2019/20 Season
Welcome. I’m thrilled to share the 2019/20 Season. This is not my season, but ours; it’s everybody’s season. I love seeing an old story told anew, not just ‘history’ but also ‘today’ and how they talk to each other. I think this is the perfect season to explore just that. I hope you will join us!
—Simon Godwin, Artistic Director
Explore the Season
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EVERYBODY
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Will Davis
October 15–November 17, 2019
“One of this country’s most original and illuminating writers” (The New York Times) shines his light on the 15th century play Everyman with startling results. ‘Everybody’ – a role assigned each night from a small cast of actors by lottery live on stage – is a happy person, a free person, a person who believes nothing but the best lies ahead. Then Death comes calling and Everybody must go on the journey of a lifetime. Obie Award-winner and MacArthur “Genius” Grant recipient Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (An Octoroon) has created an irreverent, rollicking ride that asks deep questions of all who see it. Remixing the archetypal medieval morality play into an explosive experiment of wit and emotion, Everybody “fills the heart in a new and unexpected way” (The New Yorker).
Sponsored by Michael R. Klein and Joan I. Fabry.
Additional support provided by CoStar Group.
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[accordion-item title=”PETER PAN AND WENDY (closed January 12th)”]
PETER PAN AND WENDY
A play by J.M. Barrie
Adapted by Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Alan Paul
December 3, 2019–January 12, 2020
Bold, budding scientist Wendy Darling dreams of earning a Nobel Prize. When Peter Pan arrives at her bedroom window, she takes a leap and leaves finishing school behind, chasing adventure among the stars. Facing down fairies, mermaids, and the dastardly Captain Hook, Wendy, Peter, and their friends discover the power of standing up together for what’s right. J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan is reimagined for a new generation of theatregoers by American Theatre’s Most Produced Playwright of 2019 Lauren Gunderson (Silent Sky, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley). With “brilliant theatrical flair” (American Theatre), STC Associate Artistic Director Alan Paul (Camelot) directs this beloved tale of adventure and wonder, sure to delight adults and children alike this holiday season.
Sponsored by Suzanne and Glenn Youngkin.
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THE WOMAN IN BLACK
By Susan Hill
Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt
Directed by Robin Herford
December 4–December 22, 2019
Susan Hill’s acclaimed ghost story comes dramatically alive in Stephen Mallatratt’s ingenious stage adaptation – “The most brilliantly effective spine-chiller you will ever encounter” (Daily Telegraph). Now celebrating three decades in the West End, Robin Herford’s gripping production is a brilliantly successful study in atmosphere, illusion, and controlled horror. A lawyer obsessed with a curse that he believes has been cast over him and his family by the spectre of a Woman in Black engaged a skeptical young actor to help him tell his terrifying story and exorcise the fear that grips his soul. It all begins innocently enough, but then, as they reach further into his darkest memories, they find themselves caught up in a world of eerie marshes and moaning winds. The Woman in Black remains “one of British theatre’s biggest and scariest hits” (The Guardian).
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THE AMEN CORNER
By James Baldwin
Directed by Whitney White
February 11–March 15, 2020
In a 1950s storefront church in Harlem, Pastor Margaret Alexander rails at her congregation and her teenaged son for their vices. With a gospel choir singing of redemption in one room and her son bonding with his ailing father over their love of jazz in the next, Margaret must face the music herself when a figure from her own troubled past returns. James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner tackles the role of the church in the African American community in this landmark work, written immediately after his breakthrough novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. Whitney White, winner of the Susan Stroman Director Award, makes her Washington, D.C. directorial debut in this powerful production rich with music, humanity and Baldwin’s lyrical prose.
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TIMON OF ATHENS
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Simon Godwin
Co-Production with Theatre for a New Audience
February 20–March 22, 2020
Artistic Director Simon Godwin makes his directorial debut at Shakespeare Theatre Company with a restaging of his recent, acclaimed production of Timon of Athens, featuring Olivier Award-winner Kathryn Hunter in an “astonishing performance” (The Guardian). Timon lives in a golden world of opulence and generosity throwing wild parties attended by politicians, artists and the celebrities of Athens. When she loses her wealth and her friends abandon her, Timon takes to the forest, exchanging her luxurious gowns for sackcloth and plotting revenge against the city she loves. Godwin’s daring take on this rarely-produced play yields “a parable for our times … and perhaps a nifty touchstone for spiritual renewal.” (Daily Telegraph)
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ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS
Book by Emma Rice
Lyrics by Christopher Dimond
Music by Michael Kooman
Based on the film Les Émotifs Anonymes
Written by Jean-Pierre Améris and Philippe Blasband
Directed by Emma Rice
April 7–May 17, 2020
A recipe for sweet romance: Whisk together two painfully timid chocolatiers with a dollop of social anxiety and a dash of whimsy in a Parisian setting. The result is a musical comedy that is utterly delectable. Conceived by the brilliant mind of theatrical provocateur Emma Rice (Brief Encounter) and sprinkled with the passionate songs of Kooman and Dimond, this gorgeous musical hailed as “a multifaceted gem, chock-full of love, generosity and joy” (The Guardian) is an effortless confection that will melt your heart.
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[accordion-item title=”MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING(Postponed until next season)”]
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Simon Godwin
May 5–June 14, 2020
The course of true love never did run smooth. Shakespeare’s quintessential romantic comedy finds soldiers returning home and trading their military uniforms for wedding bands, their pistols for love letters. With the kingdom at peace there’s now time for the “merry war” between Beatrice and Benedick to rage once more. But to bring the witty ex-lovers together will require outrageous rumors, a disrupted wedding, a faked death, the supreme incompetence of the local law enforcement and the outright double-dealing of their dearest friends. Helmed by Simon Godwin, who “combines a contemporary eye with a fastidious ear for Shakespeare’s language” (The Guardian), Much Ado is a sparkling screwball comedy and a deep affirmation of love.
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Free For All
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[accordion-item title=”HAMLET(canceled)”]
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Craig Baldwin
Original direction by Michael Kahn
July 10–21, 2019
Shakespeare’s classic revenge tragedy is kinetic, shocking and “a play for now” (Theatermania). Set in a modern surveillance state Denmark, the characters spy and report on one another, even in their most intimate and vulnerable moments of grief, agony and despair. After his father’s abrupt death, Hamlet returns home from university to find his mother remarried, his uncle on the throne and a world seemingly gone insane. When his father’s ghost appears demanding vengeance, the increasingly desperate Danish prince must decide: Submit or Resist. Accept or Avenge. Live or Die.
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[accordion-item title=”Subscription Benefits”]
Our benefits are designed to give you greater savings, flexibility and access to all that the Shakespeare Theatre Company has to offer.
Benefits
- The same great seats for every show
- Early access to special events
- FREE Guide to the Season
- Advance access and reserved seats to the 2019 Free For All production of Hamlet
- Priority seating for our Open Rehearsals
Flexibility
- Free ticket exchanges, protected from demand-based pricing increases
- Reseating/standby options if you miss a performance
- Pay for your subscription in monthly installments
Savings
- Up to 30% off single tickets
- 25% off additional tickets
- Senior Citizens (60+) save 50% with Wednesday matinee series
- 35 of Under? Subscribe for only $30 a ticket
- 25% off all purchases at our Gift Shops
Accessibility
- Audio-Described Saturday matinees
- Open Caption Tuesdays and Thursdays
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