Two River Theater announces 2015/16 season which will launch August Wilson’s Seven Guitars

Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ has announced the lineup of productions for its 2015/16 Season.

The 2015/16 season will launch in September with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, directed by Brandon J. Dirden.

To follow will be the musical “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, directed by Jessica Stone; a new music-theater production of Shakespeare’s Pericles created by Rinde Eckert and David Schweizer; and the Transport Group’s critically acclaimed production of I Remember Mama, directed by Jack Cummings III.

New works include the world premiere of Lives of Reason by Robert Rechnitz and Kenneth Stunkel, directed by Jonathan Fox, and the American premiere of Mexican playwright Barbara Colio’s Ropes, translated into English by Maria Alexandria Beech and directed by Lisa Rothe.

“The 2015/16 season is built around the theme of family,” says Artistic Director John Dias. “Both in the content of the plays, which each deal with the complicated bonds between families-those you are born to and those you build within a community-and for Two River Theater itself. We are welcoming back several artists who are part of our family, and introducing several we have long wanted to bring into the fold. We have always believed that theater is a place for artists and audiences to come together and examine and celebrate the bonds that connect us as humans, and Managing Director Michael Hurst and I are proud that our season will be full of these rich opportunities.”

TWO RIVER THEATER’S 2015/16 SEASON

August Wilson’s SEVEN GUITARS
Directed by Brandon J. Dirden
Rechnitz Theater
September 12-October 4, 2015
Press Opening: September 18

Two River Theater opens its season with August Wilson’s Seven Guitars, Two River’s third American Century Cycle production following its acclaimed productions of Jitney and Two Trains Running. Seven Guitars takes audiences to Pittsburgh, 1948, where local blues guitarist Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton sits on the edge of stardom. Brandon J. Dirden is making his directorial debut with this production. As an actor, Dirden has appeared at Two River in Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, and August Wilson’s Jitney. On Broadway, he played Martin Luther King, Jr., opposite Bryan Cranston’s Lyndon Johnson in the Tony Award-winning All the Way. His Off-Broadway credits include The Piano Lesson, for which he received Obie, Theatre World, and AUDELCO Awards, and Drama League and Lortel nominations. On television, he can be seen as Agent Aderholt in the FX series The Americans. Seven Guitars will feature cast members Crystal Dickinson (Broadway’s You Can’t Take It With You and Clybourne Park) as Louise and Jason Dirden (Two River’s Topdog/Underdog and Broadway’s A Raisin in the Sun) as
Canewell.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart
Choreographed by Denis Jones
Directed by Jessica Stone
Rechnitz Theater
November 14-December 13, 2015
Press Opening: November 20

Director Jessica Stone returns to Two River, where she made her debut last season with Alan Ayckbourn’s Absurd Person Singular, to direct A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Musical. The production will be choreographed by Denis Jones (Honeymoon in Vegas). Inspired by Stone’s acclaimed 2010 Williamstown Theatre Festival production, Two River’s …Forum will feature an all-male troupe of actors led by Christopher Fitzgerald (Broadway’s An Act of God, the original cast of Wicked, Young Frankenstein) as Pseudolus, a slave who tries to win his freedom by playing matchmaker for his innocent young master.

LIVES OF REASON

By Robert Rechnitz and Kenneth Stunkel
Directed by Jonathan Fox
Marion Huber Theater
January 9-February 7, 2016
Press Opening: January 15

Set at an English Department faculty party, Lives of Reason exposes the challenges of intellectual life-and what happens when one woman’s secret passions explode and her authentic self is revealed. This world premiere is written by Two River founder Robert Rechnitz and Kenneth Stunkel, and directed by former Two River Artistic Director Jonathan Fox, who currently serves as Executive Artistic Director of the Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara. The cast will include John Ahlin (Off-Broadway’s Orson’s Shadow, Two River’s Charlotte’s Web) and Maureen Silliman (Two River’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Glass Menagerie). This production will be sponsored by Monmouth University.

ROPES

By Bárbara Colio
English Translation by Maria Alexandria Beech
Directed by Lisa Rothe
Marion Huber Theater
February 20-March 20, 2016
Press Opening: February 26

In this beautiful and universal story about forgiveness, love, and loss, three brothers rendezvous at an airport to meet the father who abandoned them as children, and who is now the most famous tightrope walker of all time.

Written by Bárbara Colio, one of Latin America’s leading contemporary playwrights, Ropes will be directed by Lisa Rothe (Hold These Truths at Epic Theatre Ensemble), Director of Global Exchange at the Lark Play Development Center in New York.

Two River Theater will present select performances of Ropes in Spanish as part of its ongoing Nosotros program, which is dedicated to engaging Monmouth County’s Latino community and furthering the work of Latino theater artists.

PERICLES

By William Shakespeare
Original Music and Additional Lyrics by Rinde Eckert
Directed by David Schweizer
Rechnitz Theater
April 16-May 8, 2016
Press Opening: April 22

Shakespeare’s thrilling and epic tale of adventure, shipwreck and romance will be brought to new life with original songs by Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rinde Eckert, who will also appear in the production, directed by David Schweizer. Eckert and Schweizer’s previous collaborations include And God Created Great Whales, an Obie Award-winning operatic adaptation of Moby-Dick.

In connection with its production of Pericles, Two River will produce “A Little Shakespeare,” a 75-minute version of Pericles performed by high school students. Performances will be presented in Two River’s Marion Huber Theater in December 2015.

I REMEMBER MAMA

By John Van Druten
Directed by Jack Cummings III
Rechnitz Theater
June 4-26, 2016
Press Opening: June 10

Ten veteran powerhouse actresses (led by Barbara Andres as Mama) will perform all 25 roles in John Van Druten’s beloved classic about a working-class Norwegian family in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. The Transport Group’s production of I Remember Mama, directed by Jack Cummings III, was celebrated as one of the best theater productions of 2014 in The New York Times and The New Yorker.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Based on the Book by Maurice Sendak
Directed by Kim Selody
Produced by Presentation House Theatre, Vancouver, Canada
Originally Adapted for the Stage by Tag Theatre of Glasgow
June 9-12, 2016

Adapted from Maurice Sendak’s landmark children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are is an intimate “guided play” experience for kids ages 3 to 7 and their adults.

Max’s bedroom is transformed into the various landscapes of his adventures, from a rolling ocean to a forest.

The audience then becomes the Wild Things as each child is each given a mask and encouraged to “let the Wild Rumpus start!”

For more information on 2015/16 Two River Theater’s season plays, artists, dates, and ticket prices, visit tworivertheater.org.