(RED BANK, NJ) -- Two River Theater has announced the lineup of productions for its 2017-2018 Season, which will launch in September with Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, featuring Brandon J. Dirden as Walter Lee Younger and Crystal A. Dickinson as Ruth Younger, directed by Carl Cofield. The season follows with productions of The Importance of Being Earnest, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Dancing At Lughnasa, and OO-Bla-Dee.
"We launch the season with Lorraine Hansberry’s earth-shattering answer to Langston Hughes’s most profound question: ‘What happens to a dream deferred?’" explains Artistic Director John Dias. "Each play that follows—whether classic or brand new, comedy or tragedy—in some way addresses that same existential pursuit. The playwrights are all searching out a world that’s new and better, and characters who feel poised on a turning point in time, caught between the trappings of the past and the desire to forge a new path into the future. They are plays that speak to our current national mood of uncertainty and confusion, and each play in its own way is pointing us forward, whether through laughter or tears or just the telling of a really great story.”
Plays, artists, dates, and ticket prices are subject to change. For additional information, visit tworivertheater.org.
TWO RIVER THEATER’S 2017-2018 SEASON
A Raisin In The Sun (September 9 - October 8, 2017) by Lorraine Hansberry, directed by Carl Cofield in the Rechnitz Theater. Brandon J. Dirden (Jitney, Two River’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) and Crystal A. Dickinson (Clybourne Park, Two River’s Seven Guitars) will play Walter Lee Younger and Ruth Younger in one of the greatest family dramas ever written, Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 masterpiece A Raisin in the Sun—the play that “changed American theater forever” (Frank Rich, The New York Times). Carl Cofield directed the 50th anniversary production of Dutchman by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka) for the Classical Theatre of Harlem/National Black Theatre.
The Importance of Being Earnest (November 11 - December 3, 2017) by Oscar Wilde, directed by Michael Cumpsty in the Rechnitz Theater. Tony Award-nominated actor and director Michael Cumpsty (The End of the Rainbow, Two River’s The Lion in Winter) previously directed Third at Two River Theater. He returns to direct Oscar Wilde’s great comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest.
El Coquî Espectacular and The Bottle of Doom (January 6 - February 4, 2018) by Matt Barbot, directed by Jose Zayas in the Marion Huber Theater. In Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a masked figure has been spotted: the Puerto Rican superhero, El Coquí Espectacular. In reality, it is out-of-work comic book artist Alex, who has been secretly dressing up as his favorite creation. As Alex learns that fighting crime is harder than it looks, his older brother Joe wants Alex to join him at his advertising agency, selling sugary soda to Latino consumers. Can El Coquí defeat his own self-doubt and be a hero for his neighborhood?
El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom was introduced to Red Bank audiences when it was read as part of Two River’s 2016 Crossing Borders festival of new Latino plays. The play was a finalist in the 2014 Repertorio EspanÞol Nuestras Voces National Playwriting Competition, and received the 2016 Kevin Spacey Foundation Artist of Choice Award, as well as the Kennedy Center’s Darrel Ayers Award for Outstanding Student-Written Play for Young Audiences and Latinidad Award for Outstanding Play Written by a Student of Latino/Hispanic Heritage.
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (February 17 - March 18, 2018) by Thornton Wilder, adapted for the stage by David Greenspan, in the Marion Huber Theater. Thornton Wilder won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for the classic American plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and one for his novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. This quiet masterpiece—a dazzling rumination on the nature of love—has been adapted and will star one of the singular figures in the American theater: writer and actor David Greenspan, the winner of five Obie Awards.
Dancing At Lughnasa (April 14 - May 13, 2018) by Brian Friel, directed by Jessica Stone in the Rechnitz Theater. Brian Friel’s memory play about five unmarried sisters on the west coast of Ireland in 1936 won the 1992 Tony Award for Best New Play. Director Jessica Stone returns to Two River, where she previously helmed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Absurd Person Singular.
Oo-Bla-Dee (June 9 – July 1, 2018) by Regina Taylor with original music by Dierdre L. Murray, directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson in the Rechnitz Theater. Golden Globe-winning actor and playwright Regina Taylor (I’ll Fly Away, Crowns) won the 2000 American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award for Oo-Bla-Dee when it premiered at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. The play—a shimmering portrait of a female bebop band of African-American musicians traveling the country following the end of World War II—has its first major revival with new music by two-time Obie-winning jazz composer Diedre L. Murray (Running Man, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess). Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Jitney, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) directs.
Plays, artists, dates, and ticket prices are subject to change. For additional information, visit tworivertheater.org.
