2013 IRNE Award Nominations

Johanna Day in Good People. Photo: T. Charles Erickson

From the IRNE Awards website:

The Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Awards were founded by Beverly Creasey of the Journal Newspapers and Larry Stark of the TheaterMirror in 1997. The IRNE Awards recognize the extraordinary wealth of talent in the Boston theatre community.

The IRNEs are one of the big Boston theatre awards every year, mostly because of the diversity involved: the range of artists that get nominated runs the entire gamut of the Boston theatre community, and everyone comes together for a celebration when the awards are announced, usually around late April at the Cyclorama at the BCA (this year's award night information is still TBA). It's a veritable Who's-Who of the Boston theatre community, celebrating every accomplishment from the smallest fringe and community theatre groups all the way up to touring productions at Broadway in Boston.

The IRNE Awards recognize all productions within the calendar year (so the entirety of 2012, for example, as opposed to one of our season, which typically run from September - June), and this year, the Huntington has received a whopping 35 nominations, which is more than any other company in Boston!

Celebrating 30 Years of Timeless Theatre

It's our 30th Season! We want your Huntington stories. Help us celebrate our anniversary by sharing your memories with us. What is your favorite production? Who introduced you to the Huntington? Do you have a ritual for each time you come?

Click here to submit your memories online

or email your thoughts to tickets@huntingtontheatre.org
Video and Audio testimony also welcome


PS; We're having an open house an the Boston University Theatre on Monday, October 10, 2011. Come visit with us, take the stage like an actor, and explore our production shops where our award-winning designs are brought to life. More info at huntingtontheatre.org/openhouse.

A CANDIDE Conversation with Peter DuBois

Artistic Programs/Dramaturg Charles Haugland sat down recently with Artistic Director Peter DuBois in his South End home to discuss our upcoming 30^th Anniversary Season. Over the course of the hour, Charles and Peter had a lively conversation about the season and their decision-making process behind each production.

Below, you'll find the first part of that conversation, in which Peter and Charles discuss the talented Mary Zimmerman and her acclaimed production of Candide, which kicks off our 30^th Anniversary Season. Enjoy!




We'll be rolling out the rest of the conversation as we get closer to each production, so check back here for more of these behind-the-scenes scoops form our Artistic department!

The Huntington Theatre Company's CANDIDE plays September 10 thru October 16, 2011 only at the B.U. Theatre. Get tickets and information or call our Box Office at 617 266-0800.

The Darling Buds of...June?

I woke up this morning and the first thing I thought to myself was "June? When did it suddenly become June?" Now, logic would dictate that it became June after the month of May was all said and done, but for those of us here at the Huntington, the entire month of May has been something of a blur. My internal clock still doesn't know if we closed Sons of the Prophet last week, last month, or last year. It's just been that crazy around here!

And so with that, I feel I should apologize for the apparent radio silence here on the blog. It's not that we've had nothing to talk about it; on the contrary, there's been a bit too much going on that our blogkeeping fell to the wayside. Fortunately, we're back now, and we brought t-shirts for everyone!

(Please note: we didn't actually bring t-shirts for everyone)

So what have we been doing, you ask? Well let's see...there was our annual gala, the 2011 Spotlight Spectacular!...the 2nd annual Emerging America Festival with A.R.T. and the ICA...then we welcomed Propeller Theatre Company to the B.U. Theatre, with performing Richard III and The Comedy of Errors in repertory with a fantastic all-male (all-British!) cast...the 18th annual Elliot Norton Awards...oh, I'll just show you!

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Our 2011 Spotlight Spectacular! took place at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel on Monday, May 9. We're still awaiting the final fundraising numbers, but it looks like we raised a record-breaking amount of money to support our productions, as well as our award-winning youth, education, and community programming. During the evening, we presented former President of the Board of Trustees Bill McQuillan and Stick Fly playwright (you guys remember that show, right?) Lydia R. Diamond with the Wimberly Award, the Huntington's highest honor.

Also the event was hosted by some dude named Zach Braff (who, sidenote, would not armwrestle me when I presented the challenge) who thought it'd be a great idea to organize the Huntington staff into a flashmob performance of "One Day More" from Les Miséables (with a little help from Lauren Molina, who will appearing at the Huntington this fall as Cunegonde in Candide). Watch, and enjoy:

(Also, special thanks to that Zach Braff guy

for helping this video reach over 12,000 hits)

The following weekend was the 2nd annual Emerging America Festival, a joint collaboration with our friends at the American Repertory Theatre and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston featuring groundbreaking performances by American artists. The Huntington presented the world premiere of Ryan Landry's Psyched, featuring Larry Coen and Jonathan Popp (as well as Intern Ben). The untold story of Alfred Hitchock's Psycho told from the point of view of Norman Bates' mother, Norma, Psyched played to two sold-out houses and entertained audiences with that trademark twisted wit that only Mr. Landry can provide.

