CTG/MARK TAPER FORUM’S 2009 SEASON IS ANNOUNCED

42nd Season Set for Newly Renovated Theatre

Includes Six Productions – Two Musicals, Three Dramas and a Dark Comedy: The CTG/Deaf West Theatre Co-Production of “Pippin” and the Donmar Warehouse Production of “Parade”; “Lydia,” “Uncle Vanya,” “Palestine, New Mexico”; and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore”

Season Begins January 15, 2009, and Continues Through January 24, 2010

Michael Ritchie, Artistic Director of Center Theatre Group, has set the 2009 season at the award-winning, newly renovated Mark Taper Forum of the Los Angeles Music Center. The new season, which features six productions, will run from January 15, 2009, through January 24, 2010.

Featuring an eclectic mix of highly theatrical productions, the 42nd season at the Mark Taper Forum will include two musicals – the CTG/Deaf West Theatre co-production of “Pippin” and the Donmar Warehouse production of “Parade”; three dramas – the world premiere of “Palestine, New Mexico” written by Richard Montoya for Culture Clash, “Lydia,” the new drama by Octavio Solis, and the Chekhov masterpiece “Uncle Vanya”; and Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy – “The Lieutenant of Inishmore.”

“After the Taper’s yearlong $30 million renovation, this new season is a great way to welcome back our audiences,” said Ritchie. “All of the upgrades to the Taper were about bringing the theatre into the 21st century, about making it more audience- and artist-friendly, about removing limitations. This new season speaks to the limitless variety of theatrical work that can and will be presented in this rejuvenated space.

“Each of the plays and each of the musicals are distinct in their own way.  You’ll experience it all – from the exquisite artistry that Deaf West Theatre brings to a musical to the in-your-face humor of playwright Martin McDonagh, from a timeless Chekhovian  play that is grounded so perfectly in its understanding of human nature to a new family drama by Octavio Solis that has a hint of otherworldliness, and finally, two very different looks at America, one – the musical “Parade” – speaks of an unsettling event in the previous century while Richard Montoya’s new drama is very much of this century and the questions and challenges Americans are facing today.”

“And while our audiences are enjoying their comfortable new seats, their beautiful new surroundings and a spacious new lounge,” said Ritchie, “our actors, directors and designers will now be able to perform their magic so much more easily.  It’s a great new beginning for us all.”

The 2009 season will be the first full subscription season in the new Taper.  The Taper actually re-opens this summer with John Guare’s “The House of Blue Leaves,” which is the third production of the Taper’s current season (two 2007-2008 Taper season plays were presented at the CTG/Ahmanson Theatre while the Taper was closed for renovation).  “The House of Blue Leaves” begins previews August 30, opens September 14 and runs through October 19.  The final production of the 2007-2008 season is the American premiere of a political thriller set in the 16th century, “The School of Night” by Peter Whelan, October 30 through December 17 (opening night is November 9). 

Beginning with the 2009 season, the Taper’s subscription seasons move to a January to January “calendar year” schedule for the first time since 1973. 

“Pippin”

A magical musical comedy and the artful expression of sign language are brought together in CTG and Deaf West Theatre’s production of “Pippin” for the opening production of the Taper’s 2009 season, January 15 through March 15, 2009.  Opening is January 25.

With book by Roger O. Hirson and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, “Pippin” will be directed and choreographed by Jeff Calhoun, who was at the helm of two previous, highly successful CTG and Deaf West co-productions, “Big River” and “Sleeping Beauty Wakes.”

“Pippin” is the captivating coming of age story about a young man’s search for meaning in his life, as told by a lively band of troubadors in the Roman empire. The episodic quest of Pippin, the son of the powerful Charlemagne, takes him through battlefields, orgies, revolution, and finally, love and domesticity, as he tries to find a place for his “spirit to run free,” for his “corner of the sky.”

By interweaving music, voice, American Sign Language and dance, and combining powerful storytelling techniques from both hearing and deaf cultures, Deaf West has created a uniquely theatrical genre for a number of productions including “Oliver!,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Open Window.”

