TICKETS GO ON SALE FOR BERKELEY REP’S 2005/06 SEASON Shows feature Tony Kushner, Rita Moreno, Maurice Sendak and more! BERKELEY CA, AUGUST 19, 2005 This Sunday, tickets go on sale for Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s spectacular 2005/06 Season, featuring eminent artists such as Tony Kushner, Rita Moreno, Heather Raffo, Maurice Sendak and Culture Clash. Due to this stellar line up, the best seats are expected to go quickly. Ticket prices range from $30 to $64; subscriptions for the season are also still available, beginning at only $72. Seats go on sale on Sunday, August 21. Online purchases can be made starting at 1:00 AM; the box office opens at noon. There are three ways to buy: • Online at anytime by clicking berkeleyrep.org (and with Berkeley Rep’s new web interface, online ordering costs have been significantly reduced!) • By phone at 510.647.2949 or toll-free at 1.888.4BRTTix (during box office hours) • In person at the box office, which is located in Berkeley Rep’s three-building theatre complex at 2025 Addison Street, only half a block from Berkeley’s Downtown BART station and close to AC Transit bus lines Box office hours are from noon to 7:00 PM, Tuesday through Sunday; the box office is closed on Monday. Berkeley Rep’s 38th season features the bold mix of work that defines this Tony Award-winning theatre. The seven scintillating shows selected for the 2005/06 Season include four vivid, new plays and three fresh interpretations of classic texts: • Starting September 9: Our Town, an invigorating new production of Thornton Wilder’s life-affirming play that brings neighbors together in fractured times • Starting October 6: Finn in the Underworld, the world premiere of a haunting tale of heredity that’ll have you hanging on the edge of your seat • Starting November 11: Brundibár and Comedy on the Bridge, two musical allegories from a pair of master artists, Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak • Starting January 20: Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire, the acclaimed solo show about women in war-torn Iraq • Starting March 17: Zorro, the world premiere of Culture Clash’s hilarious look behind the mask of California’s original hero • Starting April 6: The Glass Menagerie, featuring another mesmerizing performance from the legendary Rita Moreno • Starting May 12: The Miser, an astonishing new production of Molière’s savagely funny farce from the Tony Award-winning Theatre de la Jeune Lune A schedule and complete description of each show follows. This information is also available online at berkeleyrep.org, or by calling 510.647.2949 for a season brochure. Berkeley Rep welcomes Wells Fargo as an official sponsor of the 2005/06 Season, along with returning Season Sponsor BART. SHOWS & SCHEDULE FOR BERKELEY REP’S 2005/06 SEASON OUR TOWN written by Thornton Wilder directed by Jonathan Moscone September 9–October 23, 2005 (Press Night: Wednesday, September 14) Main Season Play #1—The Roda Theatre “It’s a little play with all the big subjects in it,” Thornton Wilder wrote to his friend, Gertrude Stein—and that little play proved him right by forever changing American theatre. Opening in the first years of a new century, Our Town still speaks to us about the beauty and transience of life through its bittersweet portrait of a small American town. Like life, the story moves from the carefree to the profound: characters grow up, fall in love, get married, bear children and—in the heart-rending final act—encounter untimely death. The Pulitzer Prize-winning script from one of Berkeley High’s most illustrious graduates has become so familiar that we forget how its debut revolutionized theatre. Calling it “hauntingly beautiful,” The New York Times declared that Our Town broke through the barriers of modern theatre to capture the “quintessence of acting, thought and speculation.” Anyone familiar with Berkeley Rep knows that our production will cleave to this revolutionary spirit with a presentation that is utterly fresh and invigorating. After bringing Ghosts to Berkeley Rep’s stage last season, Jonathan Moscone returns to direct this beloved American classic. FINN IN THE UNDERWORLD written by Jordan Harrison directed by Les Waters October 6–November 6, 2005 (Press Night: Tuesday, October 11) Limited Season Play #1—Thrust Stage World Premiere OBIE Award-winning director Les Waters, who staged 2004’s soulful Eurydice and magnificent Yellowman, brings us the world premiere of a scintillating new play from one of America’s most gifted young writers. The mystery begins when Gwen and Rhoda must clean out their dead mother’s house. Little remains, other than the grandfather clock, until they literally bring the house’s ghosts to life. That’s when Gwen’s son, Finn, encounters Carver, a neighbor who holds the key to the family’s secrets. Playwright Jordan Harrison’s sparse, poignant writing is in perfect harmony with this haunting tale of heredity. As they pack up the house and unpack its secrets, his characters discover that the memories we never talk about grow larger…and the rooms we create to keep our families safe are the very places we must avoid. BRUNDIBÁR / COMEDY ON THE BRIDGE libretto by Tony Kushner adapted from Adolf Hoffmeister and Vaclava Klimenta Klicpery music by Hans Krása and Bohuslav Martinu production design by Maurice Sendak with Kris Stone directed by Tony Taccone November 11–December 28, 2005 (Press Night: Wednesday, November 16) Main Season Play #2—The Roda Theatre Berkeley Rep is