CINCINNATI: Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati has revealed the lineup for its 2019-20 season, featuring works from Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron, Dominique Morisseau, and Anna Ziegler.
The season will open with the Tony-winning Fun Home (Aug. 31-Sept. 28). Featuring music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Lisa Kron, the musical follows a woman digging into her childhood memories to explore and unravel the mysteries surrounding her father.
Sex and Education (Oct. 15-26) by Lissa Levin will follow. In the play, a disgruntled high school English teacher on her last day of teaching assigns a student to transform the sexually explicit letter he was caught writing into a polished, persuasive essay.
Next will be The Frog Princess (Dec. 4-Jan. 4, 2020), a family-friendly musical with book by Joseph McDonough and music and lyrics by David Kisor. In the musical, a modern take on the fairy tale, a prince is set to marry a kindhearted princess under an amphibious curse.
The season will continue with Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Fortune (Jan. 18-Feb. 15, 2020). In the comedy, a fortune teller triggers supernatural consequences after telling a small lie to a customer with death in his near future.
After this will be Pipeline (March 7-April 4, 2020) by Dominique Morisseau. The play explores education, parenthood, and the experiences of young Black men in America through the story of an inner city public high school teacher fighting to give her son a future.
Photograph 51 (April 18-May 16, 2020) by Anna Ziegler will be next. Based on a true story, the play centers on biophysicist Rosalind Franklin, who played a pivotal part in the discovery of DNA’s molecular structure.
Susan Miller’s 20th Century Blues (May 30-June 27, 2020) will close the season. In the play, a friendship spanning four decades is sparked by an impromptu behind-bars snapshot taken during a 1970s protest lockup .
Founded in 1986, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati strives to present world and regional premieres of works that often explore compelling social issues.
