Carousel, Smart People, and More Make Up Arena Stage's 67th Season

Arena Stage artistic director Molly Smith has announced plans for the theater's 2016-17 season, which will showcase its mission of presenting American voices and artists. Arena Stage has embraced a commitment to inclusion with a season including seven titles by women, six playwrights of color, and five female directors.

Arena's 2016-17 season will feature a Lillian Hellman Festival that comprises two full productions: The Little Foxes (September 23-October 30), starring Emmy Award winner Marg Helgenberger (CSI), and Watch on the Rhine (February 3-March 5), featuring Broadway veteran, four-time Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe Award winner Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl). The festival will also boast staged readings, film screenings, panel discussions, and more events throughout the year.

Kicking off the season will be the previously announced world-premiere of Born for This: The BeBe Winans Story (July 1-August 28), a musical created by six-time Grammy Award winner BeBe Winans and veteran Arena Stage playwright and director Charles Randolph-Wright. Featuring new music by BeBe, the musical chronicles the early days of his career with sister CeCe and will star their niece and nephew, siblings Deborah Joy Winans and Juan Winans.

Then, the season will bring Joan Didion’s adaptation of her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, starring Academy Award and Tony Award nominee Kathleen Turner (High); Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel (October 28-December 24), starring Arena favorites Nicholas Rodriguez and E. Faye Butler and directed by Molly Smith; and Lookingglass Theatre Company’s production of Moby Dick (November 18-December 24), adapted and directed by David Catlin in association with the Actors Gymnasium.

Lisa Loomer’s world-premiere drama Roe (January 12-February 19) will explore the landmark Supreme Court decision, in a coproduction with Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. OSF artistic director Bill Rauch directs.

The final three offerings of the Arena season will be Jacqueline E. Lawton’s world-premiere political thriller Intelligence (February 24-April 2), directed by Daniella Topol; Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun (March 31-April 30), under the direction of longtime Arena Stage veteran Tazewell Thompson; and Lydia Diamond’s provocative comedy Smart People (April 14-May 21), directed by Seema Sueko.

For tickets to the new Arena Stage season, click here.