Amy Steiger & April Singer in the original production of Misses Strata.
Photo courtesy The Bard’s Town
Entire contents copyright © 2016 Arts-Louisville. All rights reserved.
Claiming that they, “…held nothing back this year,” Doug Schutte and Scot Atkinson, owners of The Bard’s Town, have released their season announcement for 2016, with the first production opening in just over 30 days, on February 19. A total of 21 new plays are scheduled: 13 full-lengths, including 7 world premieres by members of the Derby City Playwrights, 2 that were world premieres at The Bard’s Town in previous seasons (Misses Strata and The Kings of Christmas), and 4 regional premieres from some of the best playwrights working in America today.
The season includes notable writers such as Samuel D. Hunter, author of A Bright New Boise (produced by this company in 2012), and a recent MacArthur Genius Award Fellow. Lauren Yee is a Susan Smith Blackburn Nominee, Chisa Hutchinson is a 2015 Lanford Wilson Award Winner, and Aaron Posner won the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play.
There also will be some expansion of the run for 4 of the 8 productions, increasing from 2 to 3 weeks.
Curtain time for all shows is 7:30pm and tickets prices are:
Advanced Tickets $16 ($15 for seniors ages 65+, and $14 for students).
At the door: $18/$17/$16
A Permanent Image
by Samuel D. Hunter
February 19-21, 25-27, March 3-5
Samuel D. Hunter is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship, and the 2012 recipient of the Whiting Award for Drama. Bard Theatre is proud to be one of the first companies in the country to produce his A Bright New Boise in 2012.
Siblings Bo and Ally are back in their childhood home in Idaho for the funeral of their father. Their mother Carol has painted the whole house white and is suspected to have been drinking since their father’s death. What Ally and Bo come to find out is that their mother has a method to her madness as she pulls out some home videos of their father just before he died. Called a fusion between realism and the absurd, A Permanent Image is a tense exploration of the distance families put between themselves, and what it takes to bring them back together.
Stupid F@cking Bird
by Aaron Posner
April 8-10, 15-17, and 21-23
An aspiring young director rampages against the art created by his mother’s generation. A nubile young actress wrestles with an aging Hollywood star for the affections of a renowned novelist. And everyone discovers just how disappointing love, art, and growing up can be. In this irreverent, contemporary, and very funny remix of Chekhov’s The Seagull, Aaron Posner stages a timeless battle between young and old, past and present, in search of the true meaning of it all. Original songs composed by James Sugg draw the famously subtextual inner thoughts of Chekhov’s characters explicitly to the surface. Stupid Fucking Bird will tickle, tantalize, and incite you to consider how art, love, and revolution fuel your own pursuit of happiness.
“Aaron Posner’s savvy, petulant blitz through Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull [is] less an adaptation of Chekhov’s landmark drama than a funny, moving slugfest, a ripe mashup of mock and awe…sometimes it blows Chekhov up, and sometimes the play explodes with a genuinely Chekhovian release of emotion. The show is smart enough to have it both ways: It mines The Seagull for classical heft even while giving it the bird.” —Washington Post.
In a Word
by Lauren Yee
May 12-15, 19-22
Winner of the 2011 KCACTF Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, 2011 KCACTF Paul Stephen Lim Asian-American Playwriting Award, 2011NETC John Gassner Playwriting Competition
Today is the two-year anniversary of Fiona’s son’s disappearance, and still, nothing makes sense to her. Not her blasé husband, the incompetent detective, or the neighborhood kidnapper who keeps introducing himself in the checkout line. As Fiona delves back into her memories of that fateful day, to uncover that crucial missing piece, grief and comedy collide, and ordinary turns of phrase take on dangerous new meanings.
“Engrossing… The pieces and performances grow together with an empathetic force and writerly dexterity that explain why [Lauren Yee] is in increasing demand all over the country.” – San Francisco Chronicle
This Is Not The Play
by Chisa Hutchinson
June 9-12, 16-19
Distrust and prejudice abound when a black playwright tries to wrangle a story out of white characters. After an intensely personal confrontation, it looks as though she might be getting somewhere, building a rapport. But then she discovers things about her potential protagonist that make her wary of putting the girl on the stage.
Winner, New York Innovative Theater Award!
Bard’s “By Local Series” with Derby City Playwrights
July 7-24
7 new full-length plays produced in repertory over three weeks by Brian Walker, David Clark, Rachel White, Ben Unwin, Taj Whitesell, Eli Keel & Tyler Curth, and Ben Gierhart & Erin Fitzgerald.
The 6th Annual Ten-Tucky Festival
September 15-18, 22-25
Submissions are still being received up until January 31, and the announcement of the plays for this year’s festival is expected in April.
Misses Strata
by Doug Schutte
October 13-16, 20-23
After it’s World Premiere at Bard Theatre in 2012, Doug Schutte’s adaptation of Aristophanes Lysistrata returns just in time for the 2016 presidential election. As WFPL’s Erin Keane stated, “the genius of Schutte’s script lies in its equal-opportunity offense.” Some familiar faces, some new faces…and some new songs to bring out the ridiculousness that is Washington DC.
The Kings of Christmas
by Doug Schutte
December 8-11, 15-19, 22-23
A Bard Theatre original that only gets more popular each year. “I keep wanting to write a new holiday play,” says Schutte, “but more and more people come to see the Kings each year…and each year we keep adding more performances. So we’ll just keep spreading the cheer. Of course, maybe this will be the year that all of the cast switches roles…I’ve been itching to play Aunt Sylvia.”
