The upcoming season kicks off Sept. 23 with King Lear. Shakespeare's monumental tragedy will play the Head Theater through Nov. 6. Irene Lewis, artistic director of Centerstage, will direct.
Ruth and Augustus Goetz's The Heiress will follow, playing Nov. 3-Dec. 4. Cherry Jones, currently on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt, won a Tony Award for her performance in the 1995 revival of The Heiress, playing the 22-year-old Catherine Sloper, who knows she is neither clever nor beautiful. The Centerstage production will play the Pearlstone Theater.
Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's One on This Island will also play the Pearlstone, running Dec. 16, 2005-Jan. 22, 2006. The original 1991 Broadway production received nine Tony Award nominations, including one for Best Musical. The show tells the story of the orphaned Ti Moune and features such tunes as "Waiting for Life" and "Mama Will Provide."
The American premiere of Motti Lerner's The Murder of Isaac will grace the Head Theater, Feb. 3-March 12. The play, according to press notes, is based on real-life events and concerns "the inhabitants of a Jerusalem trauma ward, [who] search desperately for a way to make their voices heard . . . they devise a passionately contentious enactment reflecting the chaos inside and outside the hospital." Irene Lewis directs.
The season continues March 24 with the Noel Coward farce Hay Fever, which will play the Pearlstone through April 23. And, Lynn Nottage's Crumbs from the Table of Joy will conclude the Centerstage season, playing May 4-June 11 at the Pearlstone. The heartfelt play about race relations in 1950's Brooklyn concerns the Crump family: Godfrey, Ernestine, Ermina and Aunt Lily. For more information about Centerstage, visit www.centerstage.org. For tickets, call the theatre's box office at (410) 332-0033.