On Sunday morning, the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA exploded with our "Join the Conversation!" brunch, featuring live performances throughout the Calderwood lobby, and food provided by Panera Breads (thanks!). The afternoon concluded with a breathtaking performance of CollaborationTown's self-help-parody-that-may-have-inadvertently-helped The Momentum. Anyone who was there can tell you that it was indeed a tough life for a poor little bunny rabbit.

Company One's ARTiculation troupe broke out into performance in

the Calderwood lobby during the "Join the Conversation!" Brunch

We also produced a series of site-specific audio plays for the festival, written by our Huntington Playwriting Fellows and featuring the voices of some of Boston's best local talent. The plays are completely free to download, and definitely an enjoyable experience (even if you aren't able to listen to them on site), so check those out when you have the chance.

Almost immediately after the festival ended, we went into tech for Richard III and The Comedy of Errors, presented by the Boston University School of Theatre. The shows are being performed in repertory through June 19 by the incredibly talented Propeller Theatre Company from the UK, under the leadership of one Edward Hall (whom you may remember as the director of Two Men of Florence in 2009).

Audiences have been absolutely raving about their intensely physical and highly creative approach to Shakespeare. Chainsaws? Check. Sombreros? Check. Nuns with nunchecks? Check. I'm not even going to mention the butt sparklers, because I still can't believe that my job has actually required to use that phrase in a completely professional context.

And that's just intermission, folks!

We also had our final 35 Below event of the season on Friday, May 20, following that evening's performance of The Comedy of Errors. We had an awesome turnout at the party, including some great entertainment by Boston's premiere all-male Lady Gaga cover band, Alejandro and the Fame, featuring international pop star Cody Grey, and, well, me (not that I'm biased or anything).

Oh yeah, and then President Obama stopped by the Calderwood Pavilion and the BCA for a brief visit (Pavilion General Manager Joey Riddle even has a nice little certificate of appreciation from the Secret Service. FROM THE SECRET SERVICE!).

Last Monday night was a two-fold celebration. First, our annual end-of-the-season staff BBQ in the Huntington Avenue Scene Shop. While Richard III/The Comedy of Errors are both still running through June 19, we traditionally celebrate the end of the season after Opening Night. And this year, we totally had a bouncy castle (it was awesome).

Later that evening, members of the staff journeyed over to ArtsEmerson's newly redone Paramount Theatre for the 18th annual Elliot Norton Awards, where our production of Ruined was recognized with the award for Outstanding Production (Large Company). We would be remiss not to sing the praises of our good friends in Company One, whose production of The Aliens (part of this past fall's Shirley VT Plays Festival) was recognized for Outstanding Design for a midsize/small/fringe company (Cristina Todesco's sets, Bobby Frederick Tilley II's costumes, Aaron Mack's sound, and Benjamin Williams's lighting), Outstanding Director for a small/fringe company (Company One Artistic Director Shawn LaCount), Outstanding Actor for a small/fringe company (Alex Pollack), and Outstanding Production for a small theatre. In addition, the award for Outstanding New Script went to Huntington Playwriting Fellow John Kuntz for The Hotel Nepenthe, produced by Actors' Shakespeare Project. Congratulations to the casts and crews of Ruined and The Aliens, as well as all of the other winners that night! (and the nominees, too. You were all great!)

So what's next? Well, for starters, we just announced the final line-up of our 2011-2012 30th anniversary season. In addition to our previously announced shows, we'll be rounding out the season with the pre-New York production of Evan M. Weiner's Captors, directed by Peter DuBois, and Noël Coward's Private Lives, directed by Maria Aitken (Educating Rita and Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps). Captors is based on the true story of the capture of Adolf Eichmann, "the architect of the Holocaust," in Buenos Aires in 1960 by covert Israeli agents. Private Lives is a classic Noël Coward comedy about a divorced couple whose paths cross again — on both of their second honeymoons, with new spouses in tow. Private Lives replaces the previously announced Tartuffe, which is postponed to a later season.

I think that should just about catch us up with this crazy month of May. In the meantime, be sure to check out Richard III and The Comedy of Errors, if you haven't done so already. You can also catch a free performance of Know the Law at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester on Thursday, June 2 (that's tomorrow as of this writing) at 11am and 7pm. Know The Law is a 40-minute play of interwoven dramas about teenager in trouble, designed specifically for a young urban audience as part of a collaboration between the Huntington Theatre Company's Education Department and Youth and Police in Partnership (YPP), a community-based program of United Methodist Urban Services that seeks to improve relationships between young people and the police. A discussion between the actors, the audience, and a Boston Police Officer follows each performance.

