Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has announced its upcoming 2013-14 season, which will feature plays by Tony-nominated playwright Craig Lucas (The Dying Gaul), Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Fuller (A Soldier's Play), premiere works from Samuel D. Hunter and Lucy Thurber and more.
Rattlestick will kick off its season with The Hill Town Plays, a cycle of five plays by Thurber that will be staged simultaneously at five different West Village theaters, including Rattlestick Theater, Cherry Lane Mainstage Theatre, Cherry Lane Studio Theatre, Axis Theatre and the New Ohio Theatre. The Hill Town Plays tell the story of a woman who works her way from a troubled childhood of poverty, alcoholism and abuse through adulthood as a successful author. The Hill Town Plays, including Scarcity, Where We're Born, Killers and Other Family, Ashville and Stay, will run August 14 through September 28, with an official opening night set for September 5.
Next up is the world premiere of Fuller’s One Night..., about women in the military. Directed by Clinton Turner Davis, One Night... looks at what has happened to women in the U.S. Armed Forces when their decision to serve their country exposes them to an unforeseen battle against their fellow soldiers. Performances begin on October 16 at Cherry Lane Theatre.
Kip Fagan will direct Haley Feiffer’s How to Make Friends and Then Kill Them, which tells the story of two troubled sisters named Ada and Sam, and a "wallflower" named Dorrie, who learn to lean on each other completely, finding ways to fill each other up and to tear each other down. Performances of How to Make Friends... start October 23 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.
The Correspondent, a world premiere play written by Ken Urban and directed by Stephen Brackett, will be up next. The Correspondent looks at a grieving husband who hires a dying woman to deliver a message to his recently deceased wife in the afterlife. Performances begin February 5, 2014, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.
Ode to Joy, written and directed by Lucas, tells the story of love, heartbreak, addiction and illness through the eyes of a painter and her two lovers. Performances of Ode to Joy begin February 12, 2014, at Cherry Lane Theatre.
Coming off his off-Broadway success with The Whale, Hunter will premiere The Few, about the employees of a struggling newspaper for truckers. Directed by Davis McCallum, performances of The Few begin April 16, 2014.
The Rattlestick production of Buyer & Cellar, written by Jonathan Tolins, directed by Stephen Brackett, and starring Michael Urie is currently playing a commercial run at the Barrow Street Theatre.