DALLAS: Undermain Theatre has announced its 2020-21 season, the company’s 37th. Plays about women will comprise the four central productions.
“Undermain is looking past the pandemic, affirming the well-being of our audience, our company and our community and looking forward to presenting the season of the feminine hero,” said producing artistic director Bruce DuBose in a statement.
The season will kick off with the Dallas premiere of Athena (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), written by Gracie Gardner. This dramatic comedy provides a searing look into two young women driven to make their way through the ranks of competitive fencing and their fascination with each other. Undermain associate artistic director Danielle Georgiou will direct.
Next up will be a new adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (Nov. 11-29), written and directed by Blake Hackler. Ibsen’s masterpiece is the story of an extraordinary woman trapped in a conventional life of secrets and lies that fuel her own personal explosion. This production is sponsored by Ford and Cece Lacy.
Following will be Feeding on Light (March 5-21, 2021), written by Lenora Champagne and directed by Dubose. It is based on the playwright’s personal relationship and discussions with Undermain Theatre’s late founding artistic director Katherine Owens, to whom the play is dedicated, and follows Nora, a curious writer who seeks to understand her friend and collaborator Katherine’s obsession with 20th-century French philosopher and activist Simone Weil. This workshop will be the centerpiece production of Undermain’s fourth year of Whither Goest Thou America (March 5-28, 2021), a festival of new American plays examining the American landscape.
The season will conclude with the world premiere of Seven Against Thebes (April 28-May 23, 2021), written by Danielle Georgiou and Justin Locklear. In this adaptation of Aeschylus’s ancient Greek tragedy, the climactic battle for control of Thebes is told from the perspective of Antigone, Ismene, and the women of the city.
Founded in 1984, Undermain Theatre is a company of artists that has produced 35 World Premieres, 61 regional premieres and countless re-workings of masterpieces that celebrate language and poetics.
