For immadiate release 4/11/08
Contact: Katalin Mitchell 617-495-2668


American Repertory Theatre
announces 2008-09 Season:
Beckett • Chekhov • Mamet •
Anna Deavere Smith • Aurelia Thierrée
and two world premieres
 
 
“When you step into the A.R.T., you know you're in for a flight of imagination that you can't get anywhere else.”                                     — Boston Globe
 
Cambridge, Mass. — The American Repertory Theatre announced today its selections for the 2008-09 Season — beginning in September 2008 and running through June 2009 at the Loeb Drama Center and Zero Arrow Theatre.  The season will include Anna Deavere Smith’s Let Me Down Easy, her exploration of the resilience and vulnerability of the human body and the resourcefulness of the human spirit; the world premiere of Anne Washburn’s The Communist Dracula Pageant, a wild and offbeat satire about the rule of the Ceausescus and the forging of a national identity, directed by Anne Kauffman; Aurélia’s Oratorio, a spellbinding evening of illusion and magic, where dreams come to life and the impossible happens before your very eyes, performed by Aurélia Thierrée and directed by Victoria Thierrée Chaplin; Chekhov’s The Seagull, his rich and tumultuous portrait of the human heart directed by János Szász; Samuel Beckett’s spare, enigmatic, and absurdly funny masterpiece Endgame, directed by Marcus Stern; the world premiere of Christine Evans’ Trojan Barbie, a reimagining of Euripides’ Trojan Women with a most unlikely heroine who always looks on the bright side even as past and present collide about her, directed by Carmel O’Reilly; and David Mamet’s Romance, a courtroom farce that takes no prisoners in its quest for total political incorrectness, directed by Scott Zigler.
 
Acting Artistic Director Gideon Lester commented: "The season plays to all the A.R.T.'s strengths.  It includes two world premieres by leading young playwrights, innovative productions of great plays by Chekhov, Beckett, and Mamet, strong roles for the A.R.T. resident actors, directors, and designers; virtuosic performances by Anna Deavere Smith and Aurélia Thierrée; and the work of fine directors from Boston and across the U.S., as well as France and Hungary.  There is something here for everyone — young and old, fans of new plays and classics, and those who enjoy our continuing conversations about the intersection of theatre and the world we live in.  I'm particularly proud that this is a season that features women artists so prominently — playwrights, directors, and performers.  I look forward to welcoming our audiences to these seven wonderful productions."
 
Executive Director Robert J. Orchard added: “As the A.R.T. approaches it’s thirtieth anniversary in 2010, it’s thrilling to be able to provide an artistic home for such a stimulating spectrum of imaginative artists united in their unwavering belief in the power of live performance.”
 
Details of the 2008-09 Season are as follows:
 

Let Me Down Easy

written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith
09/12/08–10/11/08 • Loeb Stage
 
“You are always aware of Ms. Smith as a commanding stage presence — but the personas of her subjects come through with a shining clarity, as easily as light moves through glass.”— New York Times
 
Well known to A.R.T. audiences as the creator of Fires in the Mirror, Anna Deavere Smith is one of the most acclaimed writers and performers of our time.  In her latest creation, Let Me Down Easy, she explores the resilience, vulnerability, and beauty of the human body.  Channeling a dramatic range of interview subjects, from supermodels and athletes to doctors and survivors of the Rwandan genocide, Anna Deavere Smith will change the way we think about our bodies – bodies in motion and bodies in pain, the body politic and the body beautiful.  Generous and powerful in its vision, Let Me Down Easy is a virtuosic exploration of the resourcefulness of the human spirit.

