PORTLAND, ORE.: Artists Repertory Theatre has announced its 2018-19 season, featuring seven plays and two limited engagements.
“Our 2018-19 season is a dynamic nine-show mix of potent, funny, and exhilarating theatre experiences,” said artistic director Dámaso Rodríguez in a statement. “Audiences can expect compelling stories, complex characters, heightened theatricality, and themes that will stir up conversation long after the lights fade to black.”
The season will open with Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew (Sept. 2-30). Factory workers in one of Detroit’s last auto plants are living paycheck-to-paycheck when Faye, a factory lifer, learns that management has a plan that leaves her torn between loyalty to her coworkers and her own survival.
Next up will be Small Mouth Sounds (Oct. 7-Nov. 4), by Bess Wohl. Over the course of five days, six individuals who have gathered at a wellness center for a week-long silent retreat have to navigate hurt feelings and exposed vulnerabilities to reach enlightenment.
Following will be Everybody (Nov. 25-Dec. 23) by Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins. When Everybody doesn’t want to die alone, Everybody seeks the company of their friends Stuff, Kinship, Friendship, Cousinship, and Love in this riff on the 15th-century morality play, Everyman. And every night, the nine actors will have their roles chosen by a lottery onstage.
Next will be Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick (Jan. 6-Feb. 3, 2019). A modern comedic retelling of Shakespeare’s Richard III, the play follows a power-hungry high schooler intent on becoming junior class president.
Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Jan. 27-Feb. 24, 2019) will be next. Fifteen years after Norwegian housewife Nora Helmer walked out on Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, she walks back in the front door in this sequel to the 1879 social drama.
Following will be Wolf Play (March 10-April 7, 2019), by Hansol Jung. The play grapples with where family allegiance lies after one American couple decides to un-adopt their young Korean son because they have a newborn at home.
Rounding out the season will be Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists (April 28-May 26, 2019). In 1793, during France’s Reign of Terror, a playwright, an assassin, a former queen, and a Caribbean spy walk into a room and attempt to save the soul of France while avoiding the guillotine.
Artists Rep has also announced two limited engagements. First will be Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) (Sept. 8-12), by Split Britches in a partnership with the Portland Institute of Contemporary Arts’ Time-Based Arts Festival. Next will be the beloved holiday staple It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (December 2018), by Joe Landry.
Artists Repertory Theatre, founded in 1982, produces provocative classic and contemporary plays.
