LOS ANGELES: Fountain Theatre has announced its 2017-18 season, which will emphasize social justice and inclusion. The lineup includes four world premieres from Robert Schenkkan, Jeremy J. Kamps, and coartistic directors Deborah Lawlor, and Stephen Sachs.
“The Fountain has always been committed to speaking out for social justice and inclusion,” said Sachs in a statement. “These are disturbing and tumultuous times—for our local intimate theatre community in Los Angeles and our nation. The Fountain is a place for theatre to serve as a vehicle for public discourse: to express outrage, compassion and hope.”
The season will open with the world premiere of Building the Wall by Robert Schenkkan (March 18-May 21). The play is set in the near future, where the Trump admission’s promise to deport millions of immigrants is a reality. Michael Michetti will direct.
Then in April, as part of its inaugural Block Party, Center Theatre Group will remount the Fountain’s 2015 production of Citizen: An American Lyric (April 30-May 7), by Claudia Rankine, adapted for the stage by Stephen Sachs and directed by Shirley Jo Finney. Citizen fuses poetry, prose, movement, music, and video images in a provocative meditation on everyday acts of racism in America. It will star Simone Missick.
The summer will see the world premiere of Runaway Home, by Jeremy J. Kamps. It takes place in New Orleans’s Lower 9th Ward three years after Hurricane Katrina, as 14-year-old runaway Kali picks through the wreckage of her life.
Then in the fall, the Fountain will mount The Chosen by Aaron Posner, based on the novel by Chaim Potok. It is about the lifelong friendship between two Jewish boys from “five blocks and a world apart.” Simon Levy will direct.
Also in the fall will be the world premiere of Freddie by Deborah Lawlor. The dance/theatre work is set in Greenwich Village in 1964 and is about a young woman who falls for a real-life ballet dancer Freddie Herko. Frances Loy will direct. The production will be presented Los Angeles City College, inaugurating a new partnership with the LACC Theatre Academy.
Closing out the season in spring 2018 will be the world premiere of Arrival and Departure by Sachs. Real-life married couple Troy Kotsur and Deanne Bray will star in a modern-day, reimagining of the 1945 Noel Coward film Brief Encounter. The new version will be about a deaf man and a deaf woman.
The Fountain Theatre was founded in 1990 by Lawlor and Sachs. It specializes in new work or reimaginings of established plays.
