ATLANTA: Actor’s Express has announced its 2020-21 season, featuring six productions with dates to be announced.
“At a time in which we need shared catharsis more than ever, Season 33 offers a panoply of experiences that engage the imagination and stir the heart,” said artistic director Freddie Ashley in a statement. “We can’t wait to offer audiences the opportunity to laugh, cry, jump in their seats and lean into the experience of being alive in the world today—and to be able to do that together.
The season will kick off with Lizzie (summer 2020), with music by Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Alan Stevens Hewitt, and Tim Mane. The rock musical upends the 1892 axe murders, for which Lizzie Borden was tried and acquitted of killing her father and stepfather. Jennifer Alice Acker will direct.
Next up will be The Thin Place (fall 2020) by Lucas Hnath, a thriller that explores the thin place that separates our world from the next. Ashley will direct.
Following will be Hedwig and the Angry Inch (holiday 2020), with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and book by John Cameron Mitchell, about a rock singer finding her place in the world after a botched sex-change operation.
The season will continue with Merrily We Roll Along (winter 2021), with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by George Furth. Based on the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, this musical journeys back in time and chronicles how three people navigate friendship and ambition. Ashley will direct.
Next up will be Robert O’Hara’s Bootycandy (spring 2021), a satirical comedy about what it is like to grow up gay and Black in America. Directed by Martin Damien Wilkins will direct.
The season will close out with Kira Rockwell’s Oh, to Be Pure Again (late spring, early summer 2021), about an idealistic camp counselor and a cabin of senior girls at a fundamentalist church camp in Texas who riding the tension of obedience and rebellion.
Actor’s Express, founded in 1988, strives to enrich Atlanta’s live theatre scene by producing contemporary and new pieces through workshops, readings, and full length productions.
