The Huntington Theatre Company
The Huntington Theatre Company celebrates its 25th season as one of Boston’s top-tier professional theatre companies. Its productions have garnered three Tony Award nominations for plays that have transferred to Broadway after their intial run in Boston, and have won six Elliot Norton Awards—Boston’s equivalent of the Tonys—for Outstanding Production. With a long history of putting on definitive productions of classic plays, the Huntington has also developed strong relationships with some of America’s best contemporary playwrights, and has been balancing their season in recent years with the work of new up-and-coming writers. Almost 50 American, New England or World Premieres grace the Huntington’s history, including works by authors such as Tom Stoppard, Brian Friel, August Wilson, Jon Robin Baitz, Christopher Durang, and Donald Margulies.
Under the guidance of Artistic Director Nicholas Martin, the last few years have seen the Company’s remarkable expansion. In 2004, the Huntington added an additional theatre space to its season roster, and now holds five productions in its 890-seat Boston University Theatre and two productions in the gorgeous new 370-seat Virginia Wimberly Theatre in the newly-renovated Calderwood Pavillion in the Boston Center for the Arts. The BCA houses four different theatre spaces, used by many different theatre companies in the Boston area.
The Huntington’s 2006-2007 season opens with Radio Golf, the final play in the late August Wilson’s groundbreaking ten-play cycle that chronicles the African-American experience in each decade of the 20th century. It marks the eighth of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright’s works to be produced by the Theatre. This World Premiere runs at the B.U. Theatre from September 8th through October 15th, and will continue its run on Broadway thereafter. Kenny Leon, who directed Gem of the Ocean at the Huntington two years ago and also the 2004 Broadway run of A Raisin in the Sun, is leading the project.
The first show at the Virginia Wimberly Theatre is another World Premiere: Mauritius, a shockingly hysterical and thrilling intrigue about stamp collecting. Pulitzer-nominated playwright Theresa Rebeck, writer for “NYPD Blue” and “Law & Order,” also returns to the Huntington after 2004’s production of her comedy Bad Dates. Rebecca Taichman directs the show, which runs from October 6 through November 12.
Rabbit Hole comes to the Huntington’s B.U. Theatre after being the smash hit on Broadway in 2006, claiming 5 Tony Award nominations, including one for Best Play. This new production of David Lindsay-Abaire’s touching and unexpectedly funny story about coping with loss is directed by John Tillinger and runs from November 3 to December 3. The playwright was previously most famous for his play Fuddy Meers, and has won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award.
Anton Chekhov’s masterpiece The Cherry Orchard runs in the B.U. Theatre from January 5 to February 4, 2007. Artistic director Nicholas Martin helms the production, and reunites the award-winning team that brought 2001’s Hedda Gabbler to Broadway. Kate Burton, who recieved a Tony nomination for her performance in Hedda, returns as Madame Ranevsky.
Lisa Kron, another Tony-nominated actress, will come to the B.U. Theatre to recreate the role that garnered the nomination. Well is one of several pieces that Kron has written and starred in herself, and in this semi-autobiographical piece of meta-theatre, Kron’s attempts to put on a play about her family are constantly interrupted by the family itself. The production, directed by Leigh Silverman, will run from March 5 to April 8.
At the Virginia Wimberly Theatre, Persephone marks another World Premiere by hot new playwright Noah Haidle. This story of the inner monologue of a 500-year-old statue constructed during the Renaissance and now standing in a park in an American city serves as a brilliant introduction to Haidle’s wit and imagination. Nicholas Martin directs, and the show plays from March 30 through May 6.
Streamers rounds out the season, playing in the B.U. Theatre from May 18 - June 17. Tony Award-winning author David Rabe, famous for his plays In the Boom Boom Room and Hurlyburly and films The Firm and Casualties of War, tells the story of four young soldiers, exiting boot camp in 1965 and facing the escalation of the violence in Vietnam and the patterns of change in society. Director Scott Ellis has received many Tony nominations, including one for his recent Broadway revival of Twelve Angry Men.