Book-It Announces Its 2018-2019 Season

Book-It Repertory Theatre is thrilled to announce its 2018-2019 season. For 29 years, Book-It has been adapting great literature into great theatre through simple and sensitive productions and will produce five mainstage shows and three school-touring shows.

"We are excited to be producing five stories that all share in the idea of dreaming big, surviving incredible and often debilitating adversity, and ultimately rejoicing in being with family, being alive and in love," says Founder and Founding Co-Artistic Director Jane Jones and Founding Co-Artistic Director Myra Platt.

In the fall of 2018, Book-It presents Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, adapted and directed by Julie Beckman. Classism, sexuality, and female expression are explored in this Gothic mystery. My Ántonia by Willa Cather takes the stage during the holiday season. This enchanting American classic is adapted and directed by Annie Lareau.

Kicking off 2019 is a brutally honest look at addiction during Seattle's grunge years with Seattle native Tom Hansen's American Junkie. This raw story is adapted by Jane Jones and Kevin McKeon and directed by Jones. In the spring, a solo show with 28 characters performed by Helen Hayes Award-winner Gin Hammond will be performed at the Erickson Theatre. Returning the Bones combines classic storytelling and fluid physical style.

Book-It closes out its 29th season with Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, which will be adapted by Myra Platt and directed by Lanise Antoine Shelley. Mbue masterfully weaves a story of class divide, immigration, and marriage in her remarkable debut novel that was a pick for Oprah's Book Club.

Arts and Education Program is producing and touring three works of literature for young people including The Upside Down Boy /El niño de cabeza by Juan Felipe Herrera, New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer, and The Trickster Tales: Raven and Coyote by Gerald McDermott. These productions are performed by professional actors/teaching artists and tour to schools, libraries, and community centers statewide. Tours may be booked by calling 206.428.6266.

"This year's touring stories capture the theme of what it feels like to walk a mile in another person's shoes. Each story strengthens empathy, highlights the virtue of discovering your unique and authentic voice, and highlights the value in celebrating who you are and where you come from, even when others tell you you're not enough," says Director of Education Annie DiMartino.

Announcing the 2018-2019 Mainstage Season

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë
Adapted and Directed by Julie Beckman
September 13-October 14, 2018
Premiered at Book-It in 2001
Orphaned as a child, Jane Eyre musters up the courage to take a governess job at Thornfield Hall, where she meets the brooding Edward Rochester. Though she finds herself captivated by his kind spirit, she is distracted by the strange occurrences at the house. In this revolutionary piece of literature, eponymous heroine Jane maintains her integrity and inner strength as she grows into adulthood. Called the 'first historian of the private consciousness', author Charlotte Brontë explores classism, sexuality, and female expression in this Gothic mystery.

"Charlotte Brontë's classic romantic novel is simply one of the greatest works of English fiction." -Barbara Schultz, Common Sense Media

Wednesday-Saturday-7:30pm (Matinées on Sept 19, 29 and Oct 6, 13)
Sundays-2pm

My Ántonia, by Willa Cather
Adapted and Directed by Annie Lareau

November 29-December 30, 2018
Premiered at Book-It in 2008
The childhood memories of narrator Jim Burden in Blackhawk, Nebraska are woven together with the struggles of his beloved neighbor, a newly-arrived immigrant girl from Bohemia, Ántonia Shimerda. The story of their friendship outlines the determination, hardship, and resilience of Great Plains life at the turn of the 20th century in this enchanting American classic that is a tribute to the human spirit.

"The celebration of Cather as an American pastoralist, a kind of Midwestern Robert Frost, which greeted her books when they were published, still continues." -Hermione Lee, The New York Review of Books

Wednesday-Saturday-7:30pm (Matinées on Dec 5, 15, 22, and 29)
Sundays-2pm

American Junkie, by Tom Hansen
Adapted by Jane Jones & Kevin McKeon
Directed by Jane Jones
February 14-March 10, 2019
How does a budding musician become a broken-down junkie? A brutally honest look at addiction during Seattle's grunge years, Tom Hansen maps his life and painful self-discovery, without self-pity or blame. Hansen balances a raw story about vulnerability and the pain that inspires self-destruction with humor and hope.

