In the upcoming 2007-2008 season, Tennessee Repertory Theatre plans to take another step towards its goal of providing Middle Tennesseans with theatrical fare in the tradition of the country’s finest professional regional theatres, according to Executive Artistic Director David Alford and Producing Director Rene Copeland.

“We are enormously excited about this season,” Copeland said. “We will produce two plays never done in the Nashville area, one that has never had a professional production here, and one that has never been produced in Tennessee – and all of them are classics or soon-to-be classics. All of them present invigorating artistic challenges for us and our audiences.”

Copeland cites Doubt by John Patrick Shanley, which won the 2005 Tony and New York Drama Desk awards for best play, as well as that year’s Pulitzer Prize for drama, as “theatre for grown-ups” and what drives the company’s artistic decisions.

“We are the first Tennessee theatre to obtain production rights for this spellbinding and expertly written play,” she said. “Doubt is still on tour nationally with Tennessee native Cherry Jones who won her second best actress Tony for it. More important than having a Tennessee premiere, Doubt offers a grabbed-from-the-headlines story that is an intense battle between moral certainty and moral uncertainty within an edge-of-your-seat detective drama structure.”

Set in a Catholic grammar school in 1964 at the time of Vatican II reforms, Doubt’s plot focuses on the possible misbehavior of Father Flynn. He is a popular and more contemporary spiritual leader than Sister Aloysius, the indefatigable school principal who doubts his moral character. Once her doubts are set in motion, an explosive cat-and-mouse game ensues between the two. Is Father Flynn a pedophile? Is Sister Aloysius a zealot or is her crusade justified?

Doubt plays March 13-29, 2008, in TPAC’s Johnson Theater.

The Johnson Theater will be the venue for two additional 2007-2008 productions: It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, adapted by Joe Landry from the film directed by Frank Capra (Nov. 29-Dec. 22, 2007) and Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia? (Notes Toward A Definition of Tragedy), which won the 2002 Tony best play award (Jan. 31-Feb. 16, 2008). Both will be a Nashville-area premiere.

“In the current season, we offered a twist on Charles Dickens’ classic story, A Christmas Carol– Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol which was hugely popular. We considered bringing it back next season, but instead have opted to hold it for another year or two, and next season offer a new look at another familiar piece,” Alford said. “No doubt, some day we will do a very traditional version of A Christmas Carol or another favorite chestnut, but now we want to offer something new and different, as long as the writing is superb and there are exciting acting and production opportunities.”

“Who has not seen Frank Capra’s warm and wonderful story of George Bailey’s journey to self-worth and realizing that every person affects others and is important? But, have you actually heard the story?” Alford asks.

Tennessee Rep’s holiday show, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, combines the technology of a radio program like “A Prairie Home Companion” with the Capra film.

“It takes us back to the days when news, music, comedy, drama, and soap operas came into our homes via radio. But in this version, our audience will also be the audience on Christmas Eve 1946 at station WBFR where five talented radio players create all the familiar characters: Mary and George Bailey and their children, Mr. Potter who runs the bank, Clarence the Angel, and 20 more! Of course, true to the era, there will be commercials, costumes, sound effects, and music,” Alford said. “And it is definitely suitable for middle school students and up.”

Albee’s play could not be more different, according to Copeland.

“It’s our push-the-envelope production, but a ‘must see’ for every theatregoer interested in challenging contemporary drama,” Copeland said. “We’re a little behind the curve because it has already been produced by our sister professional regional companies everywhere including Memphis, Charlotte, and Kansas City.

“Albee is America’s most honored living playwright and he is the master of what is called ‘absurd realism.’ The realism in The Goat centers on an accomplished, educated man at the peak of a successful architectural career and his almost ‘picture-perfect’ family. Into this home, Albee injects a shocking absurdity: The man claims to have fallen madly in love with a goat he calls Sylvia!

“What Albee is doing is exploring how we might define ‘tragedy’ today by asking: ‘What will I – or you – tolerate in a relationship? What is reasonable to ask? What will I do to protect a relationship?’ The dialogue is witty, sharp, and earthy, and the content and themes are appropriate for an adult audience, so we will not admit anyone under 18.

“The Kansas City Times probably said it best, ‘Provocative as ever…a daring and controversial play that has entertained and stunned audiences and critics, alike.’ We’re pleased Mr. Albee has given us a green light for a production here,” Copeland said.