While things tend to stay quiet around here during the summer months (at least as far as productions go), rest assured we'll be busy preparing for our big 30th anniversary party. Meanwhile, Peter DuBois will be directing the world premiere of All New People, a new play by that same Zach Braff guy, at New York's Second Stage Theatre. If you find yourself missing the skilled handiwork of our Scene Shop artisans, they'll be helping to build that set, as well as Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's All's Well That Ends Well on the Boston Common.

Cheers!

-Thom Dunn, Web & New Media Manager, signing off from the longest blog post EVER

Huntington Announces 2011-2012 Season

PRESS RELEASE

Huntington Theatre Company celebrates 30^th Anniversary Season in 2011-2012 with a dynamic line-up that includes
new plays and classics. 

Features Leonard Bernstein, Mary Zimmerman, August Wilson, Molière, Boston playwrights, and more!

(BOSTON) — To celebrate its 30th Anniversary Season, the Huntington Theatre Company will mount an ambitious 2011-2012 Season that includes the dynamic variety of classic drama, acclaimed comedy, inspiring new work, and glorious music for which it has become known. Events include the completion of August Wilson’s Century Cycle, two locally-set world premieres by Huntington Playwriting Fellows, a musical re-imagined by one of America’s greatest directors, a classic comedy helmed by Artistic Director Peter DuBois, and a Broadway smash hit.

“We are proud of many accomplishments of our 30-year history, but two high on that list are providing an artistic home to the great August Wilson and nurturing and producing the work of local playwrights,” says longtime Huntington Managing Director Michael Maso. “It is most fitting that for our 30th Season we stage two new plays by Huntington Playwriting Fellows at the Calderwood Pavilion and celebrate our long-term relationship with August by mounting the only remaining play of his Century Cycle not previously produced by the Huntington. Ma Rainey’s will truly be a celebration of our shared history, while these wonderful new plays link us to the future of the American theatre.”

The 2011 — 2012 Season Lineup

• Candide, the beloved musical comedy with music by Leonard Bernstein; lyrics by Richard Wilbur with additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, John LaTouche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Leonard Bernstein; directed and newly adapted by MacArthur Genius and Tony Award winner Mary Zimmerman (Metamorphoses). Playing at the Huntington’s main stage, the Boston University Theatre, September 10 — October 16, 2011;
• Before I Leave You, the world premiere of a love story for grownups set in Harvard Square and written by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro. Playing at the Wimberly Theatre, the Huntington’s second home in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, October 14 — November 13, 2011;
• God of Carnage, the scathing Tony and Olivier Award-winning New York smash hit by Yasmina Reza (Art), January 6 — February 5, 2012 at the B.U. Theatre;
• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, August Wilson’s powerful and moving drama and the final one of his ten-play Century Cycle to be staged by the Huntington, one of Wilson’s long-time artistic homes. Directed by Liesl Tommy (Ruined), March 9 — April 8, 2012 at the B.U. Theatre;
• The Luck of the Irish, the world premiere of a compelling Boston story by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Kirsten Greenidge, directed by Melia Bensussen (Circle Mirror Transformation), March 30 — April 29, 2012 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA;
• Tartuffe, Molière’s classic satirical comedy about the original houseguest from hell, directed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois (Sons of the Prophet, Becky Shaw), May 25 — June 24, 2012 at the B.U. Theatre;
• One title to be announced, November 11 — December 11, 2011 at the B.U. Theatre.

“To celebrate turning 30, we are looking to the classics and to ourselves,” says Huntington artistic director Peter DuBois. “Mary Zimmerman brings visionary freshness to Candide. I’m thrilled about re-imagining the all-time great satire. Two Bostonians will bring new dimension to the way we see our city. And we’ll do a brand new production of a recent Tony-winning hit. Next season represents where the Huntington has been and where we are headed.”

 MORE ABOUT THE SHOWS

Candide features Leonard Bernstein’s soaring score and lyrics from some of the wittiest writers of all time. The outrageous musical comedy tells the story of the naïve Candide, who, banished for romancing the Baron’s daughter, endures a series of absurd hardships that challenges his optimistic outlook on life and love. The Chicago Sun-Times calls Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman’s (Metamorphoses) enchanting new production, “Gorgeously imagined, Candide is a garden of delights!”

Huntington Playwriting Fellow Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro’s Before I Leave You tells a Harvard Square story. Emily’s son moves out and her husband Koji suddenly embraces his Asian roots. Their friend Jeremy’s work on his novel gets interrupted by a health scare and his sister Trish moving into his home. Four longtime friends face too much past and too little future in this moving new comedy. The Harvard Crimson calls Alfaro, “A terrific and fearless playwright with an individual and astute voice.”

