A grant from the National Endowment for the Arts is helping fund the world premiere of Jeffrey Hatcher's new play, What Corbin Knew, at Madison Repertory Theatre, in Wisconsin, Jan. 7-30, 2000.
A public reading of the second draft of the new script -- a Rep commission -- will be presented in Madison Rep's "From Page to Stage" series Aug. 2, with the playwright digesting audience feedback.
The play is set in a sports arena skybox and populated by a group of associates whose machinations are seen from different points of view: Halfway through the play, the set revolves and the story begins anew, showing a fresh perspective.
A season statement says the work, by the author of Scotland Road and Three Viewings, is "a satiric farce [that] centers around perceived power and partial knowledge in a domestic love triangle that may lead to murder."
Hatcher's the funeral-themed monologues, Three Viewings, was workshopped at Madison Rep before its New York premiere. It appeared as a mainstage production at the Rep, Madison's major resident Equity theatre, in the 1998-99 season. Hatcher is a Minneapolis-based writer. Leslie Swackhamer will direct What Corbin Knew, which was originally called What Corbett Knew. There is no word on why the name changed.
The 1999-2000 Madison Rep:
• A...My Name Will Always Be Alice, Joan Micklin Silver and Julianne Boyd's second sequel to the hit feminist revue, continues to Aug. 28.
• The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn. Sept. 3-26.
• A Doll's House, the groundbreaking Ibsen play in a new translation by Rep artistic director D. Scott Glasser. Oct. 22-Nov. 14.
• The Three Musketeers, the Dumas swashbuckler in a new adaptation by Wisconsin playwright James De Vita. The production is a collaboration between the Rep and UW-Madison University Theatre, performed at the UW Mitchell Theatre, 821 University Avenue. Glasser directs. Nov. 26-Dec. 19.
• What Corbin Knew, Hatcher's new work. Jan. 7-30, 2000.
• Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, Moises Kaufman's theatrical docudrama about fall of Wilde. March 10-April 2, 2000.
• Art, the Europe-London-Broadway hit about the collision of three friends who bicker over a piece of art (pending availability of rights). April 14-May 7, 2000.
Performances (except Musketeers) are in the Isthmus Playhouse of the Madison Civic Center. Call (608) 266-9055 for information.
-- By Kenneth Jones
