BETHESDA, MD.: Imagination Stage has announced its 2015–16 season, which they’ve titled “Magic in the Air,” including fantastical stories, classic tales, puppetry and ballet.
“Magic will be in the air,” said artistic director Janet Stanford in a statement. “The plays in the 2015-02016 season offer a wealth of insights into the questions that matter most to young people: What does it mean to be a good friend? Who can I look up to? And what are the moral values that should guide me? Serious questions—all of which are treated with a joyful blend of theatricality, including musical theatre, comedy, rock and roll and world-class choreography.”
To begin the season will be the world premiere of Susan Zeder’s When She Had Wings (Sept. 23–Nov. 1), about a little girl and her quest to fly like her heroine Amelia Earhart. The play is part of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival in Washington, D.C. Kathryn Chase Bryer will direct.
Next is A Year With Frog and Toad (Nov. 24–Jan. 10), a musical about friendship through all four seasons. Jobari Parker-Namdar and Joshua Morgan will star and Colin Hovde will direct.
Following will be the world premiere of Charles Way’s Jack and Phil, Giant Slayers, INC (Feb. 3–March 13, 2016), a modern retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk in which a boy pawns his grandfather’s gold watch for a handful of magic beans. Stanford will direct.
Next will be Looking for Roberto Clemente (April 13–May 22, 2016), a rock and roll musical set in Pittsburgh in 1972 about a magical baseball that brings pitching powers to a young boy after it crashes through his window. This play premiered at Imagination Stage in 2008. The cast includes David Landstrom, Calvin McCullough, Philip da Costa and Jaysen Wright. Stanford will direct.
The season concludes with the world premiere ballet of Stanford’s adaptation of The Little Mermaid (June 22–Aug. 14, 2016), adapted from Hans Christian Andersen and produced in collaboration with Washington Ballet. Septime Webre and David Palmer will choreograph, with music by Matthew Pierce. Bryer will direct.
