Second Stage Theatre announces new season

Second Stage Theatre has announced three plays for its upcoming 33rd Season. The company's 2011-2012 season will feature New York Premiere of the new musical The Blue Flower, the world premiere of Paul Weitz's, Lonely, I'm Not and the first New York staging of Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, How I Learned To Drive, since its world premiere fifteen years ago.

A fourth production is still to be announced.

The plays will be presented in the following season order:
Casting announcements and specific dates for each production will be forthcoming.

New York premiere
The Blue Flower
Music and lyrics by Jim Bauer
Book by Jim and Ruth Bauer
Directed by Will Pomerantz
Cast: tba.
Venue: Second Stage Theatre
Date: tba (expected to start previews in Oct 2011, and open in Nov 2011).

Synopsis: Explores the romantic and tumultuous relationships between four young friends - three artists and a scientist - as they create a world of arrt, revolution, and passion amidst the turbulence and destruction of the World Wars.

Writer/composer/lyricist Jim Bauer has composed and produced music scores for film and television while performing as singer/songwriter/guitarist/keyboardist in a variety of bands he periodically assembles. With DAGMAR, his current project with singing partner Meghan McGeary, he performs in the New York City subways under the Music Under New York (MUNY). DAGMAR recently released its third CD, Door No. 3. He recevied the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award in 2004 with his wife Ruth Bauer for their work on The Blue Flower.

Co-writer/visual artist/videographer Ruth Bauer's oil paintings, watercolors, collages and monotypes have been shown in group exhibits in museums including Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, The Hudson River Museum, The Tuscon Museum of Art, The DeCordova Museum, The Brockton Museum and the Rose Art Museum, and in solo exhibitions in galleries across the United States. As an illustrator she has created book jacket covers for Hougton Mifflin, Viking, Harvard University Press and Orchard Books.

Director Will Pomerantz has directed 'The Shape of Things,' 'Dai' (starring Iris Bahr), 'A Tale of Two Cities,' Howard Barker's 'A Hard Heart,' and Mahida's 'Extra Key to Heaven.'

World premiere
Lonely, I'm Not
By Paul Weitz
Director: tba
Cast: tba Venue: Second Stage Theatre
Dates: tba (expected early 2012)

Synopsis: At an age when most people are discovering what they want to do with their lives, Porter has been married and divorced, earned seven figures as a corporate 'ninja' and had a nervous breakdown. It's been four years since he's had a job or a date, and he's decided to give life another shot..

Paul Weitz is the author of 'Trust,' 'Show People' and 'Privilege,' all of which premiered at Second Stage Theatre. His play 'Mango Tea' was produced Off-Broadway with Marisa Tomei and Rob Morrow by New York's Ensemble Studio Theatre, which also produced his next works, 'Captive,' 'All for One,' and the ensemble comedy 'Roulette.' He also wrote and directed the comedy "American Dreamz," starring Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, and Mandy Moore, as well as the film "In Good Company," starring Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansen. With his brother and frequent collaborator Chris Weitz, he co-directed and adapted the screenplay from Nick Hornby's novel "About a Boy," which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

How I Learned To Drive
by Paula Vogel
Director: tba
Cast: tba Venue: Second Stage Theatre
Dates: tba (expected 2012)

Synopsis: AExplores the complex relationship between Li'l Bit and her Uncle Peck, as a series of driving lessons progresses from innocence to something much darker.

Paula Vogel's plays include 'The Baltimore Waltz' (bie Award for Best Play in 1992), 'Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief,' 'The Oldest Profession,' 'And Baby Makes Seven,'' Hot 'N Throbbing,' 'The Mineola Twins,' 'The Long Christmas Ride Home,' and 'Civil War Christmas,' among others. They have been performed at the Vineyard Theatre, Lortel Theatre, Signature Theatre, and Circle Repertory in New York, and regionally at The American Repertory Theatre, Intiman Theatre, Center Stage and Alley Theatre, among others.