MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.: TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has postponed its mainstage season to October 2021, with eight plays to be presented through August 2022.
“The safety and well-being of our community is of paramount importance, and while the pandemic continues, we understandably must delay in-person performances,” artistic director Tim Bond said in a statement. “We know the day will come when we can once again safely gather together to celebrate the human spirit and share the power of live theatre.”
TheatreWorks will continue to offer virtual performances, talks, and classes until the fall, including three world premieres by Hershey Felder presented this February, March, and May.
The 51st season will kick off with Justin Huertas’s new indie rock musical Lizard Boy, which will run Oct. 6-21. The comic book-inspired tale of identity, acceptance, and saving the world will be directed by Brandon Ivie, and will also be available via streaming.
Additionally, TheatreWorks’s production of It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play will also be offered in-person (Dec. 1-26) and via streaming. Joe Landry’s adaptation of the 1946 holiday film will be directed by TheatreWorks’s artistic associate and director of new works, Giovanna Sardelli.
TheatreWorks will then ring in 2022 with the musical Hershey Felder as Monsieur Chopin, directed by Joel Zwick. Felder will star as Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin telling a romantic story over a piano lesson. The show will run Jan. 19-Feb. 13, 2022.
Following will be Paul Gordon’s musical adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, directed by founding artistic director Robert Kelley. The production follows the 2019 premiere of Gordon’s Pride and Prejudice, which is now available on Amazon Prime Video. Sense and Sensibility will run March 2-27, 2022.
Next up will be August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, directed by Bond. The ninth work in Wilson’s American Century Cycle will run April 5-May 1, 2022.
In May 2022, TheatreWorks will present Queen by Madhuri Shekar. Queen follows two PhD candidates struggling with a moral dilemma as they research global honeybee demise. The play will be directed by Jeffrey Lo.
Following will be the musical Ragtime, written by the late Terrence McNally with music and lyrics by Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens. Kelley will again return to direct Ragtime, which will run June 1-26.
Finally, Sardelli will direct the premiere of Jessica Dickey’s Nan and the Lower Body, which was developed at TheatreWorks’s 2019 New Works Festival. The play, which follows a doctor uncovering his new assistant’s hidden secret, will run July 13-Aug. 7, 2022.
TheatreWorks is a Palo Alto-based company that has been producing new works since 1970.
