WALNUT CREEK, CALIF.: Center REPertory Company has announced its 2018-19 season, featuring six productions.
“This season we’re telling stories of unique individuals, some powerful, some quirky and endearing, some uplifting, that celebrate the power of the human imagination,” said artistic director Michael Butler in a statement. “What all the plays have in common is the promise of human potential, sometimes realized, sometimes cut short, sometimes in hiding and needing to be coaxed out.”
The season will kick off with a musical (Aug. 31-Oct. 7), to be announced at a later date. Robyn Tribuzzi will choreograph, Brandon Adams will provide music direction, and Marc Jacobs will direct.
Next up will be Mark St. Germain’s Dancing Lessons (Oct. 19-Nov. 17), a romantic comedy about a professional dancer with a leg injury who teaches a science professor with Asperger’s Syndrome how to dance. Joy Carlin will direct.
Just in time for the holidays will be A Christmas Carol (Dec. 6-16), adapted by Cynthia Caywood and Richard L. James from Charles Dickens, about Ebenezer Scrooge’s journey to find the true spirit of Christmas.
The new year will begin with Alan Ayckbourn’s Communicating Doors (Jan. 25-Feb. 23, 2019), a comedic thriller about three women using a set of decade-jumping doors to change their fates and stop a murderer. Butler will direct.
Following will be The Diary of Anne Frank (March 29-April 28, 2019), by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and adapted by Wendy Kesselman from Anne Frank, which chronicles Anne’s tale of hopes as she hides from the Nazis in a concealed storage closet in Amsterdam. Timothy Near will direct.
The season will conclude with Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie (May 17-June 23, 2019), devised by David M. Lutken and Nick Corley with Darcie Deaville, Helen J. Russell, and Andy Teirstein, a musical portrait about the life and career of Woody Guthrie. Lutken will provide music direction, and Nick Corley will direct.
Founded in 1968, Center REP is the resident professional theatre company of the Lesher Center for the Arts.
