Live Arts announced its 2011-2012 season last night. This year’s committee was led by Sara Holdren, a production assistant and regular theater presence around town. Holdren writes in the announcement that the season’s selections try to “distill and maintain the spirit of Live Arts, while branching out into ever new and exciting territory.” (Expect a permanent replacement for Satch Huizenga, the producing artistic director who resigned in December, in the coming months.)
So how’d they do? The season opens with Superior Donuts in October, Tracy Letts’ comedy about a Chicago sweet shop and its former-radical owner. Later, Live Arts mines the early 20th century with the French playwright Georges Feydeau’s 1907 work, A Flea in Her Ear (March 2012) and the Russian playwright Leonid Andreyev’s He Who Gets Slapped (May 2012).
And then there are the surefire blockbusters: Mel Brooks’ film classic-turned-Broadway classic The Producers opens in December. The much-loved musical Hairspray, based on the movie by John Waters, opens in July 2012.
Lest we forget the fare that will receive short runs, the local comedy writer Denise Stewart will reprise her recent autobiographical one-woman show Dirty Barbie & Other Girlhood Tales in late November. A new theater ensemble called Melanin will also premiere; the group, run by Leslie Baskfield, Clinton Johnston, Ray Smith and Jared Ivory, is dedicated to “exploring works of African-American artists and interpreting works through an African-American perspective” and will put on three one-night-onlys: Tennessee Williams’ Night of the Iguana, Pearl Cleage’s A Song for Coretta and Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s Oak and Ivy.
The complete list is below.
- October 7-8, 2011: Friends with Benefits, presented by Joel Jones, Michael Parent and friends.
- October 8, 2011: A Song for Coretta, by Pearl Cleage, directed by Leslie Baskfield and Ray Smith.
- October 21-November 19, 2011: Superior Donuts, by Tracy Letts, directed by Chris Baumer.
- November 5, 2011: The Live Arts Gala.
- November 30-December 3: Dirty Barbie and Other Girlhood Tales, written and performed by Denise Stewart.
- December 3, 2011: Night of the Iguana, by Tennessee Williams, directed by Cilnton Johnston.
- December 9, 2011-January 14, 2012: The Producers, by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan, directed by Matt Joslyn.
- January 28, 2012: 24/7, presented by the Whole Theater.
- February 3-18, 2012: This is Not a Pipe Dream, by Barry Kornhauser, directed by Will Rucker (Live Arts Teen Theater Ensemble production).
- February 24-25, 2012: From Bondage to Promise, directed by Leslie Baskfield and Clinton Johnston.
- March 2-24, 2012: A Flea in Her Ear, by Georges Feydeau, directed by Boomie Pedersen.
- April 20-May 12, 2012: Adding Machine: A Musical, by Jason Loewith and Joshua Schmidt, directed by Bree Luck.
- May 12, 2012: Oak and Ivy, by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, directed by Jared Ivory.
- May 18-June 9, 2012: He Who Gets Slapped, by Leonid Andreyev, directed by Sara Holdren.
- July 13-August 4, 2012: Hairspray, by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan.
What do you think of this year’s Live Arts season?