NORFOLK, VA.: Virginia Stage Company (VSC) has announced its 2021 season, its 42nd, titled “A Season Like No Other,” featuring a combination of streaming and live performances designed with audience safety in mind.
“We are taking this moment to break down the traditional barriers of theatre collaboration with our fellow theatres across the country as well as our partners in the 757,” said producing artistic director Tom Quaintance in a statement. “Our aim is to elevate our fellow artists and community members to ensure that we all not only survive this year, but thrive in the future.”
The season has opened with the live staged reading of August Wilson’s How I Learned What I Learned (through April 25), a one-man show featuring Anthony Mark Stockard as August Wilson. Produced in partnership with Norfolk State University Theatre Company and Virginia Arts Festival, the production will take place at the arts festival’s new outdoor venue, Bank Street Stage, in downtown Norfolk.
Next up will be a member-exclusive production of Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise (May 18-23), performed on the deck of the USS Wisconsin. The production, which will be open to the public on the mainstage in the fall, tells the story of the unlikely romance between a military doctor and a Broadway chorus performer during World War II.
During May weekends, VSC’s Public Works Virginia will tour public parks, outdoor venues, and the Wells Theatres performing Ryan Clemens’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors. Steve Pacek will direct.
The season will continue in the fall with Dear Jack, Dear Louise running in rep with Hold These Truths (Oct. 17-Nov. 7), by Jeanne Sakata. The latter play follows the 50-year journey of Gordon Hirabayashi, who refused to report to a relocation camp with other families of Japanese descent during World War II and eventually received a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his stand against Japanese American internment.
The rest of 2021 will see VSC launching We Put Artists to Work, an initiative aimed at getting VSC artists and gig workers back to work. The lineup for these productions includes a monthly streamed piano concert called Bart’s Old-Fashioned Piano Party at the Zieders American Dream Theater, a virtual performance featuring the cast of Sense and Sensibility called Something Delightful, and more. More information on this program is available on VSC’s website.
Virginia Stage Company, founded in 1968, is southeastern Virginia’s leading professional nonprofit resident theatre, with a commitment to producing new work and engaging with the community.
