationally-acclaimed theatre of Silicon Valley, unveiled a line-up for its 2011-2012 season. Before a packed audience at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, the two leaders announced a 42nd season that will include three World Premieres (bringing the company's total to 59), an American Premiere, two West Coast premieres including another absorbing London/Broadway hit by the author of the blockbuster BILLY ELLIOT, a much-loved Tony Award winning musical, and an American classic. The company will once again lead off the season with an extensive New Works Festival.

The line-up for 2011-2012 will take flight in July with the World Premiere of FLY BY NIGHT, a new musical conceived by Kim Rosenstock and written by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock. The runaway hit of last summer's TheatreWorks New Works Festival, the musical follows a hapless sandwich maker who discovers a well of courage and a wealth of romance during New York's blackout of 1965. Two other World Premieres on the season will be Dan Dietz' bluesy new post-Katrina drama, CLEMENTINE IN THE LOWER 9, in which a torchy onstage jazz band accompanies a saxophonist and his wife as they struggle to reconnect the electricity, the plumbing, and the relationships devastated by the flood; and WHEELHOUSE, a rockin' new musical from GrooveLily, creators of the popular TheatreWorks/Off-Broadway hit STRIKING 12.

TheatreWorks will also present the American premiere of Jane Austen's delicious romance SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, adapted by Roger Parsley and Andy Graham, as well as the West Coast premieres of the London/Broadway hit THE PITMEN PAINTERS, a new comic drama by Lee Hall, the writer of the film and stage smash BILLY ELLIOT, and NOW CIRCA THEN, Off-Broadway's new comedy with a twist by Carly Mensch, in which two mismatched historical re-enactors play an immigrant couple at New York's famed Tenement Museum and find love blossoming both then and now. TheatreWorks' holiday attraction will be a return of the enchanting Broadway musical THE SECRET GARDEN, winner of three Tony Awards. The season rounds out with John Steinbeck's beloved drama OF MICE AND MEN, a powerful and touching tribute to the strength of friendship and the depth of the American dream, set in the Salinas Valley during the Great Depression.

Five productions will be mounted at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and three will be staged at Palo Alto's Lucie Stern Theatre.

The season will launch with the return of TheatreWorks' celebrated New Works Festival, at which Festival Pass holders may view works-in-progress by leading playwrights and composers, participate in discussions, and attend workshops, book-in-hand readings, and sing-throughs of new musicals. The highlight of the New Works Festival will be the World Premiere of FLY BY NIGHT on the mainstage.

In chronological order, the TheatreWorks 2010-2011 season is as follows:

A Quirky New Musical
Fly By Night
Conceived by Kim Rosenstock
By Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock
World Premiere
The season launches with TheatreWorks' ninth annual New Works Festival, attracting playwrights and composers from across the nation, developing their latest works. Ignored by his wannabe-starlet wife, attracted by her sweetheart of a sister, a hapless sandwich maker discovers a well of courage and a wealth of romance during New York's knockout blackout of 1965. In this charming, darkly comic indie musical the promise of change begets anxiety and hope, devastation and delight. The runaway hit of TheatreWorks' 2010 New Works Festival proves that it sometimes takes a blackout to see the light.
July 13 - August 13, 2011 (Press opening July 16)
Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto

A Delicious Romance
Sense and Sensibility
By Roger Parsley and Andy Graham
Based on the novel by Jane Austen
American Premiere
Fortune lost to fate, romance lost to folly, two charming sisters sail the unpredictable seas of courtship in this captivating, intimate adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel. Sensible, reserved Elinor and passionate, impulsive Marianne find the course of true love beset with scandalous secrets, shocking betrayals, dashing suitors, and devious rivals,
all brought to glorious life in a dazzling, period-perfect tribute to everything Austen.
"A wholly engaging, funny and enjoyable evening." - What's On in London
August 24 - September 18, 2011 (Press opening August 27)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

A Bluesy New Post-Katrina Drama
Clementine in the Lower 9
By Dan Dietz
World Premiere
Rebuilding a house, a love, a family, and a soul is the task of this
powerfully human drama set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Here the
legacy of the past haunts the realities of the present. The
bluesy sounds of an onstage jazz band accompany a saxophonist and
his wife as they struggle to reconnect the electricity, the plumbing,
and the relationships devastated by the flood of a lifetime. Dan Dietz is two-time winner
of the prestigious Heideman Award for new plays from the Humana Festival, including
the 2010 award for his short play Lobster Boy. His plays have been produced at the
Humana Festival and around the country.
Contains brief nudity and mature language.
October 5 - October 30, 2011 (Press opening October 8)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

