ADV – Leaderboard

"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, at Actor's Express in Atlanta in 2017. (Photo by Christopher Bartelski)

Actor’s Express Announces 2017-18 Season

The lineup will include Lucas Hnath, Hansol Jung, Tony Kushner, and Daryl Lisa Fazio.

ATLANTA: Actor’s Express has announced its 2017-18 season, featuring six productions and a cabaret series.

“The new season at Actor’s Express reflects our commitment to present work that speaks to the needs, desires and issues facing our community and our world,” said artistic director Freddie Ashley in a statement. “We seized upon the opportunity to drill down and examine the values we feel need to be protected and celebrated. The result of a months-long process, we believe this season will entertain, enlighten, provoke and—most importantly—offer the opportunity for audiences to lean in together.”

The season will kick off with Lucas Hnath’s The Christians (Sept. 16-Oct. 15), about a minister whose congregation begins to crumble after he delivers a provocative sermon. Ashley will direct.

Next up will be Hansol Jung’s Cardboard Piano (Nov. 11-Dec. 3), about two girls—one, a Ugandan villager and the other, the daughter of American missionaries—who sneak into the local church in northern Uganda to hold a makeshift wedding for themselves in 1999. Karen Robinson will direct.

Running in repertory will be Angels in America Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika (Jan. 13-Feb. 11, 2018), by Tony Kushner, an examination of how history impacts individual lives during the AIDS crisis and a time of intense social change. Ashley and Martin Damien Wilkins will codirect.

Following will be the world premiere of Daryl Lisa Fazio’s The Flower Room (April 21-May 13, 2018), about an uptight academic who loses her university job and turns to writing erotica to pay the bills. Melissa Foulger will direct.

Next will be a musical (June 16-July, 2018), which is yet to be announced.

The programming will also include the return of Libby’s at the Express (Dec. 2017 and May 17-20, 2018), a cabaret series led by Libby Whittemore.

Actor’s Express, founded in 1988, develops and produces new works and contemporary plays.

Support American Theatre: a just and thriving theatre ecology begins with information for all. Please join us in this mission by making a donation to our publisher, Theatre Communications Group. When you support American Theatre magazine and TCG, you support a long legacy of quality nonprofit arts journalism. Click here to make your fully tax-deductible donation today!

ADV – Billboard