The play by the author of last year's Helen Hayes Award-nominated The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall focuses on members of the "affluent, anxious and at-each-other's-throats" Moscow family, who attempt some unusual family bonding over a summer weekend in Nantucket," according to Theater J. "On the agenda are brisket, booze and a blowout confrontation between competing brothers who've avoided each other for years. A fast-paced new American comedy with its heart in Chekhov's country…"
Performances will play May 11–June 12, 2011. Shirley Serotsky, Theater J's director of literary and public programming, will direct. Opening night is May 15.
Theater J's 2010-2011 season is as follows:
Aug. 28–Oct. 3
Something You Did
By Willy Holtzman
Directed by Eleanor Holdridge
"A stellar student from a good family, Alison Moulton is serving her third decade behind bars for an anti-war action she participated in as member of a '60s radical group that resulted in the death of an African-American police officer. Now petitioning for parole, she's visited by the daughter of the slain officer. But her fiercest detractor comes in a former comrade turned neo-conservative pundit, media star and best-selling author. Gene Biddle (Rick Foucheux) argues against his former partner while implicating another group member, now a current public official residing in the White House, for a past association with the radical terrorist group. Smear politics, '60s revisionism, the realities of a wasted life in prison, and the desire to rejoin society form the driving, conflicting forces in [the play]."
Oct. 23–Nov. 28
The Odd Couple
By Neil Simon
Directed by Jerry Whiddon
Featuring Rick Foucheux & J. Fred Shiffman
"With the help of four high-strung poker buddies and two British biddies coming in from upstairs, slovenly Oscar tries to mend his recently-divorced friend Felix's broken heart. When the finicky friend moves in, hilarity breaks out." Dec. 18, 2010–Jan. 2, 2011
The Kinsey Sicks in Oy Vey in a Manger
"America's favorite Dragapella Beauty-Shop Quartet brings its irreverent humor and pitch-perfect harmonies to DC just in time for the holidays. With gut-busting parodies and raucous shtick, Kinsey Sicks offers wholesome favorites like 'I Had a Little Facial,' 'Harried Little Christmas' and "Tis the Season to Drink Stoli.'"
Jan. 15–31, 2011
The Cameri Theatre Production of Return to Haifa
Adapted by Boaz Gaon from the novella by Ghassan Kanafani
Directed by Sinai Peter
Featuring Mira Awad & Norman Issa
Part of Theater J's Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival
"An extraordinary cross-cultural collaboration from the Israeli company that brought their kinetic Hamlet to DC in 2007, this heartrending saga tells the story of Sa'id and Saffiyah, who return to the home they fled during Israel's War of Independence and learn the fate of the baby they left behind. Now a young soldier in the IDF, Dov meets his birth parents while cleaving to Miriam and Ephraim, the Holocaust survivors who raised him, as he contemplates his identity and his country's future. Performed in Hebrew with English sur-titles."
March 7–27, 2011
The Chosen
Adapted and directed by Aaron Posner
Based on the novel by Chaim Potok
Featuring associate artist in residence Rick Foucheux as Reb Saunders
Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater – Fichandler Stage
"The much beloved novel of two boys, two fathers, and two very different Jewish communities in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Set against the backdrop of WW II, Aaron Posner's award-winning adaptation introduces us to Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders, passionate, intelligent young boys on opposite sides of a baseball game. When Reuven is injured by Danny's errant pitch, a unique friendship is born." This tenth anniversary staging of Theater J's hit play will be presented at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, where Theater J will be the first local guest Company-in-Residence.
March 23–April 24, 2011
Photograph 51
A new play by Anna Ziegler
Directed by Daniella Topol
"A funny and moving retelling of the unrequited life of Rosalind Franklin, one of the great female scientists of the 20th Century, and her fervid drive to map the contours of the DNA molecule. A chorus of physicists remember the trail-blazing, fiercely independent woman whose most stunning discovery was the beating of her own romantic heart. A beautifully imagined biography for the stage, this home-grown work was winner of the 2008 Stage International Script Competition for Best New Play About Science & Technology."
Theater J performs in the Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center at 1529 16th Street NW in Washington, DC, fours blocks east of Dupont Circle.
For information, visit www.boxofficetickets.com or theaterj.org.
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Theater J's mission is to produce "thought-provoking, publicly engaged, personal, passionate and entertaining plays and musicals that celebrate the distinctive urban voice and social vision that are part of the Jewish cultural legacy."
