BOSTON: Three world premieres and two adaptations of well-known literary works are among the lineup for Huntington Theatre Company‘s 2019-20 season.
“This year I was drawn to plays that have the power to stir us up, to make us laugh, to bring us joy—plays that make us feel more alive,” artistic director Peter DuBois said in a statement. “
The season will open with its first world premiere, The Purists (Aug 30-Sept. 29) by Dan McCabe. Tony and Grammy Award winner Billy Porter will direct the new play, about an unlikely group who argue about music while they hang out on a stoop in Queens.
Tom Stoppard’s Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Sept. 20-Oct. 20) will follow, directed by Peter DuBois. The play focuses on two minor Hamlet characters as they question life, death, reality, and art.
Next will be Quixote Nuevo (Nov. 15-Dec. 15), a new take on Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote produced in association with Hartford Stage and Alley Theatre. Written by Octavio Solis, the play transports the title character to a border-town in Texas as he embarks on a quest to reunite with a long-lost love. KJ Sanchez will direct.
The season will continue with its second world premiere, Huntington playwriting fellow Lila Rose Kaplan’s We All Fall Down (Jan. 10-Feb. 9, 2020). The new play, following an nonreligious family’s comic attempt at celebrating Passover for the first time in decades, will be directed by Melia Bensussen.
Following will be Sweat (Jan. 31-March 1), the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Lynn Nottage. Based on interviews with residents of Reading, Pa., the play centers on a group of friends whose factory jobs are in jeopardy. Kimberly Senior will direct.
The final world premiere in the lineup will be Kirsten Greenidge’s Our Daughters, Like Pillars (March 20-April 19). Senior will also direct the play about a family on vacation, which is interrupted by the family’s stepmother.
The season will close with Lydia R. Diamond’s adaptation of The Bluest Eye (April 24-May 24) by Toni Morrisson. A celebration of the novel’s 50th anniversary, the play follows a young Black girl who believes everything in her life would be better if she had blue eyes.
Founded in 1982, Huntington Theatre Company is the recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award.
