FIRST DATE, PITMEN PAINTERS, et al. Featured in ACT's 2011-12 Season

ACT -A Contemporary Theatre announces its 2012 Mainstage play season-including three World Premieres and two Northwest Premieres - along with a house filled with new presentations from The Central Heating Lab at ACT, The Young Playwrights Program, and The Hansberry Project at ACT, several of which will take place in the new 49-seat Eulalie Scandiuzzi Space located just a few steps away from the Bullitt Cabaret.

ACT's 2012 Mainstage play season opens with the second production of its partnership with The 5th Avenue Theatre, First Date: A New Musical, an irresistibly witty and tuneful treatment of the vicissitudes of the dating scene, with book by Austin Winsberg and music and lyrics by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner (March 10-May 20). Then, from the acclaimed writer of Billy Elliott, ACT will take audiences to a British coal-mining town to experience a charming and moving portrait of the artist as everyman, The Pitmen Painters by Lee Hall, inspired by a book by William Feaver (April 20-May 20). From the sublime to the sublimely ridiculous, ACT is thrilled to bring to the stage Daily Show regular Lewis Black's happy hatchet-job on a suburban family wedding -a seriously funny farce, One Slight Hitch (June 8-July 8). From ACT's Central Heating Lab, the consistently sold-out Pinter Fortnightly heads to the Mainstage as we present The Pinter Festival, offering audiences four gems in the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's canon in multiple venues at ACT (July 20-August 26). Next up, the World Premiere of Trieu Tran: Uncle Ho To Uncle Sam, a staggeringly beautiful and powerful story of a Vietnamese man's physical and psychological journey from his war-torn land to the United States, written and performed by Trieu Tran (September 7-October 7). Concluding the season is a true theatrical event taking over multiple spaces at ACT: Ramayana, an in-house adaptation by ACT's Affiliate Artist Working Group of the great Indian Epic and one of the most spectacular adventure stories of all time that promises to be an event unlike anything ever experienced in Seattle theatre, (October 12-November 11).

"2012 promises to deliver a veritable cornucopia of dramatic treats, reinforcing our commitment to new work, new ideas and new ways of creating and experiencing live performance," said ACT Artistic Director Kurt Beattie. "We anticipate next year will be a truly remarkable season with outstanding works of drama, more World Premieres than we've ever produced in a single year, and the never-ending conversation about our lives and times that our audiences have grown to expect."

The 2012 Mainstage Play Season:

First Date: A New Musical
Book by Austin Winsberg
Music and Lyrics by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner
March 10-May 20 | WORLD PREMIERE!
In the Falls Theatre
One first date. Two people. And every single voice in their heads. A new musical co-produced by The 5th Avenue Theatre and ACT

Ever been on a date and wondered what the other person was thinking? This new musical comedy, with its witty book and tuneful score, lets you peer inside the nervous and busy minds of two would-be lovebirds. Soho artist Casey and Wall Street trader Aaron are on that all-important first date. How can they know if they're right for each other when old boyfriends, ex-fiancées, assorted friends and relatives, and even the waiter keep offering unsolicited advice? This relationship may just have a chance - if only they can make their inner voices shut up! Produced in partnership with The 5th Avenue Theatre.

The Pitmen Painters
by Lee Hall
inspired by a book by William Feaver

April 20-May 20 | NORTHWEST PREMIERE!
In the Allen Theatre
A transforming, true story of friendship, aspiration, and the power of art from the acclaimed writer of Billy Elliott.

Who is allowed to be an artist? Can art only be appreciated by the elite? From the acclaimed writer of Billy Elliott comes the real-life story of a close-knit group of northern British miners whose lives are transformed when they unexpectedly discover their own artistic potential. Funny, gritty and moving, The Pitmen Painters is both a thought-provoking exploration of the politics of art and an uplifting celebration of the creative impulse in us all.

One Slight Hitch

by Lewis Black
June 8-July 8 | NORTHWEST PREMIERE!
In the Falls Theatre
Dearly beloved, fasten your seatbelts! A smart modern farce from a Daily Show regular.

Life in suburban Cincinnati circa 1981 is good for Doc and Delia Coleman on the morning they plan to throw their eldest daughter the lavish wedding they never had, until her ex shows up and begins to wreak glorious havoc on all of their plans. A zany, door-slamming farce from seriously funny man Black, One Slight Hitch delivers a riotous and strangely romantic ride through the deconstruction of one family's equilibrium.

The Pinter Festival
Four Plays by Harold Pinter
July 20-August 26
Multiple venues
A feast for Pinterians. And the perfect introduction for those new to Pinter's work.

A pinnacle experience from ACT's acclaimed Pinter Fortnightly series, The Pinter Festival will take over every space at ACT for more than a month, with plays, readings, symposia, and other celebrations of the influential and outspoken British writer. We'll mount full productions of four Pinter plays, including The Dumb Waiter, a one-act that suggests Abbot and Costello as prompted by Samuel Beckett; Celebration, in which a dinner party in a posh restaurant goes riotously wrong; No Man's Land, a profound (and slightly drunken) meditation on life, death and what might have been; and Old Times, a consideration of such favorite Pinter themes as the unreliability of memory, necessary illusions and the need for control. Pinter fans will be in their glory. Those just making Pinter's acquaintance will understand why he's revered as a modern master.

