San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
CYGNET’S 19TH SEASON WILL INCLUDE 3 FEMALE PLAYWRIGHTS
San Diego’s Cygnet Theatre announced its 19th season on Monday, a six show lineup that will include three female playwrights, two world premieres and three classics.
The season will begin in September and continue through August 2023. The lineup includes a sexy comedy-drama, a hurricane themed play about Latinas, a Noël Coward farce, the musical “Evita” and the eighth annual production of “A Christmas Carol,” this time starring Cygnet artistic director Sean Murray.
“Finally returning to live theatre, where we can all collectively gather to experience joy, curiosity and exploration, has been reinvigorating,” Murray said in a statement. “Our programming for Season 19 continues Cygnet’s tradition of providing a wide menu of adventurous and thoughtprovoking shows that both entertain and encourage new perspectives. The season is designed to do what theatre does best, inspire reflection, stir debate and move the soul.”
Current subscribers will be notified by mail for renewals. New subscription sales will begin in late June. For details, call (619) 3371525 or visit cygnet theatre.com.
Here’s the new season lineup:
“The Little Fellow (Or — The Queen of Tarts Tells All)”: Kate Hamill — whose clever stage adaptations of Jane Austen novels have made her one of the most produced new playwrights in America — will co-star with her husband, actor Jason O’connell, in the world premiere of her new play. It’s a risqué comedydrama based on the memoirs of real-life 19th-century British courtesan Harriette Wilson. Hamill will play Wilson as she’s preparing to write her tell-all autobiography. Cygnet associate artistic director Rob Lutfy will direct.
Sept. 28 through Oct. 23.
“A Christmas Carol”: Artistic director Sean Murray and composer Billy Thompson’s stage adaptation of the Charles Dickens holiday novella returns for its eighth season. Murray will step into the shoes of misery Ebenezer Scrooge, following the retirement of the company’s longtime Scrooge, Tom Stephenson, last winter. Nov. 22 through Dec. 24.
“El Huracán”: Cygnet presents the second-ever production of this play about three generations of Latina women facing an epic hurricane that threatens their family home in Miami. Written by Charise Castro Smith — co-director and co-screenwriter of Disney’s smash animated film “Encanto” — the play made its world premiere at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2018. It will be directed by Tuyo Theatre co-founder Daniel Jáquez, who directed “The Winter’s Tale” for the Old Globe’s Globe for All production in 2019. Jan. 25 through Feb. 19.
“Present Laughter”: Cygnet’s Murray will star in this 1939 Noël Coward farce as Garry Essendine, a famous British stage actor who’s too popular for his own good. Essendine, modeled after Coward himself, is struggling to go on tour and avoid a nervous breakdown while he tries to avoid a lovesick woman, an unhinged playwright, a friend’s seductress wife and more. The play will be directed by Rosina Reynolds, a specialist in the works of English playwrights and farce. March 29 through April 30.
“Sharon”: This mystery/ absurdist comedy by UC San Diego MFA playwriting student Keiko Green will make its world premiere in a production directed by Rob Lutfy. Sharon and Jakey are a loving mother and son running a crumbling apartment building in Everett, Wash., where the tenants keep disappearing. Green co-starred in Lauren Yee’s “The Great Leap” at Cygnet in 2020. June 7 through July 2, 2023.
“Evita”: This Andrew Lloyd Webber-tim Rice musical, winner of seven Tony Awards in 1980, is the story of Argentine first lady Eva Perón and her rise from poverty to power to nearsainthood after her untimely death at age 33. Murray will direct the production, with choreography by Carlos Mendoza. Aug. 9 through Sept. 17, 2023.