Round House Theatre and Producing Artistic Director Ryan Rilette are thrilled to announce the company’s 2015-2016 season. The diverse new season includes one world premiere, four regional premieres by contemporary master playwrights, and an American classic. In line with its commitment to lifelong learning, Round House will also present an international stage combat workshop led by an all-female faculty and the 14th Annual Sarah Metzger Memorial Play performed by the Round House Teen Performance Company. Please see below for complete program details and subscription information.
“This new season is one of the most exciting and ambitious in our history,” says Rilette. “Our goal was to find six plays that highlight what Round House does best: outstanding ensemble acting. These are big, juicy stories that demand our actors to honestly and ferociously attack them. There truly is something for everyone this season.”
Round House begins its 2015-2016 season with the world premiere of Ironbound by Martyna Majok (Sept. 9 – Oct. 4, 2015), presented as part of the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival.
The season continues with The Night Alive by Conor McPherson (Oct. 21 – Nov. 15, 2015) and Stage Kiss by Sarah Ruhl (Dec. 2 – 27, 2015).
Next, Round House presents Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks (Jan. 27 – Feb. 21) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning American classic Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (March 30 – April 24).
The season ends with The Who & The What by 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akthar (May 25 – June 19, 2016).
In addition to the six mainstage productions of the 2015-2016 subscription season, Round House will present two special events. Belle of the Brawl (October 22 – 26, 2015) in partnership with Tooth & Claw Arts, is a four-day international stage combat workshop led by an all-female faculty and presented as part of the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival.
From March 11 to 13, 2015, the Round House Teen Performance Company will present the 14th Annual Sarah Metzger Memorial Play, Good Kids by Naomi Iizuka.
2015-2016 CALENDAR INFORMATION
Ironbound
WORLD PREMIERE
By Martyna Majok
Directed by Daniella Topol
September 9 – October 4, 2015
Presented as part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival
Winner, National New Play Network Smith Prize
Winner, David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize
Polish immigrant Darja gives her cheating boyfriend a long-deserved tongue-lashing. She’s done talking about feelings; it’s time to talk money. Over the course of three relationships spanning 22 years, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both. From rising star Martyna Majok comes a new tale of strength and discovery.
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The Night Alive
REGIONAL PREMIERE
By Conor McPherson
Directed by Ryan Rilette
Featuring Ed Gero & Katie deBuys
October 21 – November 15, 2015
***** Time Out NY, The Independent, Whatsonstage
**** Time Out London, Financial Times, Sunday Express
Tommy is getting by. He is crashing in his uncle’s ramshackle house in Dublin, dodging his estranged family, and plotting a parade of get-rich-quick schemes with his buddy Doc. Then one day he defends a destitute woman against a violent attack, and a fragile glimmer of hope appears as Tommy tends to her in his run-down room. From the author of The Weir, Shining City and The Seafarer comes this compelling new play—by turns funny and frightening, but always deeply human.
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Stage Kiss
REGIONAL PREMIERE
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Aaron Posner
December 2 – December 27, 2015
“Suffused with warmth and humor. Sarah Ruhl frothily whips together romantic comedy and backstage farce in this lively comedy” — The New York Times
Art imitates Life. Life imitates Art. When two actors with a history are thrown together as romantic leads in a forgotten 1930s melodrama, they quickly lose touch with reality as the story onstage follows them offstage. Sarah Ruhl’s singular voice returns to Round House with Stage Kiss, a charming tale about what happens when lovers share a stage kiss—or when actors share a real one.
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Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
REGIONAL PREMIERE
By Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Timothy Douglas
January 27 – February 21, 2016
“The best new play I’ve seen all year… the finest work yet from this gifted writer!” — The New York Times
“Thrilling! A masterpiece.” — New York Magazine
Set during the Civil War, this explosively powerful new drama by Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks (Topdog/Underdog) follows a slave, Hero, from West Texas to the Confederate battlefield. Inspired in part by the stories and scope of Greek tragedy, this trilogy examines the mess of war and the true cost of freedom. Voted Top Theatre Pick of 2014 by numerous publications including The New York Times, TimeOut New York, TIME, The Huffington Post, and Vulture.
