The Seattle Repertory Theatre's 1999-2000 season will include the world premiere of Charlayne Woodard's Stories, the Seattle premiere of August Wilson's King Hedley II and the first major regional staging of Stop Kiss, seen recently at Public Theater in New York.
The nine-play season begins in September with David Henry Hwang's Golden Child, directed by Seattle Rep artistic director Sharon Ott, September-October (no exact dates yet) in the Bagley Wright Theatre.
The play, set in modern Manhattan and 1918 China, involves family history, religious tension and tradition. It had a brief run on Broadway in 1998; it was nominated for a Best Play Tony Award.
Stories (Nov. 29, 1999-Jan. 15, 2000), in the Rep's Leo K Theatre, is a one woman show by and starring Seattle favorite Woodard, who brings to life the characters she encountered as a young actress in Manhattan. Daniel Sullivan directs.
King Hedley II, a kind of continuation of Seven Guitars (the plays share characters), opens its world premiere staging December 1999 at the Pittsburgh Public Theater (in Pittsburgh, where the play in set, in the 1980s) and moves to the Rep's Bagley Wright Theatre March 6-April 8, 2000, directed by Marion Isaac McClinton. Wilson has said the play is about the breakdown of African-American families in the late 20th-century, when young men are lured into gangs and violence.
The Public Theater in New York staged -- and extended -- Diana Son's Stop Kiss in early 1999. The play follows the growing friendship of two very different women whose relationship is interrupted by a hate crime.
Also on the Seattle Rep season:
* Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, the study of a resilient English poetry professor facing ovarian cancer, directed by Martin Benson, at the Leo K. Theatre, Oct. 11-Nov. 20.
* Marivaux's 18th-century classic, The Game of Love and Chance, the comedy about a noblewoman scheming to gauge the character of her intended husband, adapted and directed by Marivaux expert Stephen Wadsworth, at the Bagley Wright, Nov. 8-Dec. 11.
* The Complete Millennium Musical (abridged), by Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor, featuring The Reduced Shakespeare Company, at the Bagley Wright, Dec. 15, 1999-Jan. 22, 2000. The comedy offers "1,000 years in 100 minutes" and moves to London after its Seattle run.
* Mary Zimmerman's sensual adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, the classic chronicle of Greek myths, directed by Zimmerman, at the Intiman Playhouse, Feb. 14-March 18, 2000.
* Shakespeare's comedy, As You Like It, directed by Ott, at the Bagley Wright, April 17-May 25, 2000. Lise Bruneau and Laurence Ballard will be Rosalind and Jacques, respectively.
For Seattle Repertory Theatre information, call (206) 443-2222.
