Theatre Works’ 1st season with new artistic director
As TheatreWorks Silicon Valley prepares for the departure of founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley, its 51st season, announced Monday, Feb. 10, promises to reaffirm longstanding company values while also making way for incoming Artistic Director Tim Bond, who takes over at the end of this season.
The 202021 lineup, planned by Kelley in consultation with Bond, opens with “Queen” ( July 8Aug. 2). Madhuri Shekar’s drama follows best friends and research partners whose study of the decimation of the bee population turns out to have a serious flaw, pitting the women against each other in a debate about academic responsibility and environmental activism.
Up next TheatreWorks favorite Hershey Felder returns with “Hershey Felder as Monsieur Chopin” (Aug. 26Sept. 20), in which the solo performer casts his audience as students getting a piano lesson from the Polish composer, woven with illuminating anecdotes from Chopin’s life.
Fall continues with “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (Oct. 7Nov. 1), adapted by Todd Kriedler from the 1967 film. The regional premiere, about an interracial marriage, will mark Bond’s TheatreWorks directing debut.
Winter brings two regional premieres. Exactly a year after Paul Gordon broke TheatreWorks box office records with “Pride and Prejudice,” he adapts another Jane Austen novel into a musical over the holidays, with “Sense and Sensibility” (Dec. 227), directed by Kelley.
The new year commences with “The Lifespan of a Fact” ( Jan. 13Feb. 7). Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell’s comedy, adapted from the book of the same name by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal, sics a factchecking intern on an established author with a muchanticipated piece that doesn’t exactly adhere to journalism’s strict definition of truth.
In spring a piece from TheatreWorks’ 2019 New Works Festival migrates to the main stage. “Nan and the Lower Body” (March 10April 4), a world premiere by Jessica Dickey, follows Dr. George Papanicolaou, creator of the pap smear, and his assistant, Nan, delving into the medical dilemmas posed by his lifesaving invention.
The Tonywinning musical “Man of La Mancha” (April 7May 2), inspired by “Don Quixote,” comes next, and the season concludes with “Having Our Say, The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years” ( June 227). Emily Mann’s play, adapted from the book of Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth, chronicles the the centurylong lives of two sisters from the Jim Crow era to the end of the 20th century.
Shows are performed at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and Lucie Stern Theatre. Subscriptions range from $115$591. Call 6504631960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.