Alfaro comments, “I have lived in Harvard Square for 45 years and have been a playwright for 30, so it was time to write a Cambridge comedy about four friends on the cusp of old age. I am delighted that the Huntington is putting on two new plays by Boston playwrights that portray a city rich and troubled in its diversity.” Alfaro joins an accomplished and acclaimed group of Huntington Playwriting Fellows to be produced by the Huntington including Lydia R. Diamond (Stick Fly), Ronan Noone (The Atheist, Brendan), Melinda Lopez (Sonia Flew), and many others. 

God of Carnage is the latest Tony and Olivier Award-winning New York smash hit by Yazmina Reza, the author of Art. Two sets of parents meet for the first time to settle their sons’ nasty schoolyard tangle. But all attempts at civilized discussion quickly devolve into childlike behavior in this fast, furious, and very funny comedy of bad manners. The New York Times calls it, “First class! God of Carnage incites the kind of laughter that comes from the gut.”

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was August Wilson’s first Broadway hit. Legendary 1920s blues singer Ma Rainey and her musicians gather in a run-down Chicago studio to record new sides of old favorites when generational and racial tensions suddenly explode. The Huntington completes Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner August Wilson’s Century Cycle with this searing drama. Newsweek calls the play, “Extraordinary. Ma Rainey rides on the exultant notes of the blues.” Liesl Tommy, acclaimed director of this season’s Ruined, will helm the production.

“As one of his artistic homes, it is fitting that we recognize the profound contribution August made to American drama and to our city by mounting the only remaining play of his Century Cycle not previously produced by the Huntington,” says Maso. “Throughout the years, subscribers have frequently asked us to complete the Cycle, as so many of their memories of us are connected to August and his work. Ma Rainey’s will truly be a celebration of our shared history.”

The Luck of the Irish is by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Kirsten Greenidge. When an upwardly mobile African-American family wants to buy a house in an all-white neighborhood of 1950s Boston, they pay a struggling Irish family to act as their front. Fifty years later, the Irish family asks for “their” house back. Moving across the two eras, this intimate new play explores personal stories of integration and the conflict of calling any place your home. Village Voice says, “Kirsten Greenidge is a writer of obvious and unusual talent.” Obie Award-winning director Melia Bensussen (Circle Mirror Transformation of last fall’s Shirley, VT Plays festival) directs.


“In seventh grade I sat in the audience of a performance of Joe Turner's Come and Gone at the Huntington and fell in love with the idea of writing for the stage, “says Greenidge, “so this premiere really feels like I'm coming home.”

Tartuffe, the classic farce by Molière, will close the season. The original houseguest from hell, devious Tartuffe charms his way into Orgon’s household and schemes to marry his beautiful daughter, seduce his wife, and run off with the family’s fortune. Will Orgon see through the scoundrel before it’s too late? Molière spins religious piety and hypocrisy into high comedy in this hilarious and biting satire, one of the world’s great plays. The New York Times calls it, “A classic gem. Laugh-out-loud funny!” Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois directs.

“Comedy lives in contradiction,” says DuBois, “and religious charlatans like Tartuffe haven’t gone away. This play, especially in the superb Wilbur translation, is comedic perfection. The critique is so sharp, and the ideas are so contemporary. We are going to blow the dust off Tartuffe and, if we’re lucky, blow your hair back while we’re at it.”

A final title will be announced shortly.

“Over the past thirty years, the Huntington has grown our scope of operations with the full intent of reaching our current role as one of Boston’s cultural cornerstones,” says Maso. “We now provide key services to many different communities, bringing world-class entertainment to audiences in the city of Boston and beyond, cultivating local artists, reaching local students through our education and community programs, helping to train future theatre professionals with our partners at BU, and serving the wider Boston arts community through our operation of the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. As we look towards the next decade and beyond, we pledge to build on these initiatives to serve an ever-broadening constituency with the best theatre possible and a continued commitment to the audience, artists, and students of Greater Boston.” 


Special events celebrating the Huntington’s 30th Anniversary will be announced at a later date. Repertoire, artists, and dates subject to change.

SUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW

The Huntington’s 2011-2012 subscriptions are on sale now. Seated subscriptions are available in 4-, 5-, 6-, and 7-play packages, and FlexPass subscriptions start with a minimum of 4 tickets that can be used for any show and never expire. 

Subscribers save up to 53 percent on full-price tickets to individual shows.

Subscriptions may be renewed or purchased by calling the Huntington Box Office at 617 266-0800 or by visiting huntingtontheatre.org/subscribe. Groups of 10 or more can place orders at 617 273-1665. 

Individual tickets for all shows will go on sale in August.

Cunegonde (Lauren Molina) and Candide (Geoff Packard) discover and declare
their passionate love for one another in "Oh Happy We." Photo credit: Liz Lauren