SEATTLE: Book-It Repertory Theatre has announced its 2017-18 season, which will include five mainstage shows and three shows to tour in schools.
“This coming season is such a strong indication of the miles and miles of places we can travel with our audiences,” said founding co-artistic director Jane Jones. “Every season we work hard to find a combination of stories that speaks to our mission and opens the doors to our community, inviting new perspectives of the human condition. This season feels primed for voices of all aspects of life to live in our work.”
The season will launch with Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Sept. 13-Oct. 15), adapted by founding co-artistic director Myra Platt. The story follows Angelou’s life and her struggle to find her own identity amid the hardships she endured. Malika Oyetimein will direct.
For the holiday season, Book-It will present a musical adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones’s Howl’s Moving Castle (Nov. 29-Dec. 30), with music and lyrics by Justin Huertas. The fantasy follows a young woman who is transformed into an elderly one and must strike a deal with a demon to break the spell. Sara Porkalob will star.
The new year will start with an adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon (Feb. 7-April 2, 2018), adapted by Jane Jones and Kevin McKeon. The show, which will take place at Café Nordo in Pioneer Square, will present a dining experience alongside the story of detective Sam Spade’s quest to find Miss Wonderley’s sister. Jones will direct.
Next up will be Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (April 19-May 6, 2018), adapted by Elise Thoron. The story follows Oscar de Leon, an overweight Dominican boy in New Jersey who’s obsessed with a curse that has plagued his family. Elvis Nolasco will star and Thoron will direct.
The last mainstage show (June 6-July 1, 2018) will be announced at a later date.
The arts and education season will begin with an adaptation of Susan Hood’s Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay, about a group of children playing instruments made of recycled trash. The show will be on tour in fall 2017.
Next up will be Chris Barton’s Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions, about Lonnie, an engineer at NASA who invented the Super Soaker. The show will tour in winter 2018.
The final show for young audiences will be Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out & Back Again, a coming-of-age story about a young girl who flees Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon and moves to Alabama.
Founded in 1990, Book-It is dedicated to bringing great literature and quality theatre to the stage.