CTG and Deaf West first paired up in 2002 with the presentation of Deaf West’s award-winning production of “Big River” at the Taper, which was subsequently presented for an extended run on Broadway, where the cast received Tony Award Honors for Excellence in the Theatre and the production was nominated for Best Revival – Musical.  “Big River” traveled to Japan and had two national tours, returning to Los Angeles in 2004 and presented by CTG at the Ahmanson Theatre. In April 2007, CTG and Deaf West collaborated on the world premiere of the musical “Sleeping Beauty Wakes” at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and the production won the Ovation Award for World Premiere Musical.

When “Pippin” was first presented on Broadway in 1972, the musical won five Tony Awards and was nominated for 11.

Stephen Schwartz has received Tony Award nominations for his work on the current Broadway hit “Wicked,” and for “Pippin,” “Godspell,” “Working” and “Rags,” while Roger O. Hirson has received two Tony Award nominations (“Pippin” and “Walking Happy”) and an Emmy nomination fro his work on the TV series “The Adams Chronicles.”

“Lydia”

“Lydia,” a powerful and passionate new play, will be presented as the second production of the Taper’s 2009 season, April 2 through May 17, 2009.  Opening is

April 15.

Written by Octavio Solis and directed by Juliette Carrillo, “Lydia” portrays with a deep, emotional impact the lies and secrets that both bind a family together and create heartbreaking fissures.

In the Texas border town of El Paso during the 1970s, a Mexican American family struggles with the aftermath of an accident that has injured the beloved young daughter, Ceci, and has deeply affected her mother, father and two brothers.  Into this environment comes the mysterious Lydia, a sexy, confident young woman who has been hired as a caregiver. 

Lydia forms an immediate, almost miraculous bond with Ceci and brings new energy into the house, transforming everyone in it, but also unleashing demons that challenge the family even further.

When “Lydia” had its world premiere at the Denver Center Theatre Company in January of this year, John Moore of the The Denver Post said that Solis’ story is 

“. . . rich in imagery. . . an astonishing, expertly crafted tragedy that seduces . . . It tempts you with its pulsing rhythms and evocative language until it has you fully under its spell.”  Mark Collins of the Daily Camera said, “Like Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and August Wilson before him, Octavio Solis has penned a great American family drama.”

The prolific and award-winning playwright and director Solis lives in San Francisco.  His work such as “Man of the Flesh,” “Prospect,” “El Paso Blue,” “Santos & Santos,” “La Posada Magíca,” “El Otro,” “Dreamlandia,” “The 7 Visions of Encarnacion,” “Bethlehem” and “Gibraltar,” among others, has been produced at theatres all across the country. 

“Uncle Vanya”

“Uncla Vanya,” Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece of hope and longing, will be the third production of the Taper’s 42nd season, May 28 through July 12, 2009.  Opening is June 7.

Filled with Chekhov’s subtle blend of comedy, tragedy and psychological insight, “Uncle Vanya” takes place at the turn of the 20th century on a provincial Russian estate where Uncle Vanya and his niece, Sonya, have spent their lives working tirelessly.  Both have lived frugally and have kept their emotions tightly reined but when they are visited by Sonya’s father and his beautiful second wife, Yelena, their lives begin to implode.

Vanya falls hopelessly in love with Yelena, while Sonya becomes infatuated with Astrov, the local doctor, who, in turn, develops a reciprocal attraction with Yelena. The house becomes a cauldron of sexual tension as the battles to win love and to find value in the mere act of living are waged with a certain desperation and futility.

“The roles of Vanya, Sonya, Yelena, Astrov and the other characters in ‘Uncle Yanva’ are some of the most sought after roles in the theatre,” said Ritchie.  “We will be announcing within a few months a remarkable cast for this seminal play.”

“The Lieutenant of Inishmore”

A strikingly original black comedy, “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” by Academy Award-winning, Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated Martin McDonagh will be the fourth production of the Taper’s 2009 season, July 23 through September 6.  Opening is August 2.

“The Lieutenant of Inishmore” will be directed by Wilson Milam, who received a Tony Award nomination for his work on the 2006 Broadway production.