 

The Communist Dracula Pageant — World Premiere

by Americans, for Americans, with hallucinations, phosphorescence, and bears

by Anne Washburn, directed by Anne Kauffman
10/18/08–11/09/08 • Zero Arrow Stage
 
“History, peopled with our faces, is not our story.  Do not hope to find yourself in history.  Look for yourself only in the terrible recesses of your own heart.” — The Communist Dracula Pageant
 
It is 1989, and one of the most vicious regimes of all time is falling as Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu stand trial in Romania. 
And it is 1976, and the Ceausescus, at the height of their powers, mount a pageant to celebrate the glory of the Romanian nation.
And it is the fifteenth century, and Vlad Tepes – the original Count Dracula – steps out of the dark mists and swings his cape about him.  He looks around him and his eyes gleam red.
The Communist Dracula Pageant is a wild and offbeat romp through the web of Romanian myth and history, drawn from the imagination of one of this country’s most lauded young writers.  Our own election season provides the perfect backdrop for the premiere of this theatrical satire on the forging of a national identity, and the power of a president to rewrite the news.
 
 
Aurélia’s Oratorio  
Written and directed by Victoria Thierrée Chaplin
Starring Aurélia Thierrée
11/28/08–12/28/08 • Loeb Stage
 
“An absolute spellbinder…an enchanting dream, and like most vivid reveries, it momentarily colors the way you see the waking world.” — The Daily Telegraph, London
 
Behind the red velvet curtain lies a topsy-turvy world of surreal surprises, tricks, and transformations, where dreams come to life and the impossible happens before your very eyes….
Aurélia Thierrée was first seen on the A.R.T. stage as a young girl, performing in the Cirque Imaginaire with her parents.  Now an actress and acrobat in her own right, Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter has charmed audiences around the world with this dazzling display of stage illusion, inspired by the magic of music hall and circus, and co-created with her mother Victoria Thierrée Chaplin.
            An ideal holiday treat for the whole family, suitable for children 8 to 100!
 
 
The Seagull
by Anton Chekhov, directed by János Szász
01/10/09–02/01/09 • Loeb Stage
 
“We have to show life not the way it is, or the way it should be, but the way it is in dreams.”  — Konstantin in The Seagull
 
          In a garden by a lake, a family assembles to watch a play.  Little can they guess how that performance will change their lives.
Written in 1896, Chekhov’s tragicomedy of life and art astonished the old century as it heralded the birth of modern drama.  Dreams born and shattered, loves won and lost – The Seagull paints a rich and tumultuous portrait of the human heart.
        Director János Szász, whose lush and cinematic productions (Mother Courage, Marat/Sade, and Uncle Vanya) have made him a favorite with A.R.T. audiences, returns to stage this beautiful and haunting play.
 
 
Endgame
by Samuel Beckett, directed by Marcus Stern
02/14/09–03/15/09 • Loeb Stage
 
“Use your head, can’t you, use your head. You’re on earth, there’s no cure for that!”   — Hamm in Endgame

Spare, enigmatic, and absurdly funny, Endgame is one of the greatest dramas of the modern age.  Both an existential comedy and a domestic tragedy, it charts a day in the life of a family fallen on mysteriously hard times – blind and chair-bound Hamm, his beleaguered servant Clove, his parents Nagg and Nell, who live in two ashbins and long for sugar-plums, and a black toy dog with a missing leg.
        Beckett’s language is pared down to a distilled beauty, and his archetypal characters achieve a poetic grace despite their bizarre condition.  Fifty years after it burst onto the world’s stages, Endgame is as exquisite and surprising as ever.
         The production will feature Remo Airaldi, Thomas Derrah, Will LeBow, and Karen MacDonald, and will be directed by Marcus Stern, who has created some of the A.R.T.’s most compelling shows including Nocturne, Donnie Darko, The Onion Cellar, and Buried Child.
 
