Main Street Theater’s new season will be a homecoming
Main Street Theater’s 201516 season will include Houston premieres of the 57-scene “Love and Information” and “Silent Sky, based on the true story of a pioneering woman scientist. Also in the lineup are a world premiere by a Houston writer whose work the company has championed, plus the revival of an audience favorite.
The season also will continue Main Street’s collaboration with the Prague Shakespeare Festival.
With the season opener “Silent Sky,” the company will return to its theater in the Rice Shopping Village, for the first time since fall. Main Street took a hiatus while the facility underwent a $2.5 million renovation. The work will be completed in time for the theater to resume production in November — meaning one less play in the season than usual.
“Silent Sky,” Nov. 7-29.
Based on the true story of Henrietta Leavitt, the play concerns Leavitt’s efforts to map galaxies beyond our own while coping with the maledominated world of astronomy at the start of the 20th century. Lauren Gunderson is an admired, emerging playwright gaining a reputation for works about women in science and history. The Atlanta JournalConstitution called it “a lovingly crafted period piece” that’s also “a luminously beautiful play.”
“Love and Information,” Feb. 13–March 6. In a kaleidoscopic whirl of 57 brief scenes, the play depicts some 100 characters trying to make sense of their feelings in a world where people are obsessed with data and technology threatens to replace human contact. Caryl Churchill is the provocative British playwright whose best-known plays include “Cloud Nine,” “Top Girls” and “Serious Money.” “Love and Information” premiered at London’s Royal Court Theatre in 2012 and played off-Broadway in 2014. The New York Times wrote: “Leave it to Churchill to come up with a work that so ingeniously and exhaustively mirrors our age of the splintered attention span.”
“1946,” March 26-April 17. Thomas Hagemann’s play chronicles the lives of a Texas family in the aftermath of World War II. The work — described as “joyful, funny, mournful and reflective” — is inspired by the playwright’s own family history. Main Street produced the world premiere of Thomas Hagemann’s “Breakfast at Eight” in 2010 and gave a staged reading of “1946” in 2014. The new work is part of an ongoing trilogy.
“Working,” May 21-June 12. Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso adapted this 1978 musical from Studs Terkel’s best-selling book collecting interviews with a variety of workers telling how they feel about their jobs. Several songwriters contributed to the show’s score, including Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant and James Taylor. Main Street Theater first staged “Working” in its 198283 season, to such enthusiastic response that the company revived it in the 1987-88 season and again in 1989-90. Main Street will present the recently revised edition, with new material and songs by LinManuel Miranda, Tony winner for “In the Heights.”
The Prague Shakespeare Festival at Main Street Theater will present two productions in limited engagements. William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” will play Dec. 31-Jan. 10. The romantic comedy, one of the Bard’s most popular, centers on resourceful heroine Viola, who generates boundless confusion by masquerading as Sebastian, her twin brother who’s been lost at sea.
David Ives’ “Venus in Fur” will play Jan. 14-24. A 2012 best play Tony nominee, this edgy comedy depicts the cat-and-mouse game of a writer-director trying to cast the lead role in his new play and a young actress not averse to using extreme measures to get the part. The Alley Theatre produced the play’s Houston premiere in 2013.
Details: 713-524-6706, mainstreettheater.com.
everett.evans@chron.com