A Broadway Musical Hit for the Holidays
The Secret Garden
Music by Lucy Simon
Lyrics and Book by Marsha Norman
Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Winner of 3 Tony Awards
In this enchanting Broadway hit, the delightful novel springs to life in
a soaring musical about the healing power of love. This holiday treat
weaves mystery, magic, and a gloriously melodic score into the quest
of an orphanEd English girl to revive a once glorious Victorian garden.
In the process, she rekindles lost hopes and weary spirits, dispelling
the ghosts of a troubled past with an indomitable joy of life.
"Elegant, entrancing...The best American musical of
the season." - TIME magazine
November 30 - December 31, 2011 (press opening Dec. 3)
Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto

A New Comic Drama from the Author of BILLY ELLIOT
The Pitmen Painters
By Lee Hall
West Coast Premiere
From the writer of the mega-hit film and musical BILLY ELLIOT comes another absorbing London/Broadway success. A funny play that asks big questions, it tells the rousing, true story of a hardscrabble group of 1930s miners who take up painting and become sensations of the British art world. Their exhilarating journey from pit to pinnacle overflows with spirit and laughter, as rich and intriguing as the art it unveils.
"Great heart and humor! A superb play." - The New Yorker
January 18 - February 12, 2012 (press opening Jan 21)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

Off-Broadway's New Comedy with a Twist
Now Circa Then
By Carly Mensch
West Coast Premiere
In this delightfully quirky comedy, two mismatched historical re-enactors play an immigrant couple from the 1890s at New York's famed Tenement Museum. Opposites attract, romance blooms, and with hilarious results, each tumultuous turn of their private lives is reflected in their public reenactments. As their on and offstage personas intertwine, they soon discover the perils of living too long in the past.
Contains mature language
"Incredibly engaging...a twisty, humorous tale
of significance." - TheaterMania
March 7 - April 1, 2012 (press opening March 10)
Lucie Stern Theatre, Palo Alto

Steinbeck's Great American Classic
Of Mice and Men
By John Steinbeck
Crafted for the stage by Steinbeck himself, this beloved drama is a deeply moving tribute to the strength of friendship and the depth of the American dream. Protective George and his gentle giant of a friend Lennie are migrant workers on a Salinas Valley ranch during the Great Depression. Their hopes for a place of their own come close to fruition, but fate intervenes in a powerhouse saga of conscience and character.
"Grabs you by the heart and never lets go." The New York Times
April 4 - April 29, 2012 (press opening April 7)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

A Rockin' New Musical from GrooveLily
Wheelhouse
Book, Music, & Lyrics by
Gene Lewin, Brendan Milburn, and Valerie Vigoda
World Premiere
In a comically touching ode to the road, a traveling rock band cuts back on expenses, hitting the highway in a well-worn Winnebago. When their plan backfires with a bang, it threatens the sweet harmonies that hold them together. The pop-rock trio GrooveLily,
creators of the popular TheatreWorks/Off-Broadway hit Striking 12,
stars in this irresistible autobiographical musical about traveling
tunesmiths in desperate need of a tune-up.
"Richly tuneful, lyrically playful...That's the like-no-other
GrooveLily" - Philadelphia Daily News
June 6 - July 1, 2012 (press opening June 9)
Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts
A DARKLY COMIC INDIE MUSICAL
A ROCKIN' NEW MUSICAL FROM GROOVELILY
A BLUESY NEW POST-KATRINA DRAMA
A DELICIOUS ROMANCE FROM THE AUTHOR OF EMMATANTALIZING NEW PLAY
Since its founding in 1970, TheatreWorks has become one of the nation's leaders in cultivating and producing new musicals and plays, developing and premiering nearly 60 works by new and veteran artists. The company's New Works Festival and Writers Retreat programs attract authors and composers of national stature (Paul Gordon, Marsha Norman, Henry Krieger, Stephen Schwartz, Duncan Sheik, Joe DiPietro, and Andrew Lippa, among many others), providing an artistic home in which America's theatre artists can create new works. In addition, the company has developed scores of works which have gone on to both regional and Off-Broadway productions.

TheatreWorks is an Equity/LORT theatre, producing eight shows annually, playing to more than 100,000 patrons a year. TheatreWorks continues its dedication to the Bay Area community with increased audience services and subscriber benefits, Wednesday discussion nights, and opening night celebrations in which the community is invited to mingle with writers, cast, and crew. In addition, TheatreWorks offers many public services such as the costume rental program, and the education outreach program that reaches some 14,500 students annually with in-class workshops, underwritten matinees, the lauded Bridges Project, the Young Playwright's Initiative, and The Healing Project at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

For more information or to purchase subscriptions ($121-449), the public can call 650-463-1960. Subscriptions are on sale now; single tickets will be on-sale beginning June 1. Subscriptions are also available online at theatreworks.org.

 

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