AMERICAN STAGE
THEATRE COMPANY
727-823-PLAY
163 3rd St. N.
St. Petersburg, FL
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American Stage Announces 2006-2007 Season...
Satisfaction Guaranteed!
A Sneak Peek at Our Season!
After a year which saw mainstage attendance grow 34 percent, subscriptions up 20 percent, and about 90 percent subscriber renewal, American Stage has plans to outdo itself with its most ambitious season ever.
The 2006-07 season sees the return of Neil Simon and Tennessee Williams to our mainstage, a world premiere, five regional premieres, the first indoor Shakespeare in a decade, Jonathan Larson’s (Rent) only other musical, a controversial off-Broadway hit about Iraq and the revival of one of American Stage's highest-attended productions in our history.
Tampa Bay Area Premiere!
THREE DAYS OF RAIN
by Richard Greenberg
Previews September 6 and 7, Opening September 8, runs until October 1 (4 weeks)
“A marvelously rewarding play, full of warm humor and sharp wit. Greenberg’s play blends social satire and serious family tensions, sometimes looking like a knowing cross between Woody Allen and Tennessee Williams, as the action shunts backwards from the Nineties to 1960.
-London Telegraph
Come see the the Broadway hit! A famous architect has died, leaving a mysterious will and an even more cryptic diary. Can the children solve the riddles left behind? Set in New York City, Three Days of Rain centers on a brother, his sister, and their childhood friend who meet to settle their parents' estate. The two fathers were long-time friends and partners in architecture; their legacy is the brilliantly daring creation, the 1960's Janeway House. But whose father was the inspiration behind this ground-breaking home? In this tense and brittle reunion, much more is at stake than who gets the house. Brother and sister discover their father's bland, sparse diary, and use it to create a story for themselves that will explain away the present and make sense of their parent's mysterious marriage. Over the "three days of rain" entery in the young architect's diary, the same three actors then play their own parents and reveal a romantic significance and creative dilemma that none of these children could ever have imagined.
Tampa Bay Area Premiere!
ALL THE GREAT BOOKS (abridged)
By Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor
Previews November 1 and 2, Opening November 3, running Tuesdays thru Sundays until December 3
"Brilliant, surreal comedy for educated grown-ups. Who knew Homer was so funny? Not Simpson - the other one."
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
From the creators of The Complete Works of Shakepeare (abridged), hold on for dear life as the literary canon explodes and launches a fast-paced, funny crash course through all those classics you should have read in school but probably didn't. The audience? High School Seniors that didn’t pass ‘Intro to Literature’. Thrown by Thoreau? Wish Swift was swifter? Then have a little Dickens, a bit of reduced Proust, and a Longfellow that's shorter. With an inspired mix of verbal dexterity and physical comedy, three actors rip and race through nearly 90 famous texts with silliness and sophisticated irreverence. Perfect for high brow and low brow tastes alike.
Neil Simon is Back!
CHAPTER 2
By Neil Simon
Previews January 17 and 18, Opening January 19, running Tuesdays thru Sundays until February 11
"Lovely, whimsical, and touching . . . always funny. . . . Most of the time downright hilarious."
- New York Post
For the first time since 2000, Neil Simon is back at American Stage! This time with what was his first in a long series of celebrated autobiographical plays, Chapter 2. George Schneider, a writer whose wife has recently died, returns to a lonely apartment. His younger brother Leo, a theatrical press agent and born matchmaker, tries to snap George out of his emotional tailspin by supplying him with unwanted and unsuccessful dates. Miraculously Leo comes up with Jennie Malone... and she's a winner. Can these not-so-young lovers write each other into their lives? Add to this a hilarious subplot involving George’s brother and Jennie’s best friend, and the end result is Neil Simon at his best; a memorable comedy about imperfect, passionate people, with heart and substance. .
The American Master of Drama!
SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER
By Tennessee Williams
Previews March 14 and 15, Opening March 16, running Tuesdays thru Sundays until April 7
Startling proof of what a man can do with words…this withering play is a superb achievement."
- New York Times
Tennessee Williams returns to American Stage after seven year absence with the now infamous Suddenly Last Summer. Made famous in part by the classic film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn, and Montgomery Clift, this unforgettable story involves a young man who takes his cousin on a European trip that ends in violent, shocking disaster. But what really happened to him? Only one person knows the truth. Set in the deep south of New Orleans, Tennessee Williams’ savage drama pits two women against each other in a passionate battle for possession of the story of the death of a young man whom they both love. Wealthy and ferocious society matron, Violet Venable, who once traveled the world with her urbane and amusing son, Sebastian, will stop at nothing to instill her version of “the truth” against Catharine Holly, a poor relation, and eye witness to Sebastian’s final voyage and violent demise. This groundbreaking and fascinating play concerns not only terrible secrets but basic truth and falsehood, and the ways in which human beings use one another.
Shakespeare Moves Indoors!
OTHELLO
By William Shakespeare
Previews May 23 and 24, Opening May 25, running Tuesdays thru Sundays until June 17
“O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster.”
