ROCHESTER, N.Y.: Geva Theatre Center has announced its 2015–16 season, its 43rd, with 14 productions and special events. Among the season’s offerings will be Spamalot, Benjamin Scheuer’s The Lion and An Iliad.
“The 2015–2016 season provides a dynamic array of artistic challenges and creative opportunities for our hundreds of guest artists and resident staff to once again dazzle our community with their theatre-making,” said artistic director Mark Cuddy in a statement.
The season will start off with the musical Spamalot (Sept. 9–Oct. 11), with book and lyrics by Eric Idle, and music by John Du Prez and Idle, based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The production will be helmed by Melissa Rain Anderson, who frequently directs and acts at the theatre.
Next will be John Logan’s Tony-winning Red (Oct. 20–Nov. 15), about the later days of painter Mark Rothko. The production will be directed by artist-in-residence/director of education Skip Greer.
Benjamin Scheuer will take his one-man show The Lion to Geva Nov. 11–22. This musical journey from boyhood to manhood will be directed, as in its New York debut, by Sean Daniels, Geva’s artist at large/director of artistic engagement.
The holiday season will see the annual tradition of Cuddy’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Nov–December 27.
Coming into the new year, Geva will present Tom Dudzick’s Miracle on South Division Street (Jan. 12–Feb. 7), about a family living in Buffalo, N.Y. and their heirloom: a 20-feet statue of the Virgin Mary.
Next will be Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s An Iliad (Feb. 4–Feb. 21, 2016), a one-man retelling of Homer’s epic tale. Then Cuddy will direct To Kill a Mockingbird, in Christopher Sergel’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s novel (Feb. 16–March 20, 2016).
For Easter, Geva will present Maripat Donovan’s Sister’s Easter Catechism: Will My Bunny Go to Heaven? (March 1–27), a one-woman show in which the popular nun will tackle such theological questions as the origins of bunnies, eggs and other Easter customs.
Geva will next stage O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, a kind of sequel to Long Day’s Journey Into Night (March 29–April 24, 2016). The play will be produced in association with the Theatre Royal in Ireland. Irish director Ben Barnes will direct.
The theatre will next play host to Kitchen Theatre Company for the latter’s production of Dancing Lessons by Mark St. Germain (April 14–May 1, 2016). The play is a two-hander, between a man with Asperger’s Syndrome who seeks dancing lessons from his neighbor. Kitchen Theatre Company artistic director Rachel Lampert will direct.
The final production of the season will be The May Queen by Molly Smith Metzler (May 3–29), about the gossip that ensues when the former high school queen bee returns to the town she grew up in. Amanda Charlton will direct.
In addition to its mainstage season, Geva will also present a bevy of special events. The first will be Journey to the Son: A Celebration of Son House, a four-day festival in late August 2015 about Rochester’s adopted son, the late blues singer and guitarist Eddie “Son” House. The event will feature a reading of a commissioned play by Keith Glover.
Geva will also host the First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival (Sept. 17-26, 2015). This is the fourth year the theatre has hosted the event.
In October 2015, the theatre will present a two-week showcase of new plays and projects currently being developed at Geva.
