New York Theatre Workshop announces plans for its 26th season

The New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) has announced plans for NYTW's 2008-09 season, the theatre's 26th season includes work by Michael Weller, Peter Brook, and Naomi Wallace.

NYTW will also present the inaugural season of its Off Again musical series, concert versions of notable off-Broadway musicals that will be presented for short, limited runs.

Shows under consideration for the series� first season include 'Promenade,' written by Maria Irene Fornes and composed by Al Carmines; 'Iphigenia in Concert' by Peter Link, which will be directed by Annie Dorsen (Passing Strange); and 'The Waves,' written by Lisa Peterson (based on Virginia Woolf�s The Waves) and composed by David Bucknam. (Exact titles and dates are still to be determined.)

NYTW will also host a special series of events leading up to November�s presidential election: a return of Mark Crispin Miller, with his observations of the present political landscape; Gore Vidal�s Weekend, a play from 1968 by one of America�s most significant living writers, which paints a portrait of the Republican Party as it struggles to reinvent itself after Barry Goldwater�s catastrophic loss of the 1964 election; and Year One of the Empire, a collage of actual words written and/or spoken around the time of the Spanish-American War, eerily revealing parallels to other American military misadventures like Vietnam and Iraq. Further details to be announced.

The 2008-2009 Season of main work productions:

• Beast
  Written by Michael Weller
  Directed by Jo Bonney
  Synopsis: Two Iraqi War veterans - badly mutilated but as fiercely patriotic as ever�make their way home from a military hospital in Germany. Their marauding adventure across America takes them to Crawford, Texas, where they meet up with their Commander-in-Chief and offer a surefire solution to all his problems.
  Dates: 29 Aug - 12 Oct 2008
  
• The Grand Inquisitor
  Adapted by Marie-H�l�ne Estienne from Dostoyevsky�s 'The Brothers Karamazov'
  Directed by Peter Brook.
  Featuring Bruce Myers
  Synopsis: A chilling parable about the perversion of religious faith in life.
  Dates: 22 Oct - 23 Nov 2008
  
• Things of Dry Hours
  Written by Naomi Wallace
  Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
  Synopsis: TIn Depression-era Alabama, black Sunday school teacher and Communist Party member Tice Hogan lives on the edge of trouble. When a white factory worker on the run demands sanctuary, Tice and his daughter may be pushed over that edge.
  Dates: Spring 2009