MINNEAPOLIS: The Jungle Theater has announced its 2017 season, featuring a mix of new plays and musicals.
“We’re passionate about honoring the Jungle’s incredible legacy of excellence, while inviting new voices and perspectives to the stage,” said artistic director Sarah Rasmussen in a statement. “We’re so proud and eager to introduce these fresh works to audiences hungry for intelligent, exciting, highly theatrical productions.”
The season will begin with Nilo Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics (opening Feb. 11, 2017), about Cuban immigrants working in the cigar industry in Florida in the 1920s. The all local Latino cast will include Adlyn Carreras, Cristina Florencia Castro, Emil Herrera, Juan Rivera Lebron, Nora Montañez, and Dario Tangleson. Larissa Kokernot will direct.
Next up will be Lone Star Spirits (opening April 8, 2017), by Josh Tobiessen, about a woman who returns home to introduce her fiancé to her estranged father. Terry Hempleman will star and Rasmussen will direct.
The season will continue with Fly By Night: A New Musical (June 10-July 23, 2017), by Will Connolly, Michael Mitnick, and Kim Rosenstock, about a sandwich maker’s life that is changed forever by two sisters during the 1965 East Coast blackout.
Following will be Jennifer Haley’s The Nether (opening Sept. 16, 2017), a crime story and sci-fi thriller exploring the consequences of living out private dreams in a world of ever-advancing technology. Casey Stangl will direct.
The season will conclude with Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (opening Nov. 18, 2017), by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, an imagined sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that reunites the novel’s characters at the Darcy home for the holidays. Rasmussen will direct.
The Jungle Theater, founded in 1991, produces both classic and contemporary plays and musicals.
