The Palo Alto, California company event, which is committed "to the creation and development of new works," has expanded this year to two weeks, April 26-May 7. All artists involved will be in residence during their performances at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts' Second Stage.
The lineup for the 2006 festival is scheduled as follows:
Paul Gordon (Broadway's Jane Eyre) takes on the Jane Austen classic tale of the young matchmaker in his new musical. Robert Kelley directs the work featuring music, lyrics and a book by Gordon.
"When a DNA research team discovers her departed father's Anasazi ancestry, the rights to the heritage of the ancient ones are suddenly on the market and Gail must face the death of her father, the step sister she never knew, and her own tendencies toward larceny." Leslie Martinson directs.
String of Pearls and The Smell of the Kill author pens a WWII drama about a woman who refuses to give up her job at a Boeing plant to returning soldiers. Leigh Silverman (Well) directs.
With music from composer Georgia Stitt and book and lyrics from writer John Jiler, this new musical follows the story of a son searching for his supposed band leader turned-World War II hero father "through the bewildering landscape of post-war America." Annette Jolles directs.
A coming of age musical comedy with a score by composer (and TheatreWorks vet) Andrew Lippa (A Little Princess, The Wild Party). T.C. Smith and Peter Spears pen this new tale of two troubled teen rivals who team up toward a common enemy, an evil nun teacher. Kent Nicholson directs.
Swimming in the Shallows and Five Flights playwright returns to TheatreWorks with his latest romantic comedy about "Three best friends [who] all receive rings at the same time, but by the night of their raucous bachelorette party, only one still wears the gold... will even one relationship survive?" Kent Nicholson directs.
Composer Lance Horne pens the music and teams with bookwriter Winter Miller on lyrics to this musical conceived by director Josh Hecht and Miller. Based on the true story of Herculina Barbin, this provocative work about a girl raised in the isolated convents of 19th century France, who is "exposed as a male at the age of 22 [and] forced to remake her life as a man." Tickets and exact performance times to TheatreWorks' Festival of New Works are available through (650) 903-6000 and online at theatreworks.org.