Ensemble Studio Theatre Announces 50th Anniversary 2018-19 Season

Ensemble Studio Theatre has announced its 50th anniversary 2018-19 season. All performances will take place at EST's Curt Dempster Theatre.

The season will open with the world premiere of Travisville, a debut play by William Jackson Harper (The Good Place), directed by Steve H. Broadnax III, and starring Stori Ayers (Pipeline), Denny Dale Bess (Year of the Rooster), Brian D. Coats (Jitney), Bjorn Dupaty (Office Hours), Lynnette R. Freeman (Luz), Joe Holt (Scandal), Ivan Moore (Luke Cage), and Shawn Randall (Fish Men). It is described as follows: "An ailing minister, a protege, a mayor, a journeyman preacher, a domestic, and her husband, have their lives irrevocably changed, when their community, untouched by the tumult of the civil rights movement, is compelled into a kind of reckoning once a stranger enters their lives, forcing them to take sides and take a stand." It runs October 3-28, with opening night set for October 11.

Coming next is the world premiere of Georgia Mertching Is Dead, a new play by Catya McMullen (Locked Up Bitches). It is described as follows: "Gretchen, Emma and Whitney are thirty. They've been friends since they were teenagers. They've been sober since they were teenagers. As they set off on a road trip south — with homemade female urination devices, too much pie, ill-advised sexual escapades — to celebrate and mourn a figure from their past, Georgia Mertching Is Dead reveals what it's like to face adulthood and death after growing up weird and possibly broken." Casting and dates will be announced later.

Also in 2019, EST and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will present a new mainstage play to be announced later as part of its ongoing partnership.

The season will close with EST's 37th Marathon of One-Act Plays, presented in association with the Radio Drama Network, running May-June 2019. The selected plays will be announced later.