PROVIDENCE, R.I.: Trinity Repertory Company has announced its 2020-21 season, including two productions from the 2019-20 season that had been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and an open-ended run for a revival of The Prince of Providence.
“Theatre is built on the belief that we can make the impossible happen, night after night,” said artistic director Curt Columbus in a statement. “We, audience and artists alike, have all willed remarkably beautiful things into existence in darkened rooms. In that spirit, we at Trinity Rep will be ready to once again share the irreplaceable energy and emotion that can only come from live theatre when the lights come up on our stages again in the 2020-21 season.”
The season will open with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Aug. 27-Sept. 27), with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Columbus will direct this Tony-winning musical and dark comedy about a vengeful barber. This production was originally scheduled to be a part of the 2019-20 season.
Next up will be Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat (Sept. 10-Oct. 11), directed by Christie Vela. Taking place deep in the Rust Belt, the play focuses on friendships among a group of women who spend their days working in a factory and their nights laughing over drinks and dreaming of retirement. This production was also originally scheduled to be a part of the 2019-20 season.
The Dickens holiday classic A Christmas Carol (Nov. 5-Jan. 3), with original music by Richard Cumming, will follow, marking the 43rd year for this holiday tradition. Trinity Rep acting company member (and former Scrooge) Joe Wilson Jr. will direct.
Also around for the holidays will be Tiny Beautiful Things (Nov. 19-Dec. 20), co-conceived by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail, and Nia Vardalos, adapted for stage by Vardalos, and based on the book by Cheryl Strayed. Columbus will direct this play based on Strayed’s time as the anonymous advice columnist for “Dear Sugar.”
The season will continue with Fairview (Jan. 21-Feb. 21, 2021), by Jackie Sibblies Drury. This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama examines race and prejudice through a family drama about a family preparing for Grandma’s birthday. Jude Sandy will direct.
Following will be The Diary of Anne Frank (Feb. 25-March 28, 2021), by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. Brian McEleney will direct this illuminating story about one of the darkest periods of human history and continuing to find hope and beauty in the world.
The Trinity Rep subscription season will conclude with Anna K. (March 25-April 25, 2021), by Deborah Salem Smith. A contemporary reimagining of Anna Karenina, the play follows Anna, Dolly, and Kitty as they recount tales of tumultuous relationships, the freedom and restrictions that accompany those relationships, and the strength they find in each other. Jessie Austrian will direct.
After that will be an open-ended run for The Prince of Providence (begins May 27, 2021), written by George Brant and based on the Mike Stanton book of the same name. Taibi Magar will direct this revival of Trinity Rep’s 2019 production about Providence’s deep and complicated relationship with their charismatic but corrupt former mayor Buddy Cianci.
“As it always has,” continued Columbus in his statement, “theatre will provide the answer as we ask ourselves how to move forward, and this season, in particular, introduces us to characters facing similar questions. Their stories about adapting and persevering will help bring us together around hope and joy.”
Trinity Rep, founded in 1963, is a Tony-winning Rhode Island theatre that produces new and classic plays with its resident acting company.
