KNOXVILLE, TENN.: Clarence Brown Theatre (CBT) has announced its 2017-18 season, which will feature eight productions including classic drama, new plays, and musicals.
“Fantasy and satire, politics and poetry, human struggle and joy. I think it is one of our most exciting seasons and look forward to seeing new and returning patrons in the theatre,” said Calvin MacLean, CBT producing artistic director, in a statement.
The season will launch with Peter and the Starcatcher (Aug. 30-Sept. 17), by Rick Elice, based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. The play with music explores how Peter Pan became the boy who never grew up.
Next up will be Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Sept. 27-Oct. 15), in a new version by Libby Appel. The play follows Olga, Masha, and Irina as they face life’s happiness and struggles.
Craig Lucas’s Blue Window (Oct. 25-Nov. 12) will be next. The play explores one woman’s loneliness in New York city at a dinner party.
A Christmas Carol (Nov. 22-Dec. 17) will return to the theatre for the holidays. Adapted by Edward Morgan and Joe Hanreddy from Charles Dickens, the play explores Ebenezer Scrooge’s path to redemption through the visits of three ghosts.
The first show of the new year will be Kenneth Jones’s Alabama Story (Jan. 31-Feb. 18, 2018). Inspired by true events, the play is set in the South in 1959 as the Civil Rights Movement is gaining traction when a children’s book inspires a segregationist senator and a state librarian.
Next up will be Christopher Oscar Peña’s The Strangers (Feb. 21-March 11, 2018), a CBT-commissioned world premiere. A modern reimagining of Our Town, the play explores the relationship between a man who returns home to a place he doesn’t recognize and a stranger who is asked to show him around.
David West Read’s Dream of the Burning Boy (March 28-April 15, 2018) will be next. The play explores what happens at a local high school to the students and a teacher after the death of a student.
The final show of the season will be Urinetown, the Musical (April 18-May 6, 2018), with music and lyrics by Mark Hollman and book and lyrics by Greg Kotis. The satirical show is set in a town where a water shortage leads to a ban on private toilets.
Founded in 1970, Clarence Brown Theatre is at the University of Tennessee—Knoxville and produces plays and musicals for the students and the community.
