The Rep's 2015-2016 Studio Theatre to Include Two World Premieres

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (The Rep) has announced its 2015-2016 season of performances in the Studio Theatre: I and You, October 28-November 15, 2015; Georama, January 20-February 7, 2016; and Molly's Hammer, March 9-27, 2016.

Both Georama and Molly's Hammer are world premieres that The Rep first developed as part of its Ignite! Festival of New Plays.

"Our Studio Theatre season has three remarkable shows to share with our audiences," said Steven Woolf, The Rep's Artistic Director. "We are thrilled that Molly's Hammer and Georama are world premiere productions. The Rep developed both of these shows through our Ignite! Festival of New Plays. To see them graduate to full productions demonstrates that Ignite! is successfully propelling exciting new plays to the stage. Add to that the multiple award-winning I and You, and it all makes for a vibrant Studio Theatre season."

The Studio Theatre series opens on October 28 in the Emerson Studio Theatre at the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts with I and You, by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Jane Page.

I and You features the unexpected collision of two high school seniors: Anthony is an effortlessly popular athlete and "A" student; Caroline is a prickly cynic, shut in at home with an illness. This unlikely duo sits in Caroline's room, trying to cobble together a report on Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" overnight. As they work and procrastinate, argue and compromise, the teens begin to uncover each other's hidden depths. The winner of the 2014 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, I and You is a play best experienced with as few spoilers as possible.

The Studio Theatre series continues with the musical Georama, featuring a book by West Hyler and Matt Schatz, music and lyrics by Schatz and arrangements, additional music and lyrics by Jack Herrick. Hyler will direct this production. This "mostly true" yarn riffs on the life and work of real-life artist John Banvard. A celebrity painter of the 19th century, Banvard hit it big with his creation of a 3,000 foot-long scrolling panorama of the Mississippi River. The popularity of this "georama" made him America's first millionaire artist. But with fame came folly, and this new American musical depicts how Banvard's overnight success ran amok.

Closing the series is Molly's Hammer by Tammy Ryan and directed by Seth Gordon. In 1980, Molly Rush took a stand. The Pittsburgh housewife and mother of six walked into a General Electric plant and took a hammer to a nuclear warhead to protest the buildup of America's nuclear arsenal. Based on Liane Ellison Norman's book Hammer of Justice, Molly's Hammer is the story of the radical Plowshares disarmament movement, the unwavering Molly and her family's desperate attempts to protect her from historical infamy.

Season ticket packages for The Rep's 2015-2016 Studio Theatre series are on sale now. By purchasing season tickets, subscribers can save substantially over the cost of purchasing individual show tickets and enjoy exclusive benefits. Studio Theatre subscription packages range from $99-$156 for all three shows.

Studio Theatre single tickets (starting at $42) go on sale in early October.

For more information about The Rep's 2015-2016 season or to purchase subscriptions, visit The Rep Box Office, located inside the Loretto-Hilton Center at 130 Edgar Road (on the campus of Webster University), Webster Groves. Ticket buyers may also charge by phone at 314-968-4925.

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