ACT Announces 2009 Season

ACT – A Contemporary Theatre has announced selections for its 2009 Season, which will utilize both the Allen Theatre, a 434-seat arena theatre with seating in-the-round, and the 409-seat thrust-style Falls Theatre.

The season will kick off with Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll, to be directed by Kurt Beattie, April 10-May 10. The work follows an aging British professor and his promising young Czech student, spanning two countries, three generations and 22 turbulent years. The next production, to run May 22-June 21, will be announced at a later date.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s hip-hop infused solo, the break/s, directed by Michael John Garces, will play June 18-July 12. The piece draws upon interviews and documentary footage in mixture of dance, sound, story and visual imagery. It features choreography by Stacy Printz, set and video design by David Szlasa, lighting design by James Clotfelter, and original music by Ajayi Lumumba. The musical Das Barbecü, featuring book and lyrics by Jim Luigs with music by Scott Warrender, will play August 6-September 6. Stephen Terrell will direct this country western spoof of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Five actors play more than 30 characters, and the show includes mismatched lovers, feuding families, a magic ring of power, construction-worker giants, rope tricks, a synchronized swim team of Rhine maidens, and a serenade to guacamole.

The season will continue with writer/performer Bo Eason’s Runt of the Litter, directed by Larry Moss, to be performed September 18-October 11. The former pro-football player gives an insider’s vivid and sometimes brutally honest look at the cult and culture of pro sports. The season will conclude with Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Kurt Beattie will direct the production, which will run October 9-November 8. Hatcher’s new adaptation brings modern psychological complexity to Stevenson’s classic tale of good vs. evil to create a fiendishly theatrical portrait of one man’s confrontation with his suppressed desires and deeper – and more dangerous – selves.

Following the 2009 Mainstage season, ACT will stage its 34th annual production of the Seattle holiday favorite, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, adapted by Gregory A. Falls, November 29-December 27. In addition, The Central Heating Lab at ACT will continue throughout 2009 with after-hour companion pieces inspired by each Mainstage production, as well as an eight week comedy series, a dance residency by the Maureen Whiting Company, the 2009 New Play Award and workshop, plus the RAWSTOCK film festival, and Seattle Dance Project and the Moisture Festival.

For more information, visit www.acttheatre.org.