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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AMERICAN CLASSIC
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Mitchell Hébert
Featuring Rick Foucheaux, Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan, Nancy Robinette & Gregory Wooddell
March 30 – April 24, 2016
“…a play of tremendous dramatic impact…enormous theatrical power.” — NY Post
An American treasure brimming with intensity and wit, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof follows the powerful Southern family of the aging Big Daddy and his wife, Big Mama. As their son Brick and his beautiful but sexually frustrated wife Maggie “the Cat” scramble to secure their part of Big Daddy’s estate, troubled relationships come to a stormy climax and a shockwave of secrets are revealed.
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The Who & The What
REGIONAL PREMIERE
By Ayad Akhtar
Director TBA
May 25 – June 19, 2016
“Disarmingly funny. A fiery…probing new play, crackling with ideas.”— The New York Times
“Vibrant. Strong and colorful. A culture-clash drama simmering with humor” — Associated Press
Brilliant Pakistani-American writer Zarina is focused on finishing her novel about women and Islam when she meets Eli, a young convert who bridges the gulf between her modern life and her traditional heritage. But when her conservative father and sister discover her controversial manuscript, they are all forced to confront the beliefs that define them. From Ayad Akhtar, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer of Disgraced, comes a thrillingly fierce and funny new play about identity, religion and the contradictions that make us who we are.
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2015-2016 SPECIAL EVENTS
Belle of the Brawl
In partnership with Tooth & Claw Arts
Part of the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival
October 22 – 26, 2015
Round House Theatre welcomes master teachers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Scandinavia, and the United States for the first international stage combat workshop with an all-female faculty. Belle of the Brawl is a unique opportunity for theatre artists and enthusiasts of all kinds to study the art and craft of stage combat from a truly global perspective.
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The Round House Teen Performance Company Presents
The 14th Annual Sarah Metzger Memorial Play
Good Kids
By Naomi Iizuka
March 11 – 13, 2016
Something happened to Chloe after that party last Saturday night. The problem is,
she can’t remember anything. And everybody is talking about it. Was she raped? Did she ask for it? Set in a high school in the American mid-west, in a world of Facebook, Twitter, smart phones and YouTube, Good Kids explores the very public aftermath of a sex crime and its cover-up. Loosely based on the Steubenville High School rape case, Good Kids is provocative, haunting and stunningly current.
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Subscriptions to Round House Theatre’s 2014-2015 season are now available online, via phone or in person at Round House’s Box Office in Bethesda, Md. Subscriptions start at $99 and include free ticket exchanges, priority seating and free unlimited coffee.
For more information about subscriptions, visit www.roundhousetheatre.org or call the Round House Box Office at 240.644.1100.
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ABOUT ROUND HOUSE THEATRE
Round House is one of the leading professional theaters in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, producing a six-show season of modern classics, new plays and musicals for more than 40,000 patrons each year at our 400-seat theater in Bethesda. Round House has been nominated for 146 Helen Hayes Awards (including six in 2015) and has won 27 (including three in 2014). Its productions have won “Outstanding Resident Play” four times.
Round House’s educational programs serve more than 2,500 students of all ages at its six-classroom Education Center in Silver Spring and in schools throughout Montgomery County. Its many innovative education programs encompass Full Day Programs for Youth, including Summer Programs for K – 12; a Teen Performance Company, with classes and events for teens throughout the year culminating in The Sarah Metzger Memorial Play, the only play produced by a regional theater that is directed, acted and designed by high school students; School Outreach, including Intersections, Student Matinees, and Play It Forward, a program that allows Montgomery County high school students to attend Round House shows for free; and Classes for Adults & Youth.
Round House is a member of LORT (League of Resident Theatres) and LOWT (League of Washington Theatres). The theatre is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization with major support from Montgomery County, the Maryland State Arts Council (an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts), and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
