NAPLES, FLA.: Gulfshore Playhouse has announced its 2016–17 season, featuring a new works festival, comedies, musicals, and contemporary dramas.
“From a 10-person version of one of the world’s most beloved musicals, to a one-woman show with a woman who plays many parts, to a three-person version of one of our favorite Sherlock Holmes mysteries, to a small, raw, many-hatted version of our first Shakespeare—this is truly ‘the year of the actor,’” said founding artistic director Kristen Coury in a statement.
The season will begin with the annual News Works Festival (Sept. 8–11), a week-long festival culminating in four public readings.
Next will be Nick Payne’s Constellations (Oct. 8–30), about a relationship that unfolds across space and time, exploring all the paths not taken and the possibilities of life.
Following will be My Fair Lady (Nov. 12 –Dec. 11), with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Lowe, a musical about a linguistics professor who sets out to transform a stubborn flower girl into the picture of high society. The 10-person musical is an adaptation of Shaw’s Pygmalion.
The season will continue with the world premiere of Do This! (Jan 7–29, 2017), by Karen Siff Exkorn, about one woman’s journey through parenthood while confronting a legal battle and a life-changing diagnosis.
Following will be The Hound of the Baskervilles (Feb. 11–March 12, 2017), adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a comedic telling of the mystery of a slew of gruesome murders through generations of the Baskerville family.
Next up will be Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (March 25–April 15, 2017), about a challenge to win the heart of the wealthy heiress of Belmont. Coury will direct.
The season will conclude with Lucas Hnath’s The Christians (April 29–May 21, 2017), about a pastor who shakes the foundation of the church when he delivers a controversial sermon.
Founded in 2004, Gulfshore Playhouse brings theatre to Naples, in addition to community events and educational programming.