proud to present Brundibár, a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between two artistic giants: Tony Kushner and Maurice Sendak. Not only is Kushner the acclaimed author of Angels in America and Homebody/Kabul, he wrote the brilliant libretto for Caroline, or Change—and now he’s penned a new libretto for this remarkable musical fable. Sendak’s singular style is famous from books such as Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen—don’t miss his spectacular designs for this production. An allegory of innocence triumphing over evil, the opera Brundibár was originally composed in the ominous years leading up to World War II and was performed by children imprisoned at Terezin, the Nazi’s notorious “model ghetto.” In 2003, Kushner and Sendak published a picture-book version of this tale; now audiences can enjoy it live! Brundibár will be presented alongside the pair’s adaptation of Comedy on the Bridge, an absurd commentary on war also written in Czechoslovakia in the thirties. According to Kushner, “Both shows are a testament to the creative power of human beings, even in dark times, to turn ugliness into music.” They will be directed by his longtime collaborator, Artistic Director Tony Taccone, and performed by a multigenerational cast that includes local school children singing the show’s moral: “Let us be brave, and make bullies behave!” HEATHER RAFFO’S 9 PARTS OF DESIRE written and performed by Heather Raffo directed by Joanna Settle January 20–March 5, 2006 (Press Night: Wednesday, January 25) Main Season Play #3—Thrust Stage “Heather Raffo, an American actress of American and Iraqi heritage, is the sole performer on the stage, but she’s far from lonely: she inhabits her characters with such compelling vibrancy that they do not entirely disappear when she moves from one to the next.” So begins the New York Times’ radiant review of Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire, a work so compassionate that it reveals our shared humanity in a way that CNN never can. A portrait of the extraordinary—and ordinary—lives of a cross-section of Iraqi women, 9 Parts of Desire lifts the veil on women in the war zone. “A triumph,” raved the New Yorker, “an example of how art can remake the world.” ZORRO written and performed by Culture Clash directed by Tony Taccone March 17–April 16, 2006 (Press Night: Wednesday, March 22) Limited Season Play #2—The Roda Theatre World Premiere California was born from a clash of cultures, and now Culture Clash explodes the romantic myths surrounding its creation. Following their 2002 hit, Culture Clash in AmeriCCa, these missionaries of mayhem return to Berkeley Rep with the world premiere of Zorro. Employing their usual irreverence, the trio takes on this legend to explore questions of homeland security in the Wild West—when Anglo-Americans struggled with issues such as Mexican immigration, Indian gambling and a governor born on foreign soil. At long last, it’s a Latin look behind the mask of this mainstream icon invented by an Irish American. Zorro rides out of the pages of pulp fiction, through the Hollywood image machine and beyond the barriers of class, race and ethnicity to become a hero for the oppressed in every land. Both history and histrionics play a role when Zorro is unsheathed! THE GLASS MENAGERIE written by Tennessee Williams directed by Les Waters April 6–June 4, 2006 (Press Night: Tuesday, April 11) Main Season Play #4—Thrust Stage Following her celebrated performance as Maria Callas in Master Class, Rita Moreno returns to Berkeley Rep in another legendary role: Amanda in The Glass Menagerie. Expect another breathtaking performance from the woman who won the Oscar, the Tony, the Grammy and two Emmys! Tennessee Williams’ autobiographical masterpiece about Amanda and her fractured family is brought to the stage by Associate Artistic Director Les Waters, who gave audiences a lush and lyrical look at Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer in 2003. In this tale of endurance and forgiveness, a young man is torn between obligation to his family and the need to lead a life of his own. Williams called this his “memory play,” and its expressionistic beauty illuminates the subjective nature of memory: for Amanda, it serves as a refuge; for her son, it’s a prison he will never escape. Don’t miss Rita Moreno and The Glass Menagerie on the intimate Thrust Stage. THE MISER written by Molière adapted by David Ball directed by Dominique Serrand May 12–June 25, 2006 (Press Night: Wednesday May 17) Main Season Play #5—The Roda Theatre Greed is good! Or so thinks Harpagon, paranoid buffoon and incarnation of bourgeois greed, who has beggared his family to safeguard his hefty stash of cash. But now his frustrated children have to outsmart the old man to get the money they need to marry the mates they want. Can Harpagon hold onto his hoard (and get himself a hot young bride in the bargain), or will his offspring loosen his stranglehold on the family fortune? This savagely funny comedy about a love affair between a man and his money gets a dazzling new production at Berkeley Rep from Theatre de la Jeune Lune, winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. According to the Boston Globe, it has “such grace and wit that it’s churlish to be miserly with one’s praise.” So make an investment in The Miser—you’ll earn laughter with interest. For photos, interviews, etc., contact: Terence Keane, Director of Public Relations 510.647.2917, tkeane@berkeleyrep.org BACK TO TOP