Trinity Rep Announces 50th Anniversary Season Line-Up

Monday, February 18, 2013

GoLocalProv Features Team

 

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Trinity Rep will turn 50 next season--look for a big lineup of classic and new works from the country's last permanent resident acting company. Photo: Trinity Rep.

It's a historic year for on the horizon for Tony Award-winning Trinity Repertory Company, as it turns 50 years old, and the venerable Rhode Island theater company has just announced the line-up for its gala year.

"To say that I am thrilled to be inviting Rhode Island to join us in celebrating Trinity Repertory Company’s 50th Anniversary season is an understatement, " said artistic director Curt Columbus, "This season has a strong, theatrical heartbeat. This season is theater that is unmistakably flesh and blood, heart and soul. We have selected six plays by great writers, plays that demand great actors to bring these fantastically surprising and remarkably human characters to life."

Beginning with Steinbeck

Trinity Rep’s 2013–2014 season starts in September with John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, the definitive American tale of the strength of family and the human spirit in the aftermath of the Great Depression. In November, the New England premiere of Christopher Durang's hilarious new hit comedy Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike will hit the Dowling stage, fresh off its wildly successful New York run.

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Come January, the theater will present Sam Shepard's 20th-century masterpiece of familial dysfunction, A Lie of the Mind. Excavating our ideas of the American family, the play is modern American storytelling at its most vital — poetic, poignant and heart-breaking.

Oliver!

By popular demand, the theater will bring Lionel Bart’s highly anticipated family musical Oliver! to the Chace stage in February. This boisterous, high energy tale of a kind-hearted orphan boy is packed with familiar songs like “Food, Glorious Food,” “Consider Yourself” and “I’d Do Anything.” This new Trinity Rep adaptation of the classic will vividly bring to life Dickens’ timeless characters — and promises to have audiences leaving the theater humming!

Spring brings the Rhode Island premiere of the elegant and deeply moving drama Intimate Apparel. Audiences across the country have fallen in love with this new American classic from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

Trinity will close its landmark season with Veronica Meadows, a world premiere from resident company member Stephen Thorne. This funny and dark comic coming of age tale will be sure to please fans of his earlier work, The Completely Fictional— Utterly True — Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, which premiered in 2011 at Trinity Rep and recently played at Baltimore’s Centerstage.

Full season and pick 4 subscriptions for the 50th Anniversary season are now on sale by calling the box office at (401) 351-4242. Subscribers receive up to 30% off regular single ticket prices, with full season packages starting at just $132. Subscribing now also gives you immediate access to pre-sale tickets for A Christmas Carol. Subscriber benefits also include free ticket exchanges, parking and dining discounts, and invitations to special backstage events. Discounted packages are also available for seniors, military and students. The Trinity Rep box office is located at 201 Washington Street, Providence, RI, 02903, and can be reached by calling (401) 351-4242.

Trinity's 50th anniversary season

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath
adapted for the stage by Frank Galati, directed by Brian McEleney
September 5 – October 13, 2013
Natural disasters. Rampant foreclosures. Corporate greed and record joblessness. Written in the wake of the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath speaks to the same harsh realities that America faces today. This evocative and deeply affecting stage version lifts Steinbeck’s novel to new heights of theatrical urgency, visceral storytelling and pure emotional impact . The story of a nation is told through the eyes of one Oklahoma clan — the Joads — driven off their farm and forced west to find work in California’s “promised land.” Throughout their epic journey, the family refuses to lose hope in the face of suffering as they cling furiously to their human dignity. Part naturalistic epic, part road novel, part inspirational gospel, The Grapes of Wrath is perhaps the definitive American tale of the strength of the human spirit.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang
November 21 – December 22, 2013
Fresh from a wildly successful New York run, the newest play from the outrageous comic mind of Christopher Durang will have its New England premiere at Trinity in November 2013. Siblings Vanya and Sonia are living in a haze of Chekhovian regret in their Bucks County, PA farmhouse when their sister, Masha, a glamorous actress a bit past her prime, arrives unexpectedly with Spike, her handsome new boy toy. In this hilarious satire, the family battles over long-held resentments while ignoring the prophecies of their housekeeper, Cassandra. Will Vanya and Sonia’s lives be changed forever? Is Spike going to run off with Nina, the aspiring actress next door? And who is Hootie Pie? “A laugh-out-loud new comedy.” (The Record)

A Lie of the Mind by Sam Shepard
directed by Brian Mertes
January 23 – February 23, 2014
Hailed recently by the New York Times as the playwright’s “richest and most penetrating play, a 20th-century masterwork of a family portrait,” A Lie of the Mind showcases the craftsmanship of Sam Shepard’s storytelling at his most poetic, most poignant and most striking. Brimming with enormous vitality and humor, the play alternates between two families joined together by marriage and torn apart by a life-changing incident. Excavating our ideas of the American family, the play asks us to look deeper into the human heart and the destructive power of love. “Sam Shepard is surely the only dramatist alive who could tell a story as sad and frightening as this one and make such a funny play of it without ever skimping on its emotional depth.” (The New Yorker) Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award.

Oliver! book, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart
based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist
February 13 – March 23, 2014
Kick up your heels and high-step along with Lionel Bart’s beloved family musical Oliver!, based on the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. This boisterous, high energy show brims with familiar songs such as “Food, Glorious Food,” “Consider Yourself,“ and “I’d Do Anything.” This new Trinity Rep adaptation of the classic will vividly bring to life Dickens’ timeless characters, from the orphan boy who dares to ask for “more” to the Artful Dodger, the kind-hearted Nancy, mischievous Fagin and the sinister Bill Sykes. Join Oliver as he navigates the streets of 19th-century London, on a search for love and family and his place in the world. Winner of three Tony Awards.

Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage
Rhode Island Premiere March 27 – April 27, 2014
Lace, silk, satin and beads. These are the materials that quiet and unassuming Esther Mills uses to create the exquisite corsets for fashionable brides (and other, less virtuous clientele) in turn-of-the-century Manhattan. Approaching spinsterhood at 35, Esther has yet unfulfilled dreams — love, marriage and one day to open her own business. A letter from a faraway stranger changes everything, and Esther must decide whether she can finally open her heart and try to craft a future for herself as beautiful as one of her creations. Audiences across the country have fallen in love with this new American classic from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.

Veronica Meadows by Stephen Thorne
World Premiere May 29 – June 29, 2014
Girl detective Veronica Meadows and her gal pal Ginny have been sleuthing and solving small town crimes for as long as anyone can remember. Time and time again, they stop the evil-doers in their tracks and heroically save the day. That is, until the day our plucky girl detective stops following her predictable habits and takes a dangerous turn into the unknown. A darkly comic gem from Stephen Thorne, resident actor and playwright of The Completely Fictional— Utterly True — Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe, which premiered last season at Trinity Rep and recently played at Baltimore’s Centerstage. “Thorne can write lines that sing, startle and amuse.” (Baltimore Sun)

Dates and times are subject to change. 

 

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