"Infused in equal measure with brutality and beauty." -Gina Frangelllo, author of Every Kind of

Wanting

Wednesday-Saturday-7:30pm (Matinées on Feb 20, Mar 2, and 9)
Sundays-2pm

Returning the Bones
Written & Performed by Gin Hammond
Performed at the Erickson Theatre (1524 Harvard Ave, Seattle)
March 28-April 14, 2019
A young African-American medical student is suddenly faced with a question only she can answer: continue to risk her life in the fight for Civil Rights, or escape to Paris to live a life she's always dreamed of? Returning the Bones is a solo show with 28 characters performed by Helen Hayes Award-winner Gin Hammond and explores the question: How do you choose between your country, your people, and yourself? Classic storytelling combined with a fluid physical style will bring you on a journey of many miles, perspectives, and epiphanies.

"It's devastatingly beautiful. Such powerful subjects are covered..." -Miryam Gordon, TheaterMania

Wednesday-Saturday-7:30pm (Matinées on Apr 3 and 13)
Sundays-2pm

Behold the Dreamers, by Imbolo Mbue
Adapted by Myra Platt
Directed by Lanise Antoine Shelley
June 6-30, 2019
Jende Jonga and his wife Neni have recently emigrated from Cameroon to America to try to make a new life for themselves and their young son. Jende gets a job as a chauffeur for an investor at Lehman Brothers and Neni studies to be a pharmacist. When the Great Recession starts to upend the economy, both of them realize that America may not be the place full of hope and promise as they had once thought. Imbolo Mbue masterfully weaves a story of class divide, immigration, and marriage in her remarkable debut novel.

"As a dissection of the American Dream, Imbolo Mbue's first novel is savage and compassionate in all the right places."-The New York Times

Wednesday-Saturday-7:30pm (Matinées on June 12, 22, and 29)
Sundays - 2pm

Subscriptions and Single Tickets

Subscriptions for the 2018-19 season are available now by phone, in person, and online. Subscription packages range from $114-$221.50. Single tickets for 2018-2019 go on sale August 1, 2018 and start at $26. Students of all ages receive $20 tickets. Must show valid student ID. Groups of eight or more tickets are eligible for a 10% discount. Larger groups equal larger discounts. The box office is open Tuesday - Friday, noon to 5pm; call 206.216.0833.

Announcing the 2018-2019 Arts & Education Season

The Upside Down Boy/El niño de cabeza by Juan Felipe Herrera
Illustrated by Elizabeth Gómez

Adapted and Directed by Sophie Franco
Touring Oct-Dec, 2018

When Juan and his family move to a big city, his whole world feels upside down. He doesn't speak English, he doesn't understand the rules to recess, and whenever he tries to speak, his tongue feels like heavy rocks. But with the help of music, poetry, and an encouraging teacher, Juan finds his voice and footing in this upside down world that he soon considers his home.

This production will be performed bilingually in Spanish and English.

New Shoes by Susan Lynn Meyer
Illustrated by Eric Velasquez

Adapted and Directed by Lamar Legend
Touring Jan-March, 2019
Ella Mae is in need of some new shoes, but when she and her mother arrive at Mr. Johnson's shoe store, her happiness quickly turns to dejection. She is forced to wait and unable to even try a pair on because of her skin color. Determined to fight back, Ella Mae and her friend work to collect and restore old shoes. The girls have their very own shoe sale, giving the other African American members of their community a place where they can be treated fairly and "try on all the shoes they want."

The Trickster Tales: Raven and Coyote by Gerald McDermott
Adapted and Directed by Annie DiMartino

Touring March-June, 2019

In these two stories shared by many northwest coast and southwest nations, we follow the folktales of Coyote and Raven. In Raven, this great shape-shifter and trickster wants to give people the gift of light. Transforming into a human and using his signature trickster moves, Raven quickly outsmarts the great Sky Chief into sharing his three boxes of light: the box of stars, the box with the moon, and the box with the sun! In coyote, all this troublemaker wants to do is sing, dance, and fly with crows. Yet he soon learns that the best place for his feet to be firmly planted is on the ground.

ABOUT BOOK-IT REPERTORY THEATRE

Book-It Repertory Theatre, a leader in the narrative theatre movement, was founded in 1990. Book-It is a non-profit organization with a dedication to great literature and quality theatre experiences employing simple, sensitive, and imaginative production techniques, and to inspiring its audiences to read. The company is funded, in part, by generous contributions from corporations and foundations, and hundreds of individuals who share its passion for literature.

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