ACT - A Contemporary Theatre Announces 2022/23 Season Featuring World Premiere of HISTORY OF THEATRE & More
The season features a co-production of Choir Boy with The 5th Avenue Theatre, and more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jun. 01, 2022
ACT - A Contemporary Theatre today announced its complete 2022/23 season featuring four vivid, contemporary plays. These plays offer experiences that unite us in celebration and in fellow-feeling, encouraging us to enjoy life while continuing to investigate what it means to be human. The season features a co-production of Choir Boy with The 5th Avenue Theatre, the world premiere new play History of Theatre, the wildly popular Every Brilliant Thing, and the mischievous and affecting new Wolf Play. Season subscriptions are on sale now at ACTtheatre.org and through the Box Office at 206.292.7676.
ACT Artistic Director John Langs said, "As we begin to emerge from these challenging times, we are presenting a series of stories that reflect journeys of courage. Whether the characters within the stories know it or not, their ability to move through tribulations with song, with humor, with grit, and with grace inspired this season. All four plays have in common a beautifully complex world view, and an acknowledgement that laughter and tears often sit side by side. We selected plays by brave writers who craft evenings in the theatre that expand and inspire us. Our hope is that you find yourself delighted, moved, activated, and reflected in all the stories in our new season."
ACT Managing Director Anita Shah said, "It fills me with great joy and hope to announce this season of bold, new work for a bold, new world. As we continue to recover from the pandemic, the importance of the arts has never been more clear. The need to come together, to see perspectives that differ from our own, to promote social discourse, to laugh, to cry, and to connect is a deeply human one. We have been starved for it over the last few years and we are thrilled to continue the quest for understanding and community with this upcoming season."
ABOUT THE 2022/23 SEASON
ACT opens its new season with Choir Boy, a co-production with the 5th Avenue Theatre. This riveting coming-of-age story from Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Academy Award®-winning writer of Moonlight electrified Broadway in 2019 with its soaring gospel, spiritual, and R&B performances. Next comes ACT's 47th World Premiere play, History of Theatre: About, By, For and Near from ACT Core Company member Reginald André Jackson. Produced in collaboration with The Hansberry Project and directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton, the play traces the brilliance, perseverance, and artistry of our theatrical fore-bearers, restoring and highlighting forgotten and unsung artists to their rightful place in history. The season continues with the hit play and solo tour de force Every Brilliant Thing. Each performance promises a unique experience as the play is crafted with spontaneous delight with the audience as collaborators. The 2022/23 season will close with Wolf Play, a powerful play that explores adoption, "re-homing," and queer parenting.
2022/22 SEASON DETAILS
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Choir Boy
A co-production with the 5th Avenue Theatre
A Play with Music
Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Directed by Jamil Jude
September 10 - October 23, 2022
For half a century, the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys has been dedicated to the education of strong, ethical Black men. One talented student, Pharus Young, has been waiting for years to take his rightful place as the leader of the legendary gospel choir. But can he make his way through the hallowed halls of this institution if he sings in his own key? This riveting show is an intersectional coming-of-age story and a powerful examination of personal identity against institutional traditions: here, being black and queer in a prestigious all-male prep school. From Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Academy Award®-winning writer of Moonlight, Choir Boy electrified Broadway with its soaring gospel, spiritual, and R&B performances.
History of Theatre: About, By, For and Near
ACT's 47th World Premiere
Produced in partnership with The Hansberry Project
Written by Reginald André Jackson
Directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton
January 28 - February 12, 2023
From ACT Core Company writer and artist Reginald André Jackson in collaboration with The Hansberry Project and director Valerie Curtis-Newton comes the world premiere production, History of Theatre. Jackson delves into the journey and rich legacy of his artistic ancestors, from the early days of enslavement through the ensuing 200 years. Full of music, dance, and profound insights, the show traces the brilliance, perseverance, and artistry of our theatrical fore-bearers restoring and highlighting forgotten and unsung artists to their rightful place in history.
Every Brilliant Thing
With Jonny Donahoe
Directed by John Langs
March 17 - April 2, 2023
The color yellow. Sunsets. Things with stripes. Wearing a cape. Ice cream! There are a million brilliant things. Can you name them all?
The hit play and international sensation Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan MacMillan with Jonny Donahoe is an immersive storytelling experience blending comedy, improv, and audience interaction to tell the story of an adult growing up in the shadow of mental illness and learning to grapple with their own experiences of love, loss, and a finding a new way forward, one brilliant thing at a time.
Wolf Play
By Hansol Jung
Directed by Rosa Joshi
May 5 - 21, 2023
A southpaw boxer is on the verge of a pro debut when their wife signs the adoption papers for a Korean boy. The boy's original adoptive father was all set to hand him over to a new home... until he realizes the boy would have no "dad." Caught in the middle, the child launches himself on a lone wolf's journey to find a pack he can call his own. Wolf Play is a mischievous and affecting new play about the families we choose and unchoose.
ABOUT ACT - A Contemporary Theatre
ACT is a collective that believes in the inherent power of story and art as the ultimate agent of change through the shared experience of live theatre.
Steadfast in its dedication to producing work that sparks an authentic curiosity about the human condition, ACT produces bold, audacious works of contemporary theatre. Over the last 55 years, ACT has been a trusted Seattle destination presenting necessary and relevant works on contemporary themes, producing more than 300 plays and musicals. History of Theatre will become ACT's 47th world premiere during the 2022-23 season. Led by Artistic Director, John Langs and Managing Director, Anita Shah, ACT is a theatre where artistic ambition and civic engagement unite around the mission to nurture theatre-makers of the next generation.
ACT is here to challenge how stories are told.
Thank you to our Theatre and Season Sponsors: 4Culture, ArtsFund, National Endowment for the Arts, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, The Shubert Foundation, Nesholm Family Foundation, The John Graham Foundation, and Katharyn Alvord Gerlich.
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