Bay Street Theatre has announced its three 2014 Mainstage Season productions, beginning with the world premiere of Conviction, a modern drama. Next on tap is Travesties, a Tony award-winning comedy, and the season concludes with the world premiere of My Life is a Musical.
The season, which will be Bay Street’s first summer under new artistic director Scott Schwartz, begins on May 27 and runs through August 31.
“I am so excited to announce Bay Street’s full 2014 season,” Schwartz says. “It’s a season about art and revolution. By presenting two world premieres and a comic masterpiece by one of the greatest living playwrights, I hope to give our audience productions that are provocative, unusual, and most importantly entertaining.”
As previously announced, the Mainstage season begins with the world premiere of Conviction, a modern drama, which will run from May 27 through June 15, directed by Scott Schwartz. The play asks the question, “How can we live with conviction when some questions cannot be answered?”
For the second production, Richard Kind returns to Bay Street Theatre in Travesties, which runs from June 24 through July 20. This Tom Stoppard classic will be directed by Gregory Boyd. Stoppard creates a smashing theatrical extravaganza with the wit of Oscar Wilde crashing headlong into song-and-dance, strip-tease, pie-fights, and brilliant wordplay. Set in 1917 and 1974 in Zurich, Switzerland, the play fantasizes how a British consul named Henry Carr (Kind) encounters some of the most famous figures of the20th century, including James Joyce, Tristan Tzara and Lenin, through an amateur production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
The season culminates with the world premiere of My Life is a Musical, which runs July 29 through August 31. My Life is a Musical is about Parker, whose life plays out like musical theater, despite his hatred of the genre. This world premiere features a new score by Adam Overett and direction and choreography by Marlo Hunter, two rising stars of the musical theater.
As previously announced, Bay Street Theatre has organized a new fundraising initiative, the Scott Schwartz New Directions Fund, as part of Schwartz’s long-term plans and vision for the theater.
“This new fund will enable us to work together to ensure a very successful 2014, and an innovative and sustainable future for Bay Street Theatre,” Schwartz says in a press release. The program is off to a strong start, thanks to benefactors Pia and Jimmy Zankel’s $80,000 lead gift. In addition to the Mainstage season, the fund will help support several new programs, including the theater’s first Bay Street Theatre Play Festival, which will kick off in April, as well as a Bay Street Late Night program and an outdoor Shakespeare Initiative, both of which will occur over the summer.
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