“All of our productions are for the discerning playgoer,” Copeland said. “That doesn’t mean our seasons don’t have entertaining offerings for teen-agers and older students, but with Nashville Children’s Theatre providing excellent family shows and TPAC’s Broadway Series providing top-notch musical entertainment, plus more than 30 other theatre groups in the area, we believe there’s a market among discriminating playgoers for professionally produced theatre both entertaining and enlightening. We heard from a lot of those people during the current season. They are happy to see a classic done well, but they are especially interested in what is new that will engage them intellectually and emotionally.”

The physically big shows of next season are Arthur Miller’s modern classic, The Crucible, and Steve Martin’s adaptation of a German farce, The Underpants. Both will be in TPAC’s Polk Theater. The former runs Oct. 4-13, 2007. The latter runs May 8-17, 2008.

Again, the two could not be more different.

“I have always wanted to do The Crucible which won the 1953 Tony best play award,” Copeland said. “But it is a large cast and, though the setting is simple, it needs to be richly captured by someone like our resident scene designer, Gary Hoff. Fortunately, it is a play that is read by many high school students and TPAC Education has long wanted a production for its Humanities Outreach in Tennessee (HOT) program. Wishes and enough money for all those actors have come together at last!

“Thousands of young people will attend the HOT student performances and we hope thousands of grown-ups will see the evening performances of this story of Puritan New England, the infamous 1692 Salem witch trials, and accusations of witchcraft that engulf a community in intolerance and hysteria, both religious and political.

“The Crucible stands as a fascinating story all on its own, but its political undertones still reverberate,” Copeland said. “Many people are aware Miller had the infamous McCarthy congressional hearings of the 1950s in mind when he wrote this play, but these days the play crosses partisan lines as we all struggle to balance fear and fundamentalism with appropriate government responses. While anti-McCarthyism is historically considered a liberal political stance, no less a conservative than John Podhoretz in The Nation OnLine said a recent New York production was ‘…a sensational piece of theater…very effective and wonderful to watch.’ We will do our best to honor the script as it appears on the page, bring it to life as Miller intended, and let it speak for itself in its unique and timeless way.”

“Steve Martin’s script for The Underpants will speak to us all in a completely different way,” Alford said. “Adapted from the original play by Carl Sternheim, The Underpants should be perfect after the intensity of The Goat and Doubt.

“Martin possesses one of the wackiest sensibilities in the world and farce is definitely his forte. Here he combines the slamming doors of a silly sex farce with high comedy and social commentary,” Alford said.

Set in Germany in 1910, The Underpants tells what happens when a pretty young woman married to a stuffy bureaucrat accidentally looses her most intimate apparel while watching the king's parade.

“It also comments perceptively on our contemporary celebrity-mad culture and the 15-minutes-of-fame syndrome we see every 15 minutes on television,” Alford said.

A full performance of The Underpants will be part of Tennessee Rep’s annual fundraiser, The Cast Party, on Saturday evening, May 3, 2008. Season subscribers may reserve seats with their renewal orders.

Subscribers will have free admission to two other Tennessee Rep offerings: A New Play Project, Saturday, Nov. 3, and “A Holiday Party: Some Songs, A Story, and Treats,” Sunday, Dec. 16. The latter will feature Alford’s "farewell tour" of his acclaimed one-person reading of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory.

According to Michael Schoenfeld, president of Tennessee Repertory Theatre’s board of directors, “David and Rene have worked with board members and staff to again offer Middle Tennessee audiences a professional theatre slate that will entertain, engage, excite, and even educate in our 23rd new season,” Schoenfeld said.

“We have chosen plays of the highest quality in writing and for acting and directing challenges,” Schoenfeld said. “These plays are either already contemporary classics or classics-in-the-making, productions that professional regional theatres nationwide are embracing and/or that have had great New York runs with critical acclaim.

“We feel these choices strongly demonstrate our commitment to people who really care about and want professional regional theatre in Nashville,” he said.

Each production will have 10-20 public performances spread over two-four weekends, including weekday performances at 6:30 PM. Friday and Saturday performances begin at 7:30 PM. Each run includes at least one 2:30 PM matinee and one signed-for-the-hearing-impaired performance.

Casting and directorial assignments will be made in the summer, following auditions.

“We anticipate David Alford acting in The Crucible with other local actors in the cast,” Copeland said. “David will also direct one show. I will direct three, and a guest director will handle directing responsibilities on the fifth show.”

Tennessee Repertory Theatre 2007-2008 season

THE CRUCIBLE

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY

THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA?

DOUBT

THE UNDERPANTS

Specials:

About the Season Shows

Tennessee Repertory Theatre
2007-2008 season