2011/12 Season
Friends,
It’s that time! Every year as February comes to a close, we at The Alliance are putting the finishing touches on our upcoming season. It’s a complicated dance of finding work that speaks to our much loved loyal audiences (that would be you), our hoped for new audiences, and to as much of our community as we can engage in a year long conversation about what’s going on in our lives and in our world. The 2011-12 season is a year of ghost stories, fairy tales, and the constant yearning for discovery that keeps all of us coming to the theatre.
And about that constancy. This next season marks my tenth at The Alliance, and you, and your fierce engagement with us is the artwork of which I am most proud. You are the Alliance, and I couldn’t be more grateful to be in your company.
Join us this season – you'll be glad you did.
Susan V. Booth
| Alliance Stage | |
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Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
Originally Directed on Broadway by James Lapine
Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick
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The beloved Tony Award-winning® musical allows you to return to a world where magic beans create a ladder to the sky, Prince Charming is one golden slipper away, and wishes still come true. Filled with soaring melodies by the master of modern American musical theatre, Into the Woods is a spellbinding musical filled with romance, magic and the unexpected consequences of dreams that come true. August 31 – October 2 |
by William Gibson
Starring Tovah Feldshuh
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The play follows the life of Golda Meir – from Russian immigrant to American schoolteacher to the epicenter of international politics as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Gibson's drama pits Meir against Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger with the threatened launch of nuclear weapons against her enemies, unless the U.S. comes to her country’s aid. In turn deeply funny and frighteningly prescient, Golda’s Balcony poses the altogether too contemporary question of What if the Middle East exploded? October 12 – October 30 |
by Yasmina Reza
Translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Kent Gash
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One of the most lauded plays of the decade having won the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Direction, Best Actress In A Play (Marcia Gay Harden) and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. From the playwright that brought Atlanta the unforgettable play Art comes a no-holds-barred new play with a worldwide pedigree – and a universal question – What makes you go over the edge? January 11 – January 29 |
Music and Lyrics by John Mellencamp
Book by Stephen King
Directed by Susan V. Booth
Music Direction by T Bone Burnett
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In keeping with the Alliance’s tradition of producing new American musicals, the company will produce the world premiere of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a chilling new musical with music and lyrics by John Mellencamp and book by Stephen King, as the closing show of the Alliance Stage Series season set for spring, 2012. One of the world's most popular authors and one of America’s most honored musicians have created a riveting Southern gothic musical fraught with mystery, tragedy, and ghosts of the past, along with a roots and blues-tinged score that is sure to leave audiences asking for more. Alliance Artistic Director Susan V. Booth directs, with musical direction provided by legendary producer T Bone Burnett. In the tiny town of Lake Belle Reve, Mississippi in 1957, a terrible tragedy took the lives of two brothers and a beautiful young girl. During the next forty years, the events of that night became the stuff of local legend. But legend is often just another word for lie. Joe McCandless knows what really happened; he saw it all. The question is whether or not he can bring himself to tell the truth in time to save his own troubled sons, and whether the ghosts left behind by an act of violence will help him – or tear the McCandless family apart forever. April 4 – May 13 |
| Holiday Special | |
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by Charles Dickens
Adapted by David H. Bell
Directed by Rosemary Newcott
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Back for its 22nd smash year, the most heartwarming story of the entire season comes to life with Ebenezer Scrooge’s discovery of the true meaning of Christmas over the course of one fateful evening. Journey through the beloved Dickens tale meeting favorite characters along the way like the generous Mr. Fezziwig, the selfless and beautiful Belle and the adorable Tiny Tim. And with a new-this-season surprise – all we can tell you is you might want to warm up your singing voice before you arrive. November 25 – December 24 |
| Family Series | Shows play on the Alliance Stage |
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Conceived and Directed by Rosemary Newcott
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OMG! Rosemary Newcott, the Sally G. Tomlinson Artistic Director of Theatre for Youth, once again demonstrates her talent for developing new children’s work by staging The Real Tweenagers of Atlanta, an improvisational survival guide for tweenagers. Conceived and directed by Newcott, this new musical created from interviews with 'tweens in our community is part talent show, part pep rally. Young and old, you might just find maybe we’re all a little 'tween after all. ROTFL. October 29 – November 13 |
Book Adaptation by John Kane
Picture Score by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg
By L. Frank Baum
With Music and Lyrics by Harold Arlen and B.Y. Harburg
Background Music by Herbert Stothart
Dance and Vocal Arrangements by Peter Howard
Orchestration by Larry Wilcox
Adapted by John Kane for the Royal Shakespeare Company
Based upon the Classic Motion Picture owned by Turner Entertainment Co. and distributed in all media by Warner Bros.
Directed by Rosemary Newcott
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Introduce your children to the kind of magic only found in the Land of Oz. This 70-minute production features iconic songs like "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "Follow the Yellow Brick Road” from the movie score and is filled with characters who are like childhood friends one never tires of visiting. The Wizard of Oz reminds us that no matter what you’re searching for, you don’t have to look further than your own backyard. February 25 – March 11 |
| Hertz Stage | |
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by Janece Shaffer
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Favorite Atlanta playwright Janece Shaffer’s biting new comedy Broke kicks off the Hertz Series with a deeply moving and almost-too-close-for-comfort look at joblessness in the new America. September 23 – October 23 |
by Kirk Hanley and Maribeth Monroe
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From The Second City, the legendary comedy theatre and the creators of the touring hit Sex & The Second City, comes a play about relationships in the age of social networking. There are Plenty of Fish in the sea, but can we all live in eHarmony? Or are our lives too much of an open (Face)book? Find out in this hilarious new show! November 11 – December 18 |
by Meg Miroshnik
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The eighth winner of the Alliance Theatre’s nationally recognized Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition is set amongst the swirling domes of the church in Red Square. Moscow seems like a fairytale to twenty year old Annie, an American in search of her roots. But when the lines between Russian fairytales and Annie’s reality start to blur - and then vanish – things get seriously dicey. February 3 – 26 |
by Stephen Jeffreys
Directed by Ron OJ Parson
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Deep in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, a man at the crossroads has put down his guitar and forsaken the blues. Rumors of his death only heighten his legend – for everyone except his adult daughter, who has some secrets of her own. But when the temptation of fame in the form of a young musician strides in from the night, everyone’s secrets are on the table. These three lost souls collide with a musical landscape choked with the loss and beauty of the Delta Blues – wrestling with the tension between where you come from and where you want to go. March 9 – April 8 |
Photos: 2009-2010 Season
Photos by Greg Mooney