Toledo Rep Announces New 2009 - 10 Season

Posted: Friday, August 14, 2009 by: Kathy McGovern | Category: Arts and Entertainment

Tickets and season subscriptions are now available for the 2009-2010 season at the Toledo Repertoire Theatre.  Please call (419) 243-9277 or purchase online at www.toledorep.org.

The area’s longest-running showcase of local talent, The Rep begins its 77th season – “A Season of Smiles” – on September 11, 2009 with Hats! The Musical, a tribute to the Red Hat Society, by Marcia Milgrom Dodge and Anthony Dodge.  Directed by Brandi Shepard, the show runs through September 27.  

Red hats give way to Rupert Holmes when Accomplice is performed from November 6-22.  Holmes, best known as the voice behind the soft rock classic “Escape (The Pina Colada Song),” crafted this modern comic whodunit which revels in keeping the audience guessing. Matthew D. Bowland, the man behind The Rep’s 2008 hit, Cabaret, directs. 

The Rep next presents a holiday tradition when Paul Causman reprises his role as Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. For this three-night engagement (December 4-6) The Rep departs from its familiar 10th Street environs to stage this classic at the Stranahan Theater under the direction of Debra Ross Calabrese.

If you enjoy the sight of men poorly disguised as women, don’t miss Leading Ladies (January 15-31) by Ken Ludwig, the playwright behind Moon Over Buffalo and Lend Me a Tenor.   Ludwig’s farce, directed by Carol Ann Erford, details the lengths to which two struggling actors will go to weasel their way into a family fortune.   

Leading Ladies will be followed by the classic Auntie Mame. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee scripted this comedy in which fate thrusts a youngster into the Roaring Twenties lifestyle of his eccentric aunt. Running from April 16-May 2, Mame will mark the first Rep production to be directed by Lee Kr?henbühl, the theatre’s new artistic and managing director.   

To round out the 77th season James M. Norman, fresh from the triumphant reprisal of The Full Monty, returns to direct Victor/Victoria.  To accommodate the elaborate set design, The Rep will perform V/V at Owens Community College’s Center for the Fine and Performing Arts. Based on the book by Blake Edwards, and featuring music by Henry Mancini and lyrics by Lesliee Bricusse, the story explains how Victoria, a struggling opera singer, rekindles her flagging career by disguising herself as ‘Victor,’ a female impersonator.  The show runs from June 4-13.   
 
For those who prefer the written word over show-stopping musical numbers, The Rep presents “Edgy Rep” readings three times throughout the year.  Preceded by a wine and cheese reception, these staged readings provide a showcase for audiences to acquaint themselves with less familiar works in a more intimate setting.  This year’s offerings are:

The Man Who Had Three Arms, Edward Albee’s exploration of the meaning of celebrity.  Directed by David DeChristopher, the reading will be staged October 10 at the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts at Owens Community College.  (Adult language and content.) 

Blackbird by David Harrower, which will be performed February 20 at The Rep’s customary 10th Street stage. The play asks: What happens when a criminal reunites with his victim fifteen years later?  Directed by Dr. F. Scott Regan. (Adult language and content.)   

Wallace Shawn’s The Designated Mourner, to be directed by Barbara Barkan.  Performed on March 13 at Trinity Episcopal Church, Shawn’s play weaves three monologues into a compelling drama about political conflict and the place of the self and the artist in brutal times.  

Tickets and season subscriptions to the Toledo Repertoire Theatre are available by phone at (419) 243-9277 or online at www.toledorep.org.

Press Release Contact Name: Kathy McGovern
Press Release Contact Email: [email protected]
Press Release Contact Phone: 419.243.9277
Organization Name: Toledo Repertoire Theatre
Website or Link: www.toledorep.org
Organization Address: Toledo, OH