Old Globe to Premiere Moses' Back Back Back and Olsen's Cornelia in 2008-09 | Playbill

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News Old Globe to Premiere Moses' Back Back Back and Olsen's Cornelia in 2008-09 The Old Globe's 2008-09 season in San Diego will include two world premieres and a lavish revival of Clare Booth Luce's The Women, among other works, executive producer Louis Spisto announced May 19.

Four "second stage" productions in the season will play at a newly created arena-style space at San Diego Museum of Art's Copley Auditorium while Old Globe's new complex is undergoing construction. Construction on the Globe's new facility will last 18 months. SDMA is located next door to the Old Globe.

"The temporary space will retain the similar intimate and engaging theatrical environment of the former Cassius Carter Centre Stage," according to the season announcement.

The Copley space will house the world premiere of Back Back Back (Sept. 19–Oct. 26) by Itamar Moses (The Four of Us). Davis McCallum directs the play about "three professional baseball players, their relationships, and steroid use."

Old Globe bills the play as a "funny yet insightful new work about the careers of three major players making their way in the world of professional baseball — a world too competitive to rely only on raw talent. The play examines how each individual deals with the stress of keeping up their stats while balancing their personal and professional lives. This award-winning playwright brings the Globe another world-premiere production that takes audiences inside the locker room to witness the how these teammates face each other and do battle — for their careers, their legacies, and the future of America's favorite pastime."

Mark Olsen, creator of HBO's "Big Love," wrote the Globe's planned spring 2009 world premiere, Cornelia (May 16–June 21, 2009), "a new play that takes a fascinating and well-timed look at the rise and fall of one of America's most powerful political couples" — Alabama's George and Cornelia Wallace. Ethan McSweeny will direct. It's billed as "an epic slice of history centering on 1970s Alabama politics. Beautiful, divorced beauty queen Cornelia Folsom is a force of nature who works her way into the heart of Governor George Wallace. Together they plan to take over the state and then the White House until an assassination attempt halts his presidential campaign. But no obstacle is too great for Cornelia to overcome, as she secretly harbors her own political ambitions amidst a hostile campaign staff, her rarely sober mother, and southern shenanigans in this sweeping, provocative tale of sex, power, and bare-knuckled American politics."

The Old Globe season will launch Sept. 13–Oct. 26 in The Old Globe Theatre with "a large-scale revival" of the 1936 comedy, The Women, directed by resident artistic director Darko Tresnjak. Expect 100 costumes.

"This timely presentation coincides with the new, contemporary film version of the work coming out this fall, and will highlight the work of the Globe's renowned scenic and costume departments in a lavish, grand-scale production," according to the Old Globe.

Also on The Old Globe stage will be John Guare's Pulitzer Prize-nominated drama about an imposter infiltrating the lives of rich, white Manhattanites, Six Degrees of Separation (Jan. 10-Feb. 15, 2009), directed by Trip Cullman.

An additional production (March 6-April 26), expected to be a musical, will be announced.

Also on tap is the annual holiday offering Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, book and lyrics by Timothy Mason, music by Mel Marvin, directed by Jack O'Brien, at The Old Globe Theatre, Nov. 15-Dec. 28.

Also being presented at the SDMA:

  • Since Africa (Jan. 24-March 8, 2009) by Mia McCullough, directed by Seema Sueko. "Previously mounted by Mo'olelo Theater Company, this poignant play about a young Sudanese man's journey from refugee camp to urban Chicago will have the Globe's full resources behind it in a completely new production."
  • The West Coast premiere of Opus (March 21-April 26, 2009), by Michael Hollinger, directed by Kyle Donnelly. "A rare look at the personal lives and loves of four renowned classical musicians, imbued with the famous string quartets of Beethoven, Mozart and others."
  • The Globe's "Classics Up Close" selection, The Price (May 9–June 14, 2009), Arthur Miller's "celebrated work about family legacies, directed by longstanding director of the Old Globe/USD Master of Fine Arts Program Richard Seer." Spisto said in a statement, "I'd like to add a tremendous thank you to the San Diego Museum of Art for their assistance in allowing us to present our second stage season uninterrupted. Without their support, we wouldn't have been able to mount these productions during construction of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. The new Prebys complex — which will house the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, our new arena stage; the Karen and Donald Cohn Education Center; and Hattox Hall — was made possible by our capital campaign, led by a magnanimous $20 million gift from Donald and Darlene Shiley. This vibrant new facility will be completed by Globe's 75th anniversary in 2010."

    For more information or to subscribe to The Old Globe's 2008-09 winter season, call (619) 23-GLOBE or visit www.TheOldGlobe.org.

    *

    As previously announced, The Globe's 2008 Summer Season includes the Shakespeare Festival, featuring Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor and All's Well That Ends Well playing in nightly rotation in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre June 14-Sept. 28; The Pleasure of His Company by Samuel Taylor and Cornelia Otis Skinner, directed by Darko Tresnjak, playing in the Old Globe Theatre July 12-Aug. 17; and Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies, directed by Esther Emery, playing in the Globe's arena stage at the San Diego Museum of Art's James S. Copley Auditorium Aug. 2-Sept. 7.

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