ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS Concludes Intiman's 2009 Season

Intiman Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Bartlett Sher and Managing Director Brian Colburn, announces that Abe Lincoln in Illinois will conclude its 2009 season - the year of the Lincoln Bicentennial - under the direction of Sheila Daniels, Intiman's Associate Director. Robert E. Sherwood's epic play, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, will launch Intiman's second American Cycle, a series of large-cast plays and free community programs. Through great plays and conversations at Intiman and throughout the Puget Sound region, the American Cycle bring artists and audiences together to share the issues and hopes we feel in our community and as citizens of our country at this moment in its history.

Single tickets for the season will go on sale on Saturday, February 21, when Intiman will host an Open House from 12 to 3 pm. Single ticket buyers who purchase a minimum of two tickets to any play in the season will get one ticket free. Single ticket prices range from $38 to $53. The public is invited to view backstage areas during guided tours taking place every half hour and enjoy free refreshments, and all patrons will be eligible to win gift certificates to Ten Mercer restaurant and the MarQueen Hotel.

Subscription packages for the season, available in three-, four- or five-play packages, are available now by calling 206.269.1900 or by visiting www.intiman.org. Intiman's 2009 season, including press dates, is as follows:

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Adapted by Marilyn Campbell and Curt Columbus from the novel by Dostoyevsky
Directed by Sheila Daniels
Previews: Sunday, March 29, Tuesday, March 31, Wednesday, April 1 and Thursday, April 2
Opening: Friday, April 3 at 8 pm
Close: Sunday, May 3 at 2 pm

Following her Intiman debut with last year's acclaimed production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Associate Director Sheila Daniels launches the 2009 season with a new production of Crime and Punishment, which she originally directed at the Capitol Hill Arts Center in 2007. Hana Lass and Galen Joseph Osier, the stars of the production's extended four-month run at CHAC, are joined by Todd Jefferson Moore in this award-winning adaptation of Dostoyevsky's masterpiece. Unfolding through flashbacks and the tour-de-force acting of its three-person cast, Crime and Punishment pulls the audience inside the minds of its characters as they debate questions of morality, faith and the nature of evil.

A THOUSAND CLOWNS
By Herb Gardner
Directed by Sari Ketter
Previews: Friday, May 15, Saturday, May 16, Sunday, May 17 and Tuesday, May 19
Opening: Wednesday, May 20 at 7:30 pm
Close: Wednesday, June 17

Playwright Herb Gardner (I'm Not Rappaport, Conversations with My Father) made his Broadway debut with this 1963 comedy, a tribute to an unconventional family in a deeply conventional time, which won the Tony Award for Best Play and was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film. Set against the backdrop of live children's television, A Thousand Clowns takes place in 1962, when the agents of Eisenhower-era conformity first began to clash with the free-thinkers who would one day change the world. Sari Ketter, who staged Intiman's 2008 production of The Diary of Anne Frank, directs.

OTHELLO
By Shakespeare
Directed by Bartlett Sher
Previews: Thursday, July 2, Friday, July 3, Sunday, July 5 and Tuesday, July 7
Opening: Wednesday, July 8 at 7:30 pm
Close: Sunday, August 2 at 2 pm

Following his acclaimed production of Richard III in 2006 (and his 2008 Tony Award for Lincoln Center Theater's smash-hit production of South Pacific), Artistic Director Bartlett Sher returns to Shakespeare for his first-ever production of Othello. The fear of the outsider lurks beneath the surface of this thrilling tragedy, but the play's true terror is how easily one man's whisper can obliterate all reason. Othello is Sher's fourth production of a Shakespeare play at Intiman since he became Artistic Director in 2000.

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
A play by Joan Didion based on her memoir
Previews: Friday, August 21, Saturday, August 22, Sunday, August 23 and Tuesday, August 25
Opening: Wednesday, August 26 at 7:30 pm
Close: Sunday, Sept. 20 at 2 pm

Hailed by critics as honest, exhilarating, compassionate and unexpectedly funny, Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking looks at how grief can make you crazy, and what it means to come out on the other side. Her one-woman play, an expansion of her award-winning memoir, chronicles her process of mourning after the sudden deaths of her husband and longtime collaborator, John Gregory Dunne, and their only child. Both personal and universal, The Year of Magical Thinking brings the voice of one of America's greatest writers to the stage.

THE AMERICAN CYCLE
ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS
By Robert E. Sherwood
Directed by Sheila Daniels
Previews: Friday, October 2, Saturday, October 3, Sunday, October 4, Tuesday, October 6, Wednesday, October 7 and Thursday, October 8
Opening: Friday, October 9 at 8 pm
Close: Sunday, Nov. 15 at 2 pm

In the 1830s, a quietly charismatic young man, acclaimed by those who knew him for his powerful combination of pragmatism and vision, entered politics and changed the course of the nation. Spanning 20 years, the period of Lincoln's maturation before he became president, Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a big, epic play about the making of a great man - and the shaping of our history. The story of how Lincoln forged his conscience, his ideals and his actions amid personal struggles and troubled years for our country launches Intiman's second American Cycle under the direction of Associate Director Sheila Daniels.

The Cycle's programs include Front Porch Theater, a series of county-wide, informal dramatic readings and conversations in libraries, coffee shops and other neighboring gathering spots; Rough Eagles, the groundbreaking partnership of students from Cleveland and Roosevelt High Schools who come together each year to develop, write and then perform an original play on the Intiman stage; Writers & Artists, which gives us insights into America's great writers through the personal reflections of contemporary artists and scholars; and Core Audience, diverse members of the Seattle community who make a commitment to see Intiman plays and learn from each others' perspectives of each story.

Guided by the vision of Artistic Director Bartlett Sher and Managing Director Brian Colburn, Intiman Theatre is nationally acclaimed for its history of milestone productions and engagement with its community. Intiman produces classics and new plays - work created by artists who make their homes in Seattle and artists from across the country, recognized masters of their craft and exciting new voices. It offers free public programs that extend from intimate conversations in its Seattle Center home to innovative opportunities for youth participation and civic engagement through the American Cycle series. Programs for students include Living History, winner of the Golden Apple Award, which tours annually to schools from Seattle to rural communities in Eastern Washington. Intiman has received many honors including the 2006 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

Intiman Theatre gratefully acknowledges the following major donors for their institutional support: The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Ameriprise Financial, ArtsFund, The Boeing Company, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, John Graham Foundation, Hafer Family Foundation, Intiman Theatre Foundation, Kreielsheimer Remainder Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, Nesholm Family Foundation, The Norcliffe Foundation, PONCHO, Safeco Insurance, The Shubert Foundation, The Seattle Foundation, U.S. Bancorp Foundation, and WaMu. Additional funding is received from Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, City of Seattle; 4Culture; Metropolitan King County Council, National Endowment for the Arts and Washington State Arts Commission.

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