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"Le Switch" by Philip Dawkins, at New Conservatory Theatre Center in 2017.

New Conservatory Announces 2018-19 Season

The San Francisco theatre’s season will include a parody, a tragicomedy, the return of an audience favorite, and more.

SAN FRANCISCO: New Conservatory Theatre Center has announced the 2018-19 season, featuring seven productions.

“This season, NCTC once again serves up a smorgasbord of enticing offerings for our LGBT and allied audiences—musicals and plays with both historical relevance and contemporary urgency,” said founding artistic director Ed Decker in a statement. “Whether you’re looking for escape from the daily slog, a challenge to the status quo, or simply a deeper understanding of our shared humanity, you are sure to find it here.”

The season will open with Red Scare on Sunset (Sept. 21-Oct. 21), by Charles Busch, a parody about a 1950s movie star who must confront her husband’s involvement with the Communist Party.

Next up will be Hansol Jung’s Cardboard Piano (Oct. 26-Dec. 2), about the daughter of an American missionary who travels to Northern Uganda in 1999 and falls in love with a local teenage girl.

Following will be the return of Avenue Q (Nov. 30-Jan. 6, 2019), with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, and book by Jeff Whitty, about a puppet who moves to a street in New York City inhabited by colorful, foul-mouthed characters.

Next will be Late Company (Jan. 18-Feb. 26, 2019), by Jordan Tannahill, a family drama that examines the consequences of bullying in the digital age.

The season will continue with Mark Gerrard’s Steve (March 1-31, 2019), a tragicomedy about a man questioning what comes after his “happily ever after” when his husband starts sexting another man and his best friend battles an illness.

Next will be The Gentleman Caller (April 5-May 5, 2019), by Philip Dawkins, about a shared evening between aspiring playwrights Tennessee Williams and William Inge.

The season will conclude with Max Vernon’s The View Upstairs (May 10-June 9, 2019), with orchestrations by James Dobinson, a glam-rock, pop, and gospel inspired musical about the history of a dilapidated building in the French Quarter of New Orleans that was once the UpStairs Lounge in 1973.

New Conservatory Theatre Center, founded in 1981, is committed to producing innovative theatre, and serving  youth and the queer and allied communities with its programming.

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