The Human Race, Dayton's own professional theatre company, will celebrate its 25th season with four shows that garnered a total of 25 Tony Award nominations, plus a new musical that turns halftime into laugh time.
It will be the first Human Race season in more than 20 years without Marsha Hanna, who died January 3 of complications from esophageal cancer, as Artistic Director. However, Ms Hanna had been able to be a participant in the selections.
The five shows for the 2011-2012 Eichelberger Loft Season of The Human Race are (more information on each and the dates of each run at the end of this release):
GOD OF CARNAGE - 2009 Tony-winning acerbic comedy set off by a school playground scuffle: the drawing room comes to 21st century America
CAROLINE, OR CHANGE - a touching musical of personal and national change set in Louisiana in the turbulent ‘60s
RED - no relation to the movie: rather, the 2010 Tony-winning drama about abstract painter Mark Rothko and the meaning of art
GEM OF THE OCEAN - the first decade of the 1900s in an African-American neighborhood: the onset of August Wilson's famed "Pittsburgh Cycle."
BAND GEEKS! - instant recognition and laughs for anyone who has ever been in, known someone in, or listened to a high school band
Each presentation is scheduled to run three weeks, with the same special events in each run at The Loft: a Thursday night preview, preceded by the Inside Track discussion with the director(s) in The Loft lobby; Friday Opening Night followed by a party with the cast; a Tuesday night Lite Fare at The Loft; a "While We're on the Subject" talkback after a Sunday matinee; and a Saturday signed and audio-described performance opportunity.
Subscriptions will be available in 3-, 4-, 5-show packages. Current Loft subscribers will receive renewal packages by the end of February. Subscriptions will open to the general public in April.
The primary season sponsor will again be The Jack W. and Sally D. Eichelberger Foundation.
FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE 2011-2012 LOFT SHOWS:
GOD OF CARNAGE
By Yasmina Reza, translation by Christopher Hampton
September 8 - 25, 2011
Anyone who is a parent, or who had parents, will recognize the carnage of this 2009 Tony Award winner for Best Play. The mayhem starts innocently enough, as two couples get together to discuss their 11-year old sons' schoolyard scuffle, but that just sets off the ever-shifting battles and what the New York Times called "laughter that comes from the gut." USA Today said it's "scabrously funny," so you know it must be great, even if you don't know what "scabrously" means.
CAROLINE OR CHANGE
Book and Lyrics by Tony Kushner
Music by Jeanine Tesori
November 3 - 20, 2011
It's America in 1963, with the turmoil of the JFK assassination and the civil right movement In a Jewish household in Louisiana, the divorced African-American maid and the 8-year old family son have their own worries and relationship. Virtually sung-through, in styles ranging from Motown to Yiddish Klezmer, Caroline or Change brings together the incredible talents of Kushner (Angels in America) and Tesori (Thoroughly Modern Millie) to create a multi-Tony-nomination show that is about both major issues of the nation and personal issues of the household, and how they interact.
RED
By John Logan
January 19 - February 5, 2012
"What do you see?" asks artist Mark Rothko in the opening line of Red, as he stares at one of his works - and what artists see is the core issue of the play, which won six 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Play. The Guardian of London calls this look at Rothko, his work and his working relationship and conflicts with his apprentice "a totally convincing portrait of the artist as a working visionary." What the audience sees will include on-stage preparation of a canvas for one of Rothko's famed larger-than-life rectangles of bursting color.
GEM OF THE OCEAN
By August Wilson
March 28 - April 15, 2012
Each of the ten plays in the late August Wilson's famed "Pittsburgh Cycle" covers a different decade of the 1900s in an urban African-American neighborhood, and Gem, while the next-to-last written, is the first chronologically. It's set in 1904, an age when slavery no longer exists but oppression remains all too real, and where the problems of the residents seem overwhelming. At the core of the story is Aunt Ester, whose 285 years of life include a journey to America on a slave ship, and who uses her experiences to bring moral guidance to new generations.
BAND GEEKS!
Conceived by Tommy Newman
Book by Tommy Newman and Gordon Greenberg
Lyrics by Gaby Alter and Tommy Newman
Music by Gaby Alter, Mark Allen and Tommy Newman
May 31 - June 17, 2012
The Cuyahoga Marching Beavers are 75 trombones short of a Music Man, and there's only one cornet left, but while the band may be close to extinction, its spirit isn't. Band Geeks! is a rousing Glee with instruments, a tribute to the tribulations of the millions who have spent football halftimes pounding out Sousa-like renditions of "Maria." If you were ever in a school band, ever knew someone in a school band, even ever heard a school band, you'll recognize the woes and revel in the fun of Band Geeks!
Founded in 1986, The Human Race Theatre Company moved to the Metropolitan Arts Center in 1991, taking up residence at the 219-seat Loft Theatre. In addition to the Eichelberger Loft Season, The Human Race produces for the Victoria Theatre's Broadway Series, the Musical Theatre Workshop series, and special event programming. The Human Race, under the direction of Producing Artistic Director Kevin Moore, also maintains education and outreach programs for children, teens and adults, as well as artist residencies in area schools, The Muse Machine In-School Tour, Youth Summer Stock, and The Human Race Conservatory. Human Race organizational support is provided by Culture Works, Montgomery County Arts and Cultural District, Shubert Foundation the Miriam Rosenthal Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council. The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this organization with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
