Press Releases

SEATTLE, WA (April 18, 2019) - Artistic Director Braden Abraham today announced Seattle Rep’s new nine-play 2019/2020 season, which features the second Public Works Seattle production, two musical works, a world premiere, a Pulitzer-Prize nominated play, and more. To align with their vision of “theater at the heart of public life,” Seattle Rep is also rolling out their new visual identity over the next few months, with a full campaign to be launched in August. With this announcement of the new season, Seattle will get a taste of what is coming at Seattle Rep.

“The first half of our new season features inspiring plays about 20th century trailblazers by two of the great playwrights of our time—Paula Vogel and Cheryl L. West,” Artistic Director Braden Abraham stated. “The second half of the year will bring a riveting new drama by Lucy Kirkwood and classics from three giants of the canon: Sam Shepard, Oscar Wilde, and August Wilson. Next year, we’ll also feature the world premieres of two brand new commissioned plays from Justin Huertas and Anna Ziegler – funny and poignant works that spin their own unique theatrical magic. And we’ll kick off the entire season with Seattle Rep’s Public Works production of As You Like It where artists and community members will join together to create an unparalleled production of participatory theater. We have an incredible line-up in store that truly reflects and elevates our vision of ‘theater at the heart of public life.’"

The 2019/2020 season opens with a reimagined musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s famous As You Like It, the second production of Seattle Rep’s Public Works program. Seattle Rep has partnered with community-based organizations throughout the region to create theater of, by, and for the people rooted in the values of equity, imagination, and joy. In Seattle Rep's production, over 100 Seattle citizens will join professional actors and regional performance groups on stage to create As You Like It, directed by Timothy McCuen Piggee. Tickets to As You Like It are free - space will be very limited.

Next up is Indecent, a powerful drama from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive). Directed by Sheila Daniels, this Tony Award-winning play with music is a love story that charts the true account of Sholem Asch’s controversial 1906 play, God of Vengeance. An ensemble of actors and musicians will bring to life one of the most engrossing scandals in theater history.

Seattle Rep Artistic Director Braden Abraham is set to direct the next play, The Great Moment, a witty and heartfelt world premiere. Written by Anna Ziegler (Photograph 51) and developed and commissioned through Seattle Rep’s The Other Season program in the 2017/18 season, The Great Moment is a funny and poetic meditation on beginnings and endings, birth and age, and the moments of transition that mark our passage from life to death.

The season takes a musical turn during the holidays with the new, rousing musical portrait, Shout Sister Shout!, written by Seattle playwright Cheryl L. West (Pullman Porter Blues) and directed by Broadway writer and director Randy Johnson (A Night With Janis Joplin). Inspired by Gayle F. Wald’s book Shout, Sister, Shout!, this new theatrical work tells the incredible story of Sister Rosetta Tharpe “The Godmother of Rock ‘n’ Roll” and how she became a legend who redefined the national and international music scene from the 1930s onwards. Braden Abraham will direct the first play of 2020, True West by prolific, legendary playwright Sam Shepard. Called "Shepard's masterwork" by the NY Post, this outlandishly funny and unsettling Pulitzer Prize-nominated comedy gleefully detonates our misguided myths of family, identity, and the American Dream.

Recent Broadway hit and 2018 Tony Award nominee, The Children by Lucy Kirkwood is up next, performing on the Leo K. stage. This New York Times Critics Pick takes place in a remote cottage on England’s rocky coast where we follow two retired nuclear physicists living through the devastation of a series of local apocalyptic events. The surprise visit of an old friend brings a shocking proposition. The Children is a potent drama – captivating and profound, with sincere wit.

Next, Seattle Rep will present the national tour of the recent Broadway production of August Wilson’s Jitney, the eighth play in his “Century Cycle.” Called “joyfully intoxicating” by The New York Times, Jitney is set in the early 1970s and follows a group of men trying to eke out a living by driving unlicensed cabs, or jitneys. When the city threatens to board up the business and the boss’ son returns from prison, tempers flare, secrets are revealed, and the fragile threads binding these people together may come undone at last.

Spring 2020 continues at Seattle Rep with a refreshing rendition of Oscar Wilde’s famous The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Casey Stangl. This uproarious classic comedy of manners will indulge in the beloved mistaken identities, perambulators, and voraciously eaten muffins that this play has served up for over a century.

The season comes to a close with the world premiere of Lydia and the Troll, a new contemporary musical from Seattle playwright Justin Huertas (Lizard Boy) and co-created and directed by Ameenah Kaplan. Inspired by fantasy and folklore, yet grounded in Seattle’s noted landscape and landmarks, Lydia and the Troll was commissioned by Seattle Rep and developed through The Other Season.

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