Florida Stage Announces 25th Anniversary Season

Florida Stage has announced its 25th Anniversary Season, and its second year in residence at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. For its 2011–12 season, Florida Stage will return to a full six-show season and, starting this year, will make their annual summer musical part of the available subscription series. 

Four new plays and a musical will be premiered, in addition to the summer musical.  These include new pieces from the celebrated playwright Israel Horovitz, the nationally-recognized wordsmith Carter W. Lewis, and Miami-based newcomer Christopher Demos-Brown. The Florida Stage 25th Anniversary Season begins in October with Bakersfield Mist, a National New Play Network rolling world premiere production and a wild new comedy inspired by a true story; in December the company opens the world premiere of Captiva, a Florida-based play that is darkly funny and deeply moving; January brings the premiere of Israel Horovitz’ new play Fighting over Beverley. In the spring, Florida Stage will unveil a brand new musical in the tradition of the many musicals the company has developed over its history; May brings Carter W. Lewis’ new play The Americans Across the Street.  

For the summer of 2012—and as a gift to its audiences on the occasion of the company’s 25th Anniversary—Florida Stage is offering subscribers the opportunity to choose between bringing a whole piece to the West Palm Beach stage or remounting one of four productions created by the company in previous years: Backwards in High Heels, Beyond the Rainbow, Cagney and Dream a Little Dream.

“I can’t think of a more exciting collection of new plays to celebrate our quarter-century mark with,” says Producing Director Louis Tyrrell. “These are contemporary stories about family, friends, lovers and art, from a legend of the theatre and from the new voices of the American stage. Great music, drama and comedy, plus being able to help create the classics of tomorrow, that’s what we have been for the past twenty-five years and what we will continue to be for the twenty-five to come. People like being the first to see these remarkable new plays. They get to experience something that no one else in the world will ever experience. They become part of establishing the new canon of American dramatic literature and they know they will always be surprised by us. And this year, for our twenty-fifth, I think they might expect a few extra little surprises along the way.”

BAKERSFIELD MIST by Stephen Sachs                                                
October 19 – November 20
NNPN Rolling World Premiere

Maude Gutman, an unemployed chain-smoking bartender living in a trailer park, bought the ugliest painting she could find at a thrift store for three bucks. Turns out it might be a Jackson Pollock worth millions. Lionel Percy, former curator of the Met, arrives to deliver the New York Art World’s verdict. A rollicking comedy/drama, inspired by a true story, about the meaning of art and the class divide between the Average Joe and the world of “East Coast elites.”

CAPTIVA by Christopher Demos-Brown                                                      
December 7 – January 8
World Premiere
Valerie Cestar invites her family to their traditional island getaway to meet her fiancé and to find the imagined comfort of her youth. But family secrets, hidden insecurities and pent-up frustrations bubble to the surface in this hysterically funny dark comedy. A smash hit from this season’s 1st Stage New Works Festival.

FIGHTING OVER BEVERLEY by Israel Horovitz                                         
January 18 – February 19
Southeastern Premiere
A beautiful and funny romantic tale from the legendary playwright and author of Sins of the Mother.  A love triangle between 70+-year-olds… Beverley, who came to America from England as a war-bride; Zelly, her fisherman-husband and Archie, the Brit she jilted 53 years earlier. Standing ovations at this season’s 1st Stage New Works Festival!

A New Musical to Be Announced…                                                      
March 21 – April 22
For our 25th Anniversary Season, we will produce a wonderful new musical, created at Florida Stage, in the tradition of all of the wonderful musicals that Florida Stage has sent out into the world. 

THE AMERICANS ACROSS THE STREET by Carter W. Lewis 
May 9 – June 10
World Premiere
Derek has a Pulitzer Prize, but he's tired of a world that says “I got mine, so screw everyone else.” His only source of pleasure is lurking alone on his porch, drinking Scotch and haranguing his neighbors. But when his sister arrives with her precocious daughter in tow, suddenly there are cupcakes, cannons, and a dead lady on the lawn. It’s wickedly funny and sharply pointed. Another audience favorite from this season’s 1st Stage New Works Festival. 

Summer 2012 Musical…                                                                              
June 20 – September 2
Now part of our subscription series. As a thank you to our audiences—past, present and future—and in honor of our 25th anniversary, we are soliciting audience input in helping to choose this piece. We’ve assembled a list of four of the most popular musicals in our history including Backwards in High heels, Beyond the Rainbow, Cagney and Dream a Little Dream, and include the option of something entirely new.    

In addition to this six-show subscription season, Florida Stage will offer the sixth annual 1st Stage New Works Festival, its annual Young Playwrights and Young Voices Monologue Festivals and the fifth year of the company’s ground-breaking Gen Z Global Stage Project, formerly Children of Conflict.Subscriptions are on sale for the 2011-2012 season.  For more information, go to the Florida Stage website at http://www.floridastage.org or call the box office at (561) 585-3433, (800) 514-3837 (outside of PB County) or the subscription office at (561) 582-7503.

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