SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY FINALIZES
THE 2013-2014 SEASON
Additions Include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Presentations of Mies Julie and Mikhail Baryshnikov in Man in a Case
The Shakespeare Theatre Company has announced the addition of a sixth mainstage production, plus two intriguing presentations to complete the 2013-2014 Season. The Stephen Sondheim musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum will round out the mainstage season while South Africa’s Mies Julie and Baryshnikov Productions’ Man in a Case will both be part of the STC Presents Series.
STC Associate Director Alan Paul will make his STC mainstage directing debut with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which will complete the previously announced season. Featuring one of Sondheim’s most popular scores, the musical will run in Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW) from November 21, 2013-January 5, 2014. “I am tremendously excited to make my STC mainstage debut with Forum,” says Paul. “This musical has a dynamite score and a ton of laughs, and I can’t wait to share the fun with D.C. audiences next fall. Forum elicits the kind of pure joy that only a classic musical comedy can.”
The Importance of Being Earnest will now be produced starting in January 2014 at the Company’s Lansburgh Theatre.
Mies Julie, a production from The Baxter Theatre Centre at the University of Cape Town in Association with South African Theatre Association, received huge critical acclaim when it played at St. Ann’s Warehouse in New York. Based on August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, the production was hailed as “stunning, the temperature never stops rising” by The New York Times. The play enjoyed a sell-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland and garnered a string of prestigious awards and accolades during its international tour.
Mies Julie will play at STC’s Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th Street NW) from November 9-24, 2013
On the heels of Mies Julie, Baryshnikov Productions brings Chekhov’s Man in a Case, starring Mikhail Baryshnikov, to STC. Currently playing at Connecticut’s Hartford Stage (through March 24) where it is receiving rave reviews, Man in a Case will take the stage at the Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th Street NW) from December 5-22, 2013. The production fuses together theatre, dance, music and video from Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, the team behind the internationally acclaimed Big Dance Theater.
Both Mies Julie and Man in a Case will be part of the STC Presents Series. “I’m very pleased to bring both of these plays to Washington; they are going to give D.C. audiences an experience that they are not going to get otherwise,” says STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn. “I’m excited about Mies Julie because it’s simply a tremendously, visceral thrilling production of the play. The adaptation, which is done by an extremely interesting young director/writer Yael Farber, really encapsulates South Africa and the volatility of South Africa at the moment. Regarding Man in a Case, I’m a great admirer of Baryshnikov and I have been so interested in the fact that he has been choosing theatre pieces over the last several years. Aside from the artistry and the actors in Man in a Case, it’s a terrific example of what is happening in theatre all around the world right now in terms of the use of video, spoken word, movement. It’s unlike anything that we’ve seen in Washington.”
ABOUT THE SIXTH MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION
The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
November 21, 2013-January 5, 2014
Sidney Harman Hall (610 F Street NW)
Based on the plays of Plautus, ancient Roman slave Pseudolus schemes to win his freedom by helping his young master Hero win the beautiful courtesan Philia who is betrothed another. Slamming doors, mistaken identities and satirical comment on social class highlight this bawdy musical, the winner of five Tony Awards®.
ABOUT THE PRESENTATIONS
The Baxter Theatre Centre at the University of Cape Town in association with South African State Theatre production of
Mies Julie
November 9-24, 2013
Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th Street NW)
In the humid kitchen of a remote South African estate 18 years post-apartheid, a brutal and tender night unfolds among a black farm laborer, his “master’s” daughter and the woman who has raised them both. The duality of contemporary South Africa is revealed as a deadly attraction spirals out of control over power, sexuality, mothers and the land. Haunting and violent, intimate and heartbreaking, Mies Julie lays bare questions of what restitution and freedom can really mean and what losses can and cannot ever be recovered.
