An area theater that does consistently fine work is beginning its last season in its current home.
Everyman Theatre’s upcoming season is slated to be its final one on N. Charles Street, in the Station North arts and entertainment district.
Work is well under way on its new home downtown in the renovated Town Theater, just around the corner from the Hippodrome Theatre.
So this will be a season to remember in the long local history of Everyman. It kicks off Sept. 7 with Lorraine Hansberry’s classic drama, “A Raisin in the Sun.”
This timeless story about the aspirations of a black family in Chicago in the 1950s still resonates in any discussion of the American dream. The Hansberry play runs weekends through Oct. 9.
The remainder of the Everyman season leans toward the classic. Noel Coward’s wonderfully wry and romantic “Private Lives” is up next, followed by Michael Weller’s “Fifty Words,” Tarell McCraney’s “The Brothers Size,” and George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s “You Can’t Take It With You.”
That latter sounds like an apt choice for the final production in Everyman’s current home, which has served it well for the past 16 seasons.
For ticket information, call the box office at 410-752-2208 or go to www.everymantheatre.org.
Rep Stage, ‘Or’ — what?
Columbia’s Equity troupe, the Rep Stage Company, is opening its 2011-12 season with a look into the distant past that also has modern reverberations. Liz Duffy Adams’ 2009 play “Or,” reaches back in literary history to make its thematic points.
Set amidst the political and cultural intrigue that characterized Restoration society in 17th-century England, “Or” calls our attention to a real-life female playwright, Aphra Ben, who was trying to make a name for herself within an overwhelmingly male profession.
It sounds like a thoughtful and lively way to kick off the fall theater season in Howard County. This regional premiere stars real-life marrieds Charlotte Cohn and Jason Odell Williams, with Christine Demuth rounding out the cast. The regional premiere is being directed by Michael Stebbins.
“Or” runs through Sept. 18 in Howard Community College’s Studio Theatre. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $22-$30, $12 for students with ID. There are also special “pay-what-you-can” shows on Wednesdays.
Call the HCC box office at 410-772-4900, or go to www.repstage.org.
