Rainbow Theatre Project Announces 2017-2018 Season

Rainbow Theatre Project Producing Artistic Director H. Lee Gable and Managing Director Michael Kelley announce the 2017/18 season, which will include two readings and two productions, one of which will be a part of the 2018 Women's Voices Theater Festival. During Rainbow Theatre Project's fifth season, the company will be in residence at the District of Columbia Arts Center.

"Our next season continues our goal to highlight new work along with the classics with a world premiere, a Tennessee Williams classic, our first full production of a play from one of our many past staged readings, and a revival of a renowned comedy. I am particularly proud of our participation in the upcoming Women's Voices Theatre Festival with our production of Wendy Graf's No Word in Guyanese for Me," shares Gable. "I like to think that we might be a small theatre, but we have big ambitions in our goals to represent our LGBTQ community."

The season will kick off in September with a reading of Tim Caggiano and Jack Calvin Hanna's Blue Camp, a drama with humor that takes place on a U.S. Army base just before the Vietnam War. This will be followed by a reading of Tennessee Williams' classic Kingdom of Earth. For the first full production of the season, Rainbow Theatre Project will reprise last year's No Word in Guyanese for Me as part of the Women's Voices Theatre Festival. The season will finish with a production of Jane Wagner's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, a laugh-out-loud funny play that provides a poignant critique on modern society.

"I'm very excited where Rainbow Theatre Project is right now as we head into our fifth season," said Gable. "It's a great honor to be among the small group of theatres being considered by the Helen Hayes Awards for the John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company. I am doubly excited by our upcoming move into our new home at the District of Columbia Arts Center."

This year Rainbow Theatre Project is selling subscription season passes for $100. This will include tickets to all four productions. Subscription season passes are now on sale and can be purchased here: http://www.rainbowtheatreproject.org/tickets.html Single tickets will go on sale to the general public at a later date.

-Continued-

Page 2 - Rainbow Theatre Project announces 2017/18 season

2017/18 Season Schedule*

Blue Camp

Written by Tim Caggiano and Jack Calvin Hanna

Director by Christopher Janson

Tickets: $15

District of Columbia Arts Center | September 18, 2017

Blue Camp is a drama with humor that takes place on an Army base somewhere in the U.S. in the late summer of 1964, just prior to the Gulf of Tonkin incident. Soldiers accused of homosexuality are kept in the Blue Barracks awaiting discharge while criminal soldiers are kept in the Green Barracks. These are the days leading into the Vietnam War.

Kingdom of Earth

Written by Tennessee Williams

Directed by Greg Stevens

Tickets: $15

District of Columbia Arts Center | October 16, 2017

Kingdom of Earth is a serio-comic play that focuses on Lot, a tubercular neurotic youth who is an impotent transvestite overly attached to the memory of his late mother. He has returned to his ancestral home, a decaying house on the edge of a river on the verge of overflowing, with his new bride Myrtle, a sometime prostitute and former showgirl. She dwells in a fantasy world of romantic illusions, one of which is to nurse Lot back to health so they can consummate their marriage, but soon discovers Lot only wants to use her to steal the deed to the property from his multiracial half-brother Chicken, who has lived on and farmed the property for years.

No Word In Guyanese For Me

Written by Wendy Graf

Directed by Julia Hurley

Starring Ashley K. Nicholas

Tickets: $35

District of Columbia Arts Center | February 8 - March 4, 2018

No Word in Guyanese for Me is a poetic and lyrical play that is a beautiful exploration of religious and sexual identity. This is the journey of Hanna. From her childhood in Guyana to her adolescence in pre and post 9/11 New York City, from a disastrous arranged marriage to her sexual awakening, Hanna struggles to come to terms with her sexual identity, her devotion to her faith, and the right to be accepted for who she is, a gay Muslim. Part of the Women's Voices Theatre Festival.

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

Written by Jane Wagner

Directed by Jeanette Buck

Tickets: $35

District of Columbia Arts Center | April 5 - 29, 2018

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe is a poignant, sharp, and laugh-out-loud funny play that took Broadway by storm in 1985. A moving critique of modern society, this barbed but humane play continues to resonate with truth and accuracy.

*plays, artists, and dates are all subject to change

The Helen Hayes Award nominations were announced in February and Rainbow Theatre Project is being considered for the John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company!

The Rainbow Theatre Project is committed to being the premier theatre for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community in the Nation's Capital by presenting plays and musicals that reflect the unique experiences, interests and history of the LGBTQ community.

To post a comment, you must register and login.