A blistering, graphic satire on violence, the play is set in 1993 on the rocky island of Inishmore in County Galway. Padraic, a hard-boiled terrorist considered too angry for the IRA, has been away in Northern Ireland with his busy schedule of torture and assorted Nationalist mayhem, but he is lured home to Inishmore by the news that his beloved cat, Wee Thomas, is doing poorly.

When Padraic finds out Wee Thomas has been murdered, he initiates a cycle of  revenge-killing that threatens everyone in his path, but perhaps not the lovestruck Mairead, a 16-year-old terrorist groupie with a BB gun.

When “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” was presented in 2006 at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York, Ben Brantley of The New York Times said that the play is “. . . brazenly and unapologetically a farce, but it is also a severely moral play, translating into dizzy absurdism the self-perpetuating spirals of political violence that now occur throughout the world . . . [it is] directed with a steady gaze and acute theatrical instinct by Wilson Milam.”  Michael Billington of The Guardian remarked of the earlier London production, “. . . a boldly brilliant play about the way rigid adherence to a cause destroys a sense of proportion … Like all first-rate satire, the play attacks excess and endorses reason.”

Martin McDonagh received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play for “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” in 2006. His play “The Pillowman” won the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2004 and was nominated for a Tony Award in 2005, and he also received Tony Award nominations for “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” (1998) and “The Lonesome West” (1999).  In 2006 he won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for “Six Shooter,” which he also directed. His first feature film, “In Bruges,” was the opening night film for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

“Parade”

A shameful event in American history and a poignant love story are at the heart of the fifth production in the Taper’s 42nd season. Center Theatre Group presents the acclaimed Donmar Warehouse production of the powerful and engrossing musical “Parade,” September 24 through November 15, 2009.  Opening is October 4.

“Parade,” with book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, was co-conceived by Harold Prince, and is directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winning choreographer Rob Ashford.

Both Uhry and Brown won 1999 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, respectively, when the musical was first produced in 1998 at the Lincoln Center Theater, where it received a total of nine Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical.

The Donmar Warehouse production, which opened in London in September 2007 with Ashford in his directorial debut, received seven 2008 Olivier Award nominations, including Best New Musical, Best Theatre Choreographer and Best Director.  The Taper presentation will be the first time that the Donmar production will be seen in America.

In “Parade” the true story of the arrest, conviction and lynching of Leo Frank in post-Civil War Atlanta, Georgia, is recounted. Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old factory worker, has been murdered on the day of the 1913 Confederate Memorial Day parade. Frank, the factory’s superintendent and a Jewish outsider, is immediately cast as a suspect.

As the media frenzy ensues, with journalists thirsting for news to boost circulations and ambitious politicians seeking votes, Frank – the transplanted Yankee –  becomes the scapegoat. His wife, Lucille, passionately works for her husband’s release from jail but public hatred continues to rise to a fever pitch.

Although justice is eventually thwarted and prejudice prevails, Leo and Lucille find a renewed commitment to each other as well as a moment of transcendent grace in their tragedy.

“I cannot remember when the narrative and plotting of a musical has kept me engaged, let alone, gripped . . . ‘Parade’ makes a devastating, emotional show,”  Nicholas de Jongh of The Evening Standard said of the Donmar Warehouse production.  Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph also remarked, “Here at last comes an original musical of real substance.”

Alfred Uhry has the distinction of being the only American writer who has won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama (for “Driving Miss Daisy”), an Academy Award (for the adapted screenplay of “Driving Miss Daisy”) and two Tony Awards (the play “The Last Night of Ballyhoo” and the book for “Parade”). His play “Without Walls” received its West Coast premiere at the Taper in 2006, and the musical “The Robber Bridegroom,” for which he wrote the book and lyrics, played at the Taper in 1976.

In addition to his Tony Award for “Parade,” Jason Robert Brown also received a Tony Award nomination for his contributions to the score of “Urban Cowboy, The Musical.” “The Last Five Years,” for which Brown was the composer and lyricist, was cited by Time Magazine as one of the Ten Best of 2001, also winning Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics.  The world premiere of the musical “13,” for which Brown wrote the music and lyrics, was presented in the Taper’s 2006-2007 season and will seen on Broadway in the fall.