Baryshnikov Productions
in association with ArKtype/Thomas O. Kriegsmann presents
Man in a Case
December 5-22, 2013
Lansburgh Theatre (450 7th Street NW)
In Chekhov’s brilliant tale of humor and despair, a pair of hunters talk late into the night sharing stories: one of an anti-social man and his involvement with an aggressively extroverted woman. The second, a tale of moral ambiguity in which the protagonist forgoes his love for a married woman. Drawing from surveillance footage, folk dance and instructional hunting videos, Man in a Case creates a bridge between our time and that of 19th-century anti-love stories. Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar, the team behind the internationally acclaimed Big Dance Theater, bring their signature style to this world premiere adaptation featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Support for STC’s International Presentations has been generously provided by Dr. Paul Carter and Mrs. Rose Carter.
TICKETING
Tickets are currently only available to 2013-2014 Season subscribers and donors. Tickets will be released to the general public at the end of July. Please note, performances and dates are subject to change. For subscriptions, tickets and more information, patrons may call 202.547.1122 or visit ShakespeareTheatre.org
ABOUT THE SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY
Recipient of the 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award®, the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) has become one of the nation’s leading theatre companies. Today, STC is synonymous with artistic excellence and making classical theatre more accessible.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Kahn and Managing Director Chris Jennings, STC’s innovative approach to Shakespeare and other classic playwrights has earned it the reputation as the nation’s premier classical theatre company. By focusing on works with profound themes, complex characters and poetic language written by Shakespeare, his contemporaries and the playwrights he influenced, the Company’s artistic mission is unique among theatre companies: to present theatre of scope and size in an imaginative, skillful and accessible American style that honors the playwrights’ language and intentions while viewing their work through a 21st-century lens.
A leader in arts education, STC has a stable of initiatives that teach and excite learners of all ages, from school programs and acting classes to discussion series as well as accessible programs like the annual Free For All, one of STC’s most beloved annual traditions, allowing audiences to experience Shakespeare at no charge.
Located in our nation’s capital, STC performs in two theatres, the Lansburgh Theatre and Sidney Harman Hall in downtown Washington, D.C., creating a dynamic, cultural hub of activity that showcases STC as well as outstanding local performing arts groups and nationally renowned organizations. STC moved into the 451-seat Lansburgh Theatre in March 1992, after six years in residency in the Folger Library’s Elizabethan theatre. At that time the Penn Quarter neighborhood was not considered desirable by many; since then, STC has helped drive its revitalization. The 774-seat Sidney Harman Hall opened in October 2007.
THE 2013-2014 STC MAINSTAGE SEASON
Free For All – Much Ado About Nothing
by William Shakespeare
directed by Jenny Lord
originally directed by Ethan McSweeny
August 20-September 1, 2013
Sidney Harman Hall
Measure for Measure
by William Shakespeare
directed by Jonathan Munby
September 12-October 27, 2013
Lansburgh Theatre
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
originally produced on Broadway by Harold S. Prince
directed by Alan Paul
November 21, 2013-January 5, 2014
Sidney Harman Hall
The Importance of Being Earnest
by Oscar Wilde
directed by Keith Baxter
January 16-March 9, 2014
Lansburgh Theatre
Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2
by William Shakespeare
directed by Michael Kahn
March 25-June 8, 2014
Sidney Harman Hall
Private Lives
by Noël Coward
directed by Maria Aitken
May 29-July 13, 2014
Lansburgh Theatre
STC PRESENTS SERIES
The Baxter Theatre Centre at the University of Cape Town
in association with South African State Theatre production of
Mies Julie
written and directed by Yael Farber
based on Miss Julie by August Strindberg
November 9-24, 2013
Lansburgh Theatre
Baryshnikov Productions
in association with ArKtype/Thomas O. Kriegsmann presents
Man in a Case
adapted and directed by Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar/Big Dance Theater
adapted from the story by Anton Chekhov
December 5-22, 2013
**Lansburgh Theatre Plays, artists and dates are subject to change.
