2016-2017 Season, Austin Playhouse

 

(www.austinplayhouse.com)

 

Austin Playhouse announces a 2016-2017 six-play season that promises romance, laughter, classic characters, Texas premieres, and a beloved musical score.

The season kicks off in September with Lauren Gunderson’s new historical play Silent Sky, about the female astronomer who broke the glass ceiling in the sky. Following will be two Texas premieres: Baskerville by Ken Ludwig, a farcical reimagining of the most famous Sherlock mystery told with five actors playing forty characters, and then the bittersweet time-travel tale Bloomsday by Austin playwright Steven Dietz. In the spring, audiences will be delighted with Kate Hamill’s audacious adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and one more play that will be announced at a later date. The golden age musical comedy Guys and Dolls with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, will conclude the season.

 

In addition, Austin Playhouse will treat Austin families to two free theatre for young audiences (TYA) productions. In October, we’ll bring back The Arkansaw Bear  by Aurand Harri , targeted at grades 2 - 5, by for an extended run so more children can experience this heart-warming tale of the circle of life. The second title, targeted at middle school students, will be announced soon.

 

The theater is also launching a new play development festival that will run May 5 - 7, 2017. The play submission process will begin in September, and 3-4 scripts will be chosen to receive professional staged readings by Austin Playhouse company members and local actors.

 

Six-Play Subscription Series

 

Silent Sky

 by Lauren Gunderson
September 23 - October 16, 2016
A celestial romance and a true story of discovery, Silent Sky invites you to revel in the magic of the universe on this historic journey of love, family, science and determination. A new play about Henrietta Swan Leavitt and the real women working at the dawn of modern astronomy. 
 

Baskerville, A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

 by Ken Ludwig 
November 18 - December 18, 2016
A fast-paced comedy about everyone’s favorite detective solving his most notorious case. Holmes and Watson must crack the mystery of “The Hound of the Baskervilles” before a family curse dooms its newest heir.
 

Bloomsday 

by Steven Dietz
January 13 - February 5, 2017
In this buoyant and moving new play from one of Austin’s most acclaimed playwrights, an American man searches for the Irish woman who first captured his heart 30 years earlier while leading a “Bloomsday” walking tour in Dublin. 
 

Death of a Salesman

by Arthur Miller

February 17 - March 12, 2017
Miller's profund classic is a thrilling work of deep and revealing beauty that remains one of the most moving classic dramas of the American theatre. Winner of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award for Best Play. 
 

Sense and Sensibility

based on Jane Austen's novel and adapted by Kate Hamill

March 31 - April 30, 2017
An inventive, playful, and hilarious new adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of the Dashwood sisters after their father’s sudden death leaves them financially destitute and socially vulnerable. Set in gossipy, late 18th-century England, the play is full of humor, emotional depth, and bold theatricality.
 

Guys and Dolls 

music and lyrics by Frank Loesser 
with book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows 
May 26 - June 25, 2017
Set under the bright lights of Broadway and bustling with gamblers, gangsters, and sassy showgirls, Guys and Dolls is filled with wit, style, and sheer exuberant joy and features one of the greatest scores ever written!
 
 
 

And for youth -- 

 

The Arkansaw Bear

by Aurand Harri

October 3 - 16, 2016

reommended for ages 7 and up!  FREE theatre for youth.

This award-winning classic play penned by the most produced playwright for young audiences tells the story of a little girl named Tish, who has just discovered that her grandfather is dying. She runs away to her special tree, wishes upon a star, and escapes to a fantastical world of music, magic and dance. There she meets the world’s greatest dancing bear, who is also running away from death. In helping him, Tish begins to understand the cycle of life.

 

Guest Production -- Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe

by Jonathan Christenson

October 23 - November 7, 2016

 

New Play Festival

May 5 - 7, 2017