The Donmar Warehouse, a non-profit theatre under the artistic directorship of Michael Grandage, is located in London’s West End and has a reputation as one of the UK’s leading producing theatres. Donmar-generated productions have received 30 Olivier Awards, 15 Critics’ Circle Awards, 15 Evening Standard Awards and 13 Tony Awards for nine Broadway productions. The Donmar Warehouse production of “Mary Stuart” with Janet McTeer and Harriet Walter transfers to Broadway next spring, and a tour of Michael Grandage’s production of “Frost/Nixon” begins a tour across the United States in September, playing at the CTG/Ahmanson Theatre March 11 through 29, 2009.

“Palestine, New Mexico”

Modern military spin and ancient mysticism collide in the world premiere of “Palestine, New Mexico,” a riveting new drama written by Richard Montoya for Culture Clash.  The final play of the Taper subscription season, “Palestine, New Mexico” will be directed by Lisa Peterson, with performances beginning December 3, 2009, and running through January 24, 2010. Opening is December 13.

Set on an American Indian reservation in the Southwest, “Palestine, New Mexico” follows the fate of Army Captain Siler who has returned from Iraq with a secret she just can’t keep.  Determined to set the record straight about the “friendly-fire” death of the tribal chief’s son, she discovers she is considered a dangerous outsider rather than a messenger of truth.  In the battle to tell her story she unleashes far more history than anyone wanted to hear, or tell.

“Palestine, New Mexico” weaves comedy and pathos into a poetic tale of loss and discovery that spans centuries and explores the meaning of right, wrong, fact, fiction, religion, family, tribes and homeland.

“Palestine, New Mexico” is the fifth Culture Clash project produced by Center Theatre Group.  Previously, the Taper has presented Culture Clash’s “Water & Power” (world premiere), “Chavez Ravine” (world premiere), “Carpa Clash” and “Culture Clash in Bordertown.”

Since 1984, Culture Clash – Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza – has continually redefined the boundaries of theatre and broken down the divisions between cultures.  Culture Clash has performed all over the country at major resident theatres and performing arts centers, and, for television, wrote, executive-produced and starred in 30 episodes of the first ever Latino-themed sketch comedy show, “Culture Clash the T.V. Show” for Fox Broadcasting.

Tickets Currently Only Available as Part of a Season Ticket Package. Tickets for the Taper’s new season are currently available by subscription only.  For information and to charge season tickets by phone, call Audience Services at (213) 972-4444.  To purchase online, visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.

For information regarding audio description and sign language interpreted performances, call TDD/Voice (213) 680-4017.

Center Theatre Group, a non-profit theatre arts organization, is one of the largest and most active theatre companies in the nation, programming seasons year-round at the 740-seat Mark Taper Forum and the 1,600 to 2,000-seat Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center of Los Angeles, and the 317-seat Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.

Mark Taper Forum 2009 Season

First Season Production                                             _

January 15 – March 15, 2009                        

“Pippin”                                     (Opening January 25.)   A co-production with Deaf West Theatre                     Book by Roger O. Hirson

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Directed and Choreographed by Jeff Calhoun

Second Season Production                                         

April 2 – May 17, 2009                                               “Lydia”                                       (Opening April 15.)

by Octavio Solis

Directed by Juliette Carrillo

Third Season Production                                           

May 28 – July 12, 2009                                              “Uncle Vanya”                             (Opening June 7.)     by Anton Chekhov

Fourth Season Production                                         

July 23 – September 6, 2009                         

“The Lieutenant of Inishmore”    (Opening August 2.)    

by Martin McDonagh

Directed by Wilson Milam

Fifth Season Production                                             

September 24 – November 15, 2009            

“Parade”                                      (Opening October 4.) 

The Donmar Warehouse Production

Book by Alfred Uhry

Music and Lyrics by Jason Robert Brown

Co-conceived by Harold Prince

Directed and Choreographed by Rob Ashford

Sixth Season Production                                          _

December 3, 2009 – January 24, 2010                “Palestine, New Mexico”      (Opening December 13.) 

by Richard Montoya for Culture Clash

Directed by Lisa Peterson

World Premiere

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