Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI, kicks off its 39th season with Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth in the Elizabeth and Malcolm Chace Theater, Sept. 6-Oct. 13. Trinity associate artistic director Amanda Dehnert helms the production.
The Skin of Our Teeth, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama, sees the model family — from the fictional Excelsior, NJ — battle flood, famine, war and worse as they race through the millennia in this comedy about survival. The original Broadway run in 1942 played at the Plymouth Theatre starring Tallulah Bankhead, E. G. Marshall and Dick Van Patten.
The cast of The Skin of Our Teeth features Stephen Berenson, William Damkoehler, D' Arcy Dersham, Nehassaiu DeGannes, Janice Duclos, Eric Greenlund, Mauro Hantman, John Fitz Harris, Phyllis Kay, Brian McEleney, Maya Parra Alex Platt, Stephen Thorne, Rachael Warren and Dan Welch.
The creative team includes David Jenkins (sets), John Abrosone (lights), Bill Lane (costumes) and Peter Hurowitz (sound).
The rest of the Trinity 2002-03 season includes:
- Caryl Churchill's gender-bending comedy Cloud Nine plays Sept. 20-Nov. 3 in the Dowling Theater. The play which breaks all rules of time, gender and race turns the world of a family upside-down. The 1982 Obie Award winner will be co-produced with Berkeley Rep directed by their artistic director Tony Taccone.
- Michael Frayn's 2000 Tony Award winner for Best Play Copenhagen will run Dec. 6-Jan. 19 in the Dowling Theater. The drama theorizes what happened one September night in 1941 when Nazi-employed physicist Werner Heisenberg visited his mentor Niels Bohr and his wife in Copenhagen.
- Trinity Rep presents the world premiere of a new musical with book by David Henry Hwang and songs by Rob Hyman, Rick Chertoff, David Forman and Eric Bazilian Jan. 31-March 9 in the Chace Theater. Largo follows a once-famous rock band, The Convictions, who went their separate ways after a bad break-up. Now, years later, they reunite in a secluded retreat in Iowa — where Dvorak found the inspiration for his New World symphony’s memorable "Largo" movement — to see if they can repeat history. A mix of folk, blues, rock and gospel songs by an award winning group of composers and lyricists fuel Tony Award-winning David Henry Hwang's book.
- Another new work, Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Joan Holden will continue their season, Feb. 28-April 13, in the Dowling Theater. The new play based on Barbara Ehrenreich's best-seller will make its East Coast premiere at Trinity Rep. The San Francisco Mime Troupe's Holden follows the story of a woman — who under the guise of an unskilled recently divorced homemaker — tries to survive working as a waitress, a cleaning woman, a Wal-Mart clerk and many other minimum-wage jobs across the United States.
- Turning back to classics, the Thomas Meehan-Charles Strouse-Martin Charnin musical Annie will run April 18-June 1 in the Chace Theater. The story of a little orphan girl who meets a millionaire and sets out to find her birth parents has been enjoyed by audiences since 1977 — when it won seven Tony Awards.
- The season will conclude with a yet-to-be-determined new play May 17-June 30 at the Dowling Theater. Trinity Rep’s world premieres have gone on to productions and awards across the country, such as Paula Vogel's The Mineola Twins, John Belluso's Henry Flamethrowa and Kathleen Tolan's A Girl’s Life. This season Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul filled this slot and Trinity Rep will hold out again for the latest breaking play.
— by Ernio Hernandez
