Northern Stage Announces 2016-2017 20th Anniversary Season

Northern Stage is delighted to announce its 2016-2017 20th Anniversary Season, the second in its new home, the Barrette Center for the Arts. The company will produce six main stage productions, an Off-Broadway New York Premiere, and three productions by Northern Stage students in grades 7-12. For tickets and information, call 802-296-7000 or visit www.northernstage.org. Tickets start at $15 for any full-time student at any time.

Shakespeare's iconic tragedy Macbeth opens the season in a bold and daring modern production designed to reflect the dark forces in our world today. Directed by noted Shakespearean director Stephen Brown-Fried and featuring a multi-cultural cast of nationally renowned actors, this production joins the countless world productions set to acknowledge the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Casella Resource Solutions, and Norwich Inn, Macbeth plays September 28 - October 23, 2016. A Christmas Carol is Northern Stage's biennial celebration for audiences during the holidays, running November 16 - December 24, 2016.

Northern Stage's take on the Dickens classic has been reimagined to make use of the state of the art Byrne Theater and stars noted actor Bill Kux, a Northern Stage favorite for his stunning performance in The Hound of the Baskervilles, as well as audience favorites Dorothy Stanley (Broadway's Sweeney Todd, Gypsy, 42nd Street, Follies) and Susan Haefner (Broadway'sThoroughly Modern Millie, 42nd Street) as well as 10 area children and favorite local performers. Upper Valley Aquatic Center, Mascoma Savings Bank, and LaValley Building Supply sponsor A Christmas Carol. The New Year brings the world premiere of the dark comedy Trick or Treat by Jack Neary, first presented in Northern Stage's New Works Now festival in January 2016. Starring NYPD Blue's Gordon Clapp, the play brilliantly skewers a Boston area family in crisis on a fateful Halloween. Stave Puzzles and Wells Fargo Advisors sponsor this production that runs January 18 - February 5, 2017. Next in the season is the charming comedy Last of the Red Hot Lovers by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Neil Simon, playing February 15 - March 5, and sponsored by Four Seasons Sotheby's International Realty, Lake Sunapee Bank, and Designer Gold. Long-married Barney Cashman, a forty-seven-year-old seafood restaurant owner, tries to have one passionate tryst before opportunity passes him by.

Summit Wealth Group and Vermont Public Radio sponsor the Everyman Theatre/Olney Theatre Center production of Grounded, coming to Northern Stage March 15 - April 2, 2017. A fiercely relevant and compelling one-woman show, this play by George Brant explores the moral and psychological consequences of America's transition to drone warfare. The season concludes April 19 - May 21, 2017, with the musical sensation Mamma Mia! With music and lyrics by Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, and some songs with Stig Anderson, and a book by Catherine Johnson, this sunny tale features the music of ABBA and has delighted over 50 million people worldwide.

Sponsored by River Valley Club, Chippers, Inc., Coldwell Banker & Redpath Company Realtors, and White Mountains Insurance, Northern Stage's own Producing Artistic Director Carol Dunne directs. Dunne sums up the season by saying, "We honor the past, and all who have given to the 20 year history of this company, by embracing the new: new collaborations, a New York debut, a new take on Shakespeare, all in our new home. It is a wildly ambitious season that we hope will delight and inspire our audiences for years to come."

Audiences will remember Orwell in America from Northern Stage's 2015 main stage world premiere production. First seen in our inaugural New Works Now festival in 2014, the play continues its journey with a New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters in New York City Oct 7 - 30, 2016, as the first Off-Broadway production in Northern Stage's history. Soon after the end of World War II, George Orwell, author of Animal Farm, is chaperoned on an American book tour by a fetching young woman, provided by the publisher, whose job is to dissuade Orwell from telling America why he is a proud socialist. The production stars Jamie Horton (Film: Lincoln) and Jeanna de Waal (Broadway: Kinky Boots, Wicked). Tickets in New York are available at www.59e59.orgor by calling 212.279.4200. Northern Stage's fourth annual New Works Now festival showcases three brand-new plays January 6-8, 2017. Admission to the festival is free, but seats are reserved through the Northern Stage box office.

In an ongoing commitment to arts education for people of all ages and cultivation of generations of theater lovers, $15 anytime student tickets, sponsored by Hypertherm Owners' Philanthropic Endeavor (HOPE) Foundation and the Couch Family Foundation, and $20 Tuesday tickets, along with regularly priced tickets, are now on sale. Registration is now open for students in grades 7-12 to join Northern Stage for the eight-month YES (Youth Ensemble Studio) program that begins in October. Students are trained in all aspects of theater, participate in group nights at the theater with post-show discussions, and take part in monthly master classes with cast members and creative teams of main stage productions. The program prepares students for three different productions throughout the course of the academic school year, most notably the musical Dear Edwina, which will perform in the Byrne Theater in March 2017.

New this season is Access for All, a program that allows patrons with a current EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) card to access $5 tickets to Northern Stage performances, and a series of two free stakeholders' panel discussions aimed at sharing a "state-of-the-company" conversation with the public, scheduled for October 23, 2016 3-4:30 PM and January 31, 2017 7:30-9 PM. The company is re-inventing the traditional Athena Series with a new conversation series entitled "Spot On" that will dig deep into the themes found in Macbeth, Trick or Treat, and Grounded. Information about these programs and more is available at northernstage.org.

Northern Stage is a regional non-profit LORT-D professional theater company with a mission to change lives, one story at a time. Located at the crossroads of New England -- the Upper Valley of the Connecticut River -- Northern Stage's intimate space sets the stage for actively involving its audiences with ambitious productions and expansive educational programs. Founded in 1997, Northern Stage has offered more than 115 high-quality, professional productions of new works, classics, and musicals. Annual attendance is now over 30,000.

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