Matthew Barber's Enchanted April will launch the season, June 16-July 11. The Tony Award-nominated play will be a co-production with Pasadena Playhouse that will reunite director Michael Wilson with his Broadway design team. Based on a novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, the story finds four women escaping their dull lives with a journey to Tuscany.
Next up will be Chay Yew's play Red, July 14-August 8. The drama set during China's cultural revolution will be directed by Robert Kelley and star Francis Jue — the actor who currently plays the role of Bun Foo on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie. The play follows the story of a famous Chinese-American romance writer who travels to Shanghai to investigate an interrogation.
Playing in the Aug. 18-Sept. 12 slot will be a world premiere musical that will be announced shortly. Final negotiations are underway for "an exciting Broadway-bound musical," reads a release.
Lisa Loomer's Living Out — which played a critically acclaimed run Off-Broadway recently — will play for TheatreWorks, Sept. 29-Oct. 23. The story of a Salvadoran woman who must juggle her duties as a nanny, mother and wife hits the stage for its northern California premiere.
Rock trio Groovelily (Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheikin and Valerie Vigoda) presents its new holiday musical Striking 12 — a new spin on the Hans Christian Anderson story "The Little Match Girl." The fairytale which premiered at San Diego's Old Globe will play in Palo Alto Dec. 1-Jan. 2, 2005. Ken Ludwig — who reworked Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's Twentieth Century for the upcoming Broadway revival — penned Shakespeare In Hollywood set to play Jan. 19-Feb. 13, 2005. Robert Kelley directs the work set in 1934's Tinseltown which follows filmmaker Max Reinhardt's struggles to remake A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Regina Taylor's Crowns makes its California Premiere, March 9-April 3, 2005. The stagework based on the best-selling book by Michael Cunnigham and Craig Mayberry centers on the celebration of African-American women and the fashion of church hats.
Closing the season, Tom Stoppard's love story, Arcadia will play April 6-May 1, 2005. The love story set in a 19th century estate will be directed by Robert Kelley.
TheatreWorks productions will be mounted at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto, California.
For subscriptions, call (650) 463-1960, or toll free (888) 273-3752. For more information, visit www.theatreworks.org.
