Coeurage Theatre Company Announces 2012 Season
Coeurage Theatre Company, LA's only Pay What You Want theatre, kicks off its 3rd season with Lanford Wilson's masterpiece Balm in Gilead, opening January 28th and running through March 4th. This will be followed by a traditional production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in the spring. At the 3rd annual Hollywood Fringe Festival, Coeurage will enter the newly discovered Mark Twain farce Is He Dead?, adapted by David Ives. Coeurage will also host a number of projects at the festival, including a full production of their monthly series Live Theatre Blog, which stages the experiences of playwright Eric Czuleger, who is currently serving with the Peace Corps in Albania. Following the festival, Coeurage is mounting Stephen Sondheim's political musical Assassins. Concluding the season is the West Coast Premiere of Sean Graney's The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide. Coeurage Theatre Company will continue residence at the Actors Circle Theatre in West Hollywood through the 2012 year.
January 28 - March 4. Set at an actual all-night diner where playwright Lanford Wilson collected characters and conversations in the late 60's, Balm in Gilead tells the stories of "the riff raffs, the bums, the petty thieves, the scum, the lost, the desperate, this dispossessed, the cool." Featuring a cast of 23, this play sees a lot more revivals on the east coast than in Los Angeles. Meredith Schmidt directs following her acclaimed direction of last season's bash: latterday plays.
April 14 - May 20. This production will honor the running time suggested by "the two hours traffic of our stage." With a cast dressed in Italian Renaissance costume, but far removed from a museum piece, it aims to give audiences a new notion of "traditional" Shakespeare. Directed by Artistic Director Jeremy Lelliott.
June 8 - July 18. Last season Coeurage mounted Double Falsehood, a play controversially attributed to William Shakespeare. For their main stage entry into the Hollywood Fringe Festival, they will produce a play known to be written by Mark Twain. Published in 2003, and adapted by David Ives for a Broadway production in 2007, Is He Dead? tells the story of an impoverished painter in 1840's France who fakes his own death in order to escape his debts, then dresses as a woman to cover the trick. Associate Artistic Director Ryan Wagner directs.
August 3 - September 9. Stephen Sondheim's provocative musical about successful and failed assassins of Presidents of the United States. Originally produced Off-Broadway, Assassins was supposed to receive its Broadway debut in 2011, but that production was put on hold due to the events of September 11th. Directed by Julianne Donelle, this production of Assassins will arrive right in the thick of election season.
September 29 - October 28. THE WEST COAST PREMIERE of Sean Graney's hit play. Originally produced by The Hypocrites theatre company, The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Love-Suicide received a transfer to New York after a wildly successful run in Chicago. A truly dark comedy, the play is literally the suicide note of a ten year old, which his classmates are forced to act out. Director Joe Calarco was a cast member of the original production.
Coeurage Theatre Company was founded in December 2009. An entirely Pay What You Want company from its inception, Coeurage has mounted eleven full productions, along with many other theatrical projects and concerts. Last year, the company's World Premiere of Gregory Nabour's original song cycle The Trouble with Words won Best Musical at The Hollywood Fringe Festival and Best Original Music and Lyrics at the LA Stage Alliance's Ovation Awards. Coeurage is a non-profit organization and a non-dues-paying company.