PHILADELPHIA: The Wilma Theater has announced its 2019-20 season, featuring five productions.
The season will kick off with the world premiere of There: In the Light and the Darkness of the Self and of the Other (Sept. 11-22), an adaptation of Etel Adnan’s poem There. Co-created by visual artist Rosa Barba and artistic director Blanka Zizka, the stage adaptation will feature the Wilma Theater’s ensemble, the HotHouse Company. The project will be co-presented with FringeArts for the 2019 Fringe Fetsival. Zizka will direct.
Next up will be Clare Barron’s Dance Nation (Oct. 22-Nov. 10), about a competitive dance troupe of teenage girls discovering themselves while vying for the national trophy. Margot Bordelon will direct.
The season will continue with Describe the Night (Jan. 28-Feb. 16, 2020), by Rajiv Joseph, a fantasy that weaves together historical figures into imagined happenings that spans 90 years of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. Zizka will direct.
Following will be Renaissance in the Belly of a Killer Whale (Feb. 26-March 1, 2020), by Jaylene Clark Owens, Hollis Heath, Janelle Heatley, and Chyann Sapp. The play follows three women chronicling the gentrification of their neighborhood in Harlem through spoken-word poetry and dance. Clark Owens will direct.
The season will close with Is God Is (May 26-June 14, 2020), by Aleshea Harris, about twin sisters who journey from the deep South to California to exact revenge on their father. James Ijames will direct.
Founded in 1973, the Wilma Theatre develops and produces adventurous works that reflect the complexities of contemporary life.
