CHAPEL HILL, N.C.: PlayMakers Repertory Company has announced the lineup for its 2016–17 season, the first programmed by producing artistic director Vivienne Benesch. The lineup includes some classics, as well as new plays by Dominique Morisseau and Molly Smith Metzler.
“I couldn’t be more excited about this first season of captivating contemporary plays joined by reimaginings of the iconic classics PlayMakers does so well,” said Benesch in a statement. “These great stories of transformation are designed to engage, delight, and invigorate.”
The season will open with Morisseau’s Detroit ’67 (Sept. 14–Oct. 2). The play follows two siblings during the Detroit race riots in 1967.
Next will be Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (Oct. 19–Nov. 6), which is about the Salem witch trials.
Following will be Metzler’s The May Queen (Nov. 23–Dec. 11), a comedy about a high school reunion.
Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel (Jan. 25–Feb. 12, 2017) will be next. The play is about an African-American seamstress living in New York in 1905.
Shakespeare’s comedy of shipwrecks and mistaken identity, Twelfth Night (March 1–19, 2017).
The season will close with Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s musical My Fair Lady (April 5–29, 2017).
In addition to its mainstage season, PlayMakers will present three shows on its second stage. Brian Mertes’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis (Jan. 11–15, 2017), based on a letter by the playwright; Daniel Beaty’s Mr. Joy (April 26–30), about Harlem denizens who pay tribute to the local Chinese shoe repairman; and a production to be announced (Aug. 24–28) will play on the second stage.
Based on the campus of the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill, PlayMakers Rep produces a mix of reimagined classics and new plays.
