Primary Stages announces its 2016-2017 season
Primary Stages has now announced its 2016-2017 season at off-Broadway's Cherry Lane Theatre, which also includes three New York premieres.
Casey Childs, Primary Stages Founder & Executive Producer, released the following statement:
"Our 2016/17 Season offers an array of writing talent intermingling in all the ways audiences expect from Primary Stages. The season is immensely literary, with productions by masters of the written word, like Horton Foote and poet Claudia Rankine. We're also delving into more topical realms with headline-confronting pieces dealing with touchstones from the American racial divide to gay marriage, to Mexican-American immigration and citizenship."Here is the scheduled line up for the season:
From September to November 2016, Primary Stages will present a revival of Horton Foote's comic-drama The Roads to Home, directed by Michael Wilson, to celebrate the Centennial of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's birth. The production will star Devon Abner and Hallie Foote, with additional casting to be announced in the coming months.
Synopsis: "Three women living in Houston, Texas in the 1920s grapple with the eternal question, 'Where is home?'"
The next production for Fall 2016 will be the first production in the new Primary Stages Studio Series, "PS TWO," and will take place from November to December 2016. It comes from the mind of the writer of hit ABC TV series "How to Get Away with Murder." The New York premiere of Tanya Saracho's Fade is "a behind-the-scenes comedy about the burgeoning friendship between Lucia and Abel, two Latinos of Mexican descent working at a ruthless Hollywood studio. Lucia is an tenacious novelist, newly hired to write for a TV detective series and struggling to find her place among a team of domineering white male co-workers. Abel is one of the studio's janitors, compassionate to Lucia's difficulties and generous with his opinions and personal anecdotes which keeps them in an absorbing tête-à-tête throughout their workdays. As their bond grows, Abel's stories quickly blur with those Lucia is writing for the show and they both find themselves in the center of their own not-quite-made-for-TV drama."
From January to March 2017, the season continues with the New York premiere of the stage adaptation of Claudia Rankine's best-seller Citizen: An American Lyric. It is adapted for the stage by Stephen Sachs and Rankine herself.
Synopsis: "An intensely provocative and unapologetic rumination on racial aggression in America, Claudia Rankine's Citizen: An American Lyric has been heralded as one of the best books of the past decade. In this new stage adaptation by Rankine and Stephen Sachs, seemingly everyday acts of racism are scrutinized as part of an uncompromising testimony of 'living while Black' in America. The play echoes the voices heard around dinner tables and in demonstrations across the country. From the shooting of Trayvon Martin, to the tennis career of Serena Williams, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Citizen powerfully explores life in the face of unrelenting and pervasive acts of injustice, whether they are political affronts on the global stage or passing slurs at the local supermarket."
Finally, the 2016-2017 will conclude with the New York premiere of Michael McKeever's Daniel's Husband, in a co-production with Ted Snowdon, from March to April 2017. The production will be directed by Joe Brancato.
Synopsis: "In Daniel's Husband, we see Daniel and Mitchell enjoying life as the Perfect Couple. Perfect house, perfect friends, even a mother who wants them to wed. What isn't perfect is that Daniel longs to be married and Mitchell does not. A turn of events forces both men to face the consequences of their opposing views, and they learn that they are living in a world where fundamental rights aren't always so fundamental."
Casting and creative team information for each production, along with exact dates, will be announced in the coming months.
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