San Jose Stage Company artistic director Randall King today announced The Stage’s 2013-14 season. This marks the non-profit arts organization’s 31st year of operation.
The Stage’s season kicks off with Kristoffer Diaz’ body-slamming 2010 Pulitzer Prize Finalist, The Elaborate Entrance Of Chad Deity.
“As the company enters its next decade, we continue our mission to bring bold, diverse and innovative new work to The Stage. Our 31st Season revolves around the heart, soul and strength of community tackling the forces of corruption, exploitation and depravity. Each play zeroes in on the fear and paradox that exist in the realities and myths of the American Dream in today’s world. These stories are told with great humor and pathos,” said King.
Associate Artists Kevin Blackton, Halsey Varady, Will Springhorn Jr., Allison F. Rich and Martin Rojas Dietrich will light the holidays with Joe Landry’s radio play of the iconic classic film It’s A Wonderful Life.
ALSO SEE: Behind the Scenes at San Jose Stage Company (VIDEO)
The New Year fires up the long-anticipated production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s powerful and evocative The Threepenny Opera.
WATCH: On Location San Jose Stage Company
Rounding out the season are two Regional Premieres: Lynn Nottage’s stunning new comedy By The Way, Meet Vera Stark and the sexy and explosive 2012 Tony Award Nominee Bonnie & Clyde: A New Musical with Music by Frank Wildhorn, Lyrics by Don Black and Book by Ivan Menchell.
Silicon Valley Business Journal ranked The Stage the 3rd largest theatre and 9th largest performance arts organization in Silicon Valley.
SAN JOSE STAGE 2013-14 SEASON
THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY
Written by Kristoffer Diaz
October 16 – November 10, 2013
The acclaimed comedy The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity slams together thrilling spectacle, incredible characters and geopolitical allegory into an invigorating theatrical experience that you can’t find on pay-per-view. Kristoffer Diaz’s play also received the 2011 Obie Award for Best New American Play and the 2008 National Latino Playwriting Award.
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY
From the screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra and Jo Swerling
Adapted by Joe LandryNovember 27 – December 22, 2013
This beloved American holiday classic comes to captivating life as a live 1940s radio broadcast. An ensemble of Stage Company associate artists brings to the stage the story of idealistic George Bailey, who has given up on his dreams in order to help others and who now considers ending his life one fateful Christmas Eve, bringing about the intervention of his guardian angel. It’s A Wonderful Life celebrates community at its best and reminds us that we contribute to each other’s happiness and well being, perhaps daily, in ways we might not ever be conscious of. This is the timeless gift of the story and why it continues to resonate so powerfully with us today.
THE THREEPENNY OPERA
Based on John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera
Adaptation and Lyrics by Bertolt Brecht / Music by Kurt Weill
German translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann
English translation of dialog by Robert MacDonald
English translation of lyrics by Jeremy SamsFebruary 5 – March 30, 2014
A milestone of 20th century musical theater, The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) rolls on unstoppably into the 21st with absolute relevance in today’s world. In their opera “by and for beggars,” composer Kurt Weill (1900–1950) and playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) created a trailblazing musical spectacle of fierce social and political critique where the haves clash with the have-nots with its haunting jazz score by Kurt Weill, acid harmonies and biting lyrics. This musical saga of the villainous but irresistible Mack the Knife and his marauding band of thieves is a revolutionary musical theatre inspiring such hits as Cabaret (at The Stage in 2011 for an extended run) and Urinetown, The Musical (at The Stage in 2006 for an extended run).
BY THE WAY, MEET VERA STARK
Written by Lynn Nottage
April 19 – May 11, 2014
Recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and the 2012 Drama Desk Nominee for Outstanding Play, the regional premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s new comedy, Lynn Nottage draws upon the screwball films of the 1930s to take a funny and irreverent look at racial stereotypes in Hollywood. This multimedia presentation is a seventy-year journey through the life of Vera Stark, a headstrong African-American maid and budding actress, and her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star desperately grasping to hold on to her career.
BONNIE & CLYDE
Music by Frank Wildhorn
Lyrics by Don Black
Book by Ivan MenchellJune 4 – July 27, 2014
Bonnie & Clyde charts a true tale of love, poverty, criminality and celebrity set in the 1930s Southern States of drought, dust, disease and death. When Bonnie met Clyde, it was an instant and dangerous attraction. These two young lovers became inseparable and quickly plunged themselves into a life of fast cars, guns and revenge. Part folk heroes and part murderous outlaws, Bonnie and Clyde instantly became the stuff of legend. This new stage adaptation fuses together vintage images with rockabilly, blues and gospel music. Bonnie & Clyde was nominated for two 2012 Tony Awards and five 2012 Drama Desk Awards nominations, including Outstanding Musical and Outstanding Music.