- Act 3, scene 3
Towards the end of his life, Shakespeare moved his performances from the outdoor Globe Theatre, to an indoor space; and that’s just what’s happening at American Stage after 20 years of Shakespeare in the Park. For our first such production we bring you the play that topped our audience survey last year. Written at the height of Shakespeare's creativity, Othello explores the tragedy of a love destroyed by jealousy. Provoked by the treacherous Iago's lies, Othello begins to mistrust his loyal bride, Desdemona. As his suspicions rise, Othello collapses under the weight of his self-doubt, eventually destroying his once-happy marriage. With poetry rivaling King Lear and with the psychological depth of Hamlet, Shakespeare constructs a highly-charged tale of prejudice, revenge, and the destruction of innocence.
22nd Annual American Stage in the Park
Little Shop of Horrors
By Music and Lyrics by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken
Previews April 11 and 12, Gala Opening April 13, running Wednesdays thru Sundays until April 29
The Musical Comedy That's Perfect for the Entire Family!
One of the longest-running Off-Broadway monster hits of all time, this affectionate spoof of 1950s sci-fi movies has became a household name, thanks to a highly successful film version and a score by the songwriting team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, who redefined the animated musical film with Disney's "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty And The Beast" and "Aladdin". Based on the low-budget cult film by Roger Corman, Little Shop of Horrors opened off-Broadway in 1983, and became the highest-grossing and third longest-running musical in Off-Broadway history, including a celebrated movie in 1987 and a Broadway revival in 2004.
The World Premiere!
CASA BLUE: THE LAST MOMENTS IN THE LIFE OF FRIDA KAHLO
Marking the Centennial of the birth of Frida Kahlo
Created by Todd Olson, Jeremy Childs, Karen Garcia, and Grammy-winner Steve Earle
Previews July 18 and 19, Opening July 20, running Tuesdays thru Sundays until August 12
"I hope the leaving is joyful - and I hope never to return"
–last entry in the journal of Frida Kahlo, July, 1953
Mexico’s most famous painter comes to life…and death. As the world marks the centennial of her birth, we celebrate the most famous painter to come from Mexico, Frida Kahlo. Victim of a tragic streetcar accident as a teenager, Frida was emblematic of the idea that out of pain can come positive energy. She championed the indigenous culture of her country in a style combining realism and surrealism, and her steamy romance (and two marriages) with painter Diego Rivera has been called one of the greatest, if not most unusual, love affairs of all time. Though physically fragile, Frida was a tough-talking woman who smoked and drank, and had affairs with men and women, including one with Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. She was a person who had a huge appetite for life, and her legacy and body of work remain sensual and alive, more popular now 50 years after her death. Created by the writing team of Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Steve Earle, actress Karen Garcia (Anna in the Tropics, Taming of the Shrew), actor/playwright Jeremy Childs (Taming of the Shrew), and American Stage’s own Producing Artistic Director, Todd Olson.
Season Extra!
HEATHER RAFFO'S 9 PARTS OF DESIRE
By Heather Raffo
A co-production with
The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
Previews April 25 and 26, Opening April 27, running Tuesdays thru Sundays until May 6
“A triumph…an example of how art can remake the world.”
- The New Yorker
Taken from the Islamic belief that "God created sexual desire in ten parts, then gave nine parts to women," Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire is a one-woman tour de force. A portrait of the extraordinary—and ordinary—lives of a cross-section of Iraqi women, Heather Raffo's 9 Parts of Desire lifts the veil on women in the war zone. The voices are a study in contrasts: vivid and subdued, sophisticated and naďve, seductive and standoffish. But they cohere to form a powerful collective portrait of suffering and endurance. Much more than a captivating work of first hand reporting, it is also an acute analysis of the world's fastest-growing religion, deftly illustrating how Islam's holiest texts have been misused to justify the repression of women. It’s a work so compassionate that it reveals our shared humanity in a way that CNN never can.
Season Extra!
PROOF
By David Auburn
Preview December 7, Opening December 8, running Tuesdays thru Sundays until December 23
“It’s the kind of experience a theatergoer hopes for every time the house lights go down, but seldom realizes… so fine, so magical…the electrifying performances achieve something close to theatrical perfection.”
-St. Petersburg Times
Back by popular demand, American Stage reunites the cast of one of the highest-attended production in our 27-year history, 2005’s blockbuster hit, Proof. The play that won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for “Best Play” – not to mention a recent film – tells the story of Catherine who, on the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. Now, following his death, she must deal with her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire; and the attentions of Hal, a former student of her father’s who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that her father left behind. Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine into the most difficult problem of all: How much of her father’s madness—or genius—has she inherited?
The American Stage Mainstage Series takes place at 211 Third Street South, in downtown St. Petersburg.
American Stage is offering a new simplified subscription menu with a variety of benefits and discounts for subscribers as well as a NEXTWAVE pass for people age 30 and younger. For more information and reservations, click on "Season Pass" or call the American Stage Box Office at (727) 823-PLAY.
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