René Augesen, Olympia Dukakis, Lorenzo Pisoni, Patricia Wettig Set for A.C.T. 2012-2013 Season

American Conservatory Theater has announced a revised lineup for the company’s 46th subscription season, which will mark the 20th anniversary of Carey Perloff as A.C.T.’s artistic director.

The 2012-2013 season will kick off with the return of Lorenzo Pisoni’s one-man show Humor Abuse (August 3-19), a stage memoir in which Pisoni takes us under the big top with the incredible true story of growing up as the youngest member of the Pickle Family Circus.

Up next will be the national tour of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart (September 13-October 7), directed by Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe. The cast will include Patrick Breen, Christopher J. Hanke, Luke MacFarlane, and Patricia Wettig.

Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis will star as the fiercely partisan Chorus Leader, with core acting company member René Augesen in the title role of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy Elektra (November 1-25). Carey Perloff directs this production, which features a specially-commissioned new translation by London playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker.

The holiday season will feature a return of A.C.T.’s celebrated production of A Christmas Carol (December 6-29). Now in its 36th year, this version of the Charles Dickens classic is adapted by Paul Walsh and Carey Perloff.

Next A.C.T will present the world premiere of George F. Walker’s Dead Metaphor (January 17-February 10), a dark comedy about the hypocrisies of postwar living. René Augesen will star as the troubled and mesmerizing Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ sultry classic, A Streetcar Named Desire (February 28-March 24).

Chay Yew will direct the world premiere of Stuck Elevator (April 4-28), a hip-hop opera based on the true story of a Chinese restaurant deliveryman who was trapped in a Bronx elevator for 81 hours.

The National Theatre of Scotland’s internationally acclaimed production of Black Watch will make its Bay Area premiere, May 3-June 9. Written by Gregory Burke and directed by John Tiffany, the show is based on interviews Burke conducted with soldiers of the legendary Scottish regiment who served in Iraq. The season will conclude with a new production of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (May 16-June 9), which unfolds in a beautiful English country house and moves between the 19th century and the present as characters from both eras discover connections, unearth mysteries, and unravel hidden truths about the nature of heat and desire.

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