BOSTON: Company One has announced its 2016-17 season, the theatre’s 18th. It will feature five new plays, including work by Alice Birch and Jiehae Park and a world premiere by Josh Wilder. A number of the works will be mounted in non-theatrical spaces around town.
“At Company One, we’re rarely content and are always pushing forward, seeking to make meaningful theatre in impactful and inventive ways,” said artistic director Shawn LaCount in a statement. “With each new season comes the opportunity to explore how we can continue to break boundaries and expand the limits of what’s possible.”
Opening the season will be the remount of Company One’s 2016 production of Young Jean Lee’s We’re Gonna Die (Oct. 4-8). Obehi Janice will reprise her performance in this cabaret show about an existential crises. It will be mounted at American Repertory Theater‘s OBERON cabaret space and directed by LaCount.
Also in October will be Alice Birch’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Oct. 21-Nov. 19). Company One founding member Summer L. Williams will direct Birch’s play about feminism and the way women are styled, shaped, and confined to fit society’s expectations.
On Nov. 5, in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Company One will present Every 28 Hours, in collaboration with Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the One-Minute Play Festival. The project will feature 80 one-minute plays inspired by BLM, written by more than 40 playwrights. The event will take place at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
After that will be Really by Jackie Sibblies Drury (Jan. 20-Feb. 5, 2017), which is set in a photo studio where two women work to process the disappearance of a man they both loved. LaCount will direct. The play will be mounted at the Matter & Light Gallery.
Next will be peerless by Jiehae Park (April 27-May 28, 2017). The play is a dark comedy about a pair of high school twins who are determined to get into their dream school at any cost. Steven Bogart will direct. And the show will be mounted at the Boston Public Library’s Central Library.
Closing the season will be the world premiere of Leftovers by Josh Wilder (July 14-Aug. 12, 2017). The magical-realist play is about two black brothers living in South Philly, and what happens when a giant dandelion suddenly sprouts up off the ground.
Founded in 1999, Company One is dedicated to mounting socially and politically relevant theatre.
