Theater News

Colman Domingo and Paula Vogel Join Vineyard Theatre's 2015-16 Season

John Kander and Greg Pierce will also return to the Vineyard with a new musical.

Composer John Kander (center) with Sarah Litzsinger and Jake Winn on the opening night of Kid Victory at Virginia's Signature Theatre.
Composer John Kander (center) with actors Sarah Litzsinger and Jake Winn on the opening night of Kid Victory at Virginia's Signature Theatre.
(© Noah Chiet)

The Vineyard Theatre has announced two new works to join its 2015-16 season.

Actor and playwright Colman Domingo (A Boy and His Soul) returns to the Vineyard with his new play Dot. The story follows what happens when family matriarch Dotty and her three adult children gather for the holidays with more than exchanging presents on their minds. As Dotty struggles to navigate life with dementia, her children fight to balance care for their mother and care for themselves. Dot was recently produced as part of Actor's Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays and will come to the Vineyard stage in early 2016.

Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) will then premiere her new play Indecent in spring 2016. Cocreated and directed Rebecca Taichman, Indecent is a play with music inspired by the true events surrounding the controversial 1923 Broadway debut of Sholem Asch's God of Vengeance, a play seen by some as a seminal work of Jewish culture, and by others as an act of traitorous libel. The piece charts the history of the incendiary drama and the artists who risked their careers and lives to perform it. Commissioned by Yale Rep and American Revolutions: the U.S. History Cycle at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the play will be performed at Yale Rep and La Jolla Playhouse prior to its New York debut at the Vineyard.

A third play for the 2015-16 Vineyard season, as well as casting for Dot and Indecent, will be announced at a later date.

The theater has also announced that Kid Victory, a new musical by the legendary John Kander (music) and Greg Pierce (book and lyrics), will open its 2016-17 season. The show will make its off-Broadway debut following its premiere production at Virginia's Signature Theatre this past February. Liesl Tommy will direct. Kander and Pierce's first musical The Landing has its world-premiere at the Vineyard in 2013.