 

Trojan Barbie — World Premiere

by Christine Evans, directed by Carmel O’Reilly
03/28/09–04/19/09 • Zero Arrow Stage
 
“There is no life in another country.  You’ll always be a foreigner, stuck on the wrong side of the looking-glass.” — Trojan Barbie
 
         Lotte Jones, a doll repair expert, needs a vacation.  She books herself on a cultural tour for singles and travels with them to modern-day Troy, where she finds more of a change of scene than she’d bargained for – in the midst of an attack by the Greek army threatening to destroy the last fragments of a mighty civilization.
Part contemporary drama, part homage to Euripides’ Trojan Women, Trojan Barbie tells the perpetually moving tale of Priam’s widow, Hecuba, and her defenseless family, recast against the vivid reality of modern warfare.  Poetic, compassionate, and tinged with great warmth and humor, Trojan Barbie is an epic war story with a most unlikely heroine, who always looks on the bright side even as past and present collide about her. 
Carmel O’Reilly, director of Sugan Theatre’s St. Nicholas that A.R.T. presented in 2000, joins the Company for the first time to direct this imaginative work.
           
Romance
by David Mamet, directed by Scott Zigler
05/09/09–05/31/09 • Loeb Stage
 
“A joy…a fiesta of forbidden laughter…a giddy, glorious, bad-taste valentine…. The most skillfully constructed farce since Michael Frayn’s Noises Off.”  — Newsday
 
         It’s hay fever season, and in the courthouse a judge is popping antihistamines like candy.  The case unfolding before him involves a motley bunch of chauvinists and eccentrics, attorneys and clients alike, whose petty prejudices threaten to unravel the legal process.  And then the defendant, who is either a chiropodist or a chiropractor, lands on an ingenious way to bring peace to the Middle East…
If you think you know David Mamet, think again.  This famously terse playwright has reinvented himself as a master of farce.  Romance is a courtroom comedy that takes no prisoners in its quest for total political incorrectness.
        Masterfully wielding the language of the courtroom, David Mamet creates a world in a microcosm in which shameless fawning and sheer caprice hold sway, and the noble apparatus of law and order degenerates into riotous mayhem.  Mamet-veteran Scott Zigler (Copenhagen, The Old Neighborhood, The Cripple of Inishmaan) directs this sublimely vicious comedy.
 
The American Repertory Theatre, founded by Robert Brustein, has been active for many decades as a professional producing organization and theatrical training conservatory.  Now in its 28th year at Harvard University, A.R.T. draws its wide-ranging repertory from new American plays, neglected works from the past, and reexamined classical texts.  Under the joint leadership of Gideon Lester, Acting Artistic Director and Robert J. Orchard, Executive Director, the A.R.T.  has presented one hundred and ninety-two productions, over half of which were premieres, new translations and adaptations. The Company has toured throughout the U.S. as well to Canada, England, France, Israel, Italy, Spain, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Japan, Russia, The Netherlands, Taiwan, and China, among others.   The A.R.T. has been the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the Jujamcyn Award, the Tony Award; and the Best in France Award, and recently was cited as the third best theatre in the country by Time Magazine.

The A.R.T. is offering special early-bird subscription savings before June 15th, and a host of new exclusive benefits for subscribers, including free Zipcar membership, 10% discount on books at the Harvard Coop, free tickets to A.R.T. Institute productions, and free drink coupons for use at the A.R.T. bar; as well as discounts on parking, fine dining, and tickets to other theatres. There are several special series to chose from, including an Under 35 series, an OUT at ART series, a Child-care series, and pre and post performance discussion series. 

To learn more about the A.R.T. season log on to the A.R.T. Website at www.amrep.org or call the A.R.T. InfoLine at (617) 547-8300.  The InfoLine is also available 24 hours a day to provide directions to the theatre; to order brochures, calendars, and newsletters; and to allow direct access to the A.R.T. Box Office (hours are noon to curtain time on performance days, noon to 5 pm on non-performance days, closed on Mondays).
                                                                                                                                                                                          
The Loeb Drama Center, at 64 Brattle Street and Zero Arrow Theatre, on the corner of Arrow Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square, Cambridge are accessible to persons with special needs and to those requiring wheelchair seating or first-floor restrooms.  Deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons can also reach the Theatre by calling the toll-free N.E. Telephone Relay Center at 1-800-439-2370.
                                                                                                                                                                                           
Public transportation and discount parking are available nearby.
 
END