Trieu Tran: Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam

By Trieu Tran

September 7-October 7 | WORLD PREMIERE!
In the Allen Theatre
A beautiful and powerful story about becoming a man and becoming American.

A Vietnamese boy journeys with his mother from the fall of Saigon to a Viet Cong re-education camp in the jungle, then to a refugee camp in Thailand, and, finally, to America. But in the New World he faces a turbulent passage to manhood shaped by his estranged father and by his own estrangement in the land of snow, hip-hop, urban gangs and clashing cultures. A riveting immigrant drama that vividly depicts what it's like to become American while you're haunted by the ghosts of Viet Nam.

Ramayana

Adapted & Created by ACT's Affiliate Artist Working Group
October 12-November 11 | WORLD PREMIERE!
India's most beloved and enduring legend, brought spectacularly to life.

Romance! Action! Suspense! Come along for the ride as we bring one of South Asia's greatest and most beloved epics to life. Ramayana tells the engrossing story of Rama, a young hero on a quest to rescue his beautiful wife from an evil king. Like all great stories, it delivers cracking-good entertainment while posing essential questions about the human condition. Perfect for the whole family, sumptuously staged with vivid costumes, fantastical sets, and re-imagined environments, Ramayana is an eye-popping roller coaster of a show of mythical proportions- and unlike anything you've ever seen in Seattle!

Following the 2012 Mainstage play season, ACT will stage its 37th annual production of the Seattle holiday favorite, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted by Gregory A. Falls, November 23-December 24, 2012.

In addition to the Mainstage play season, is year-round programming presented by The Central Heating Lab at ACT (CHL), including 14/48 (January 6-7 and 13-14); Ian Bell's Seattle Confidential (February 13, May 14, September 10 and December 3); The Moisture Festival: Grand Variete and Libertease Burlesque (March 16-25); Hedgebrook's Women Playwright Festival (May 21); and works from Short Stories Live at Town Hall, Seattle Dance Project with Inverse Opera, eSeTeatro, TheFilmSchool, New Voices, Icicle Creek Theatre Festival, more concerts, more lectures as a part of the InterACTions speaker series and a new monthly play reading series. Plus, The Central Heating Lab at ACT will present two plays, Smokestack Arias by Wayne Horvitz, music by Robin Holcomb and directed by Dayna Hanson (February 3-12) and The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, with Julie Briskman, John Bogar, Alexandra Tavares, Brandon J. Simmons, Charles Legget, Gordon Carpenter, Craig Doescher and Marya Sea Kaminski (October 19-November 4).
ACT's Young Playwrights Program (YPP) will begin in September 2011 and culminate with the 2012 Young Playwrights Festival (March 15- 17), presenting eight staged readings of new plays from students age 12 to 18. Watch for the return of Adult Playwriting classes and YPP's afterschool program in 2012, as well.

With 2012 marking its seventh year, the annual ACT New Play Award event will be held spring 2012, following the selection of a winning playwright and play, fall 2011. Sponsored by Gian-Carlo and Eulalie Scandiuzzi, their generous support provides for a national call for submissions and a highly-competitive review process. The winner receives $2,500 and the opportunity to workshop their play at ACT.

The Hansberry Project at ACT returns with You Really Got a Hold on Me (February 12) and Juneteenth Celebration! (June 16), an annual fundraising event for The Hansberry Project. The Hansberry Project will also be a part of the second annual Multicultural Playwrights Festival (July 16).

Mainstage Play Season Subscription Memberships go on sale starting September 14, online at www.acttheatre.org/subscribe, or through the ACT Ticket Office, (206) 292-7676 or 700 Union Street in downtown Seattle. Subscriptions range from $60 (students with ID/25 and under) to $300, and include a special $177.50 senior matinee package. In addition, the Apple Series - exclusively for Washington State teachers - will continue to be held on every Wednesday night preview for each Mainstage play, for only $115 for all six shows!

Mainstage play single tickets go on sale February 14 and range from $15/$20 (for students with ID/25 and under) to $55 (with exception of First Date: a New Musical which will start at $69). ACTPasses (all you can see for only $25 a month), are on sale now. Tickets for Central Heating Lab, Young Playwrights, New Play Award and Hansberry Project events will go sale throughout the year.

Located in the heart of downtown Seattle and serving a population of curious, open-minded, and brave audiences, ACT - A Contemporary Theatre is the only theatre in Seattle dedicated to producing contemporary work with promising playwrights and local performing artists since 1965. A theatre of new ideas, ACT serves as a cultural engine that makes plays, dance, music, and film that touch us through its annual Mainstage play series and new works generated from the Young Playwrights Program, The Hansberry Project, the Central Heating Lab, and New Works for the American Stage commissioning program. Because contemporary life demands examination, ACT is driven to inspire and strengthen our diverse community through works that advance our understanding of human life. With more than 100,000 people who attend shows annually, ACT is an interactive community where artists and the public witness, contemplate, and engage in dialogue on today's thought-provoking issues, ideas and art, presented with intelligence, insight, and humor.

 

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