A.C.T. Announces 39th Geary Theater Season

American Conservatory Theater artistic director Carey Perloff has announced the company’s 39th Geary Theater season, which will run from August 2005 to July 2006.

The season is set to open with the CanStage production of The Overcoat, created by the award winning physical theater artists Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling, August 25-September 25; adapted from Nikolai Gogol’s short stories “The Overcoat” and “Diary of a Madman,” this funny theatrical epic will feature a cast of 22 actors, a two-story set, and more than 80 costumes. Up next will be a revival of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, October 13-November 13, starring A.C.T. core company member René Augesen as Maggie. For the 2005 holiday season, the company will debut a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by Carey Perloff and Paul Walsh, November 26-December 24.

A.C.T. will ring in 2006 with a new production of the early David Mamet play that helped launched the dramatist’s career, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, January 5-February 5. The company will then present The Rivals, Richard Brinsley Sheridan classic comedy of manners, March 2-April 23. Next up will be A Number, Caryl Churchill’s drama about cloning, which recently garnered strong reviews in New York; the A.C.T. production will run April 28-May 28. The theater will end its season with James Cromwell in the title role of Shakespeare’s King Lear, June 8-July 9.

Theatergoers can purchase subscription packages, which range in price from $67 to $487, by calling the A.C.T. box office at 415-749-2228 or by logging on to www.act-sf.org. Single tickets for all 2005-2006 productions, with the exception of King Lear, will be on sale as of July 31, 2005; Lear tickets will be available as of January 30, 2006.