Asolo Repertory Theatre and the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training Announce 2019-20 Seasons

Asolo Repertory Theatre and the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training proudly announced their 2019-20 seasons on March 25.

Asolo Rep’s season kicks off in November with a brilliantly re-imagined production of the Rodgers & Hammerstein Tony Award®-winning masterpiece THE SOUND OF MUSIC (November 13 – December 28), directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes (Broadway: Bright Star, It Shoulda Been You, First Date, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella). Rhodes returns to Asolo Rep where he previously directed and choreographed the theatre’s record-breaking smash hit production of Evita in 2017 and Guys and Dolls in 2016. In this sweeping musical event, Maria, a young nun causing trouble at the Abbey, is sent off to be governess to Captain von Trapp’s seven troublesome children. She brings much-needed love and joy to the family – and the widowed Captain – and transforms their world and hers through the power of music.

The winter repertory season opens with AGATHA CHRISTIE’S MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (January 8 – March 8), directed by Peter Amster and newly adapted by two-time Tony Award-nominee and master of farce Ken Ludwig. Just after midnight, the exotic Orient Express is hurtling down the tracks – to a murder! With a locomotive full of suspects and an alibi for each one, it’s the perfect mystery. Glamorous, romantic and hilarious, this new play will take audiences on a suspenseful, highly entertaining adventure.

The rep season continues with the critically acclaimed 2018 Broadway hit THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT (January 22 – March 19), directed by Asolo Rep Associate Artistic Director Celine Rosenthal. Demanding magazine editor-in-chief Emily Penrose hires a determined millennial fact-checker named Jim Fingal to work on a groundbreaking essay. Like magazines everywhere, this one is reeling from poor ad sales and shrinking circulation. But with this potentially sensational essay, salvation looms. When overly eager Jim takes his fact-checking too far, the ultimate showdown between “truth” and “accuracy” is about to begin – with delicious consequences.

The third and final of the winter repertory plays is Lucille Lortel Award-winner George Brant’s INTO THE BREECHES! (February 12 – March 21), directed by Cleveland Play House Artistic Director Laura Kepley. In the midst of World War II, the Oberon Play House’s director and leading men are off at war and the future of the theatre is in jeopardy. But the show must go on and Maggie, the director’s wife, has a solution. She will take her husband’s place and enlist women to take on the roles in the first scheduled show of the season: an ambitious production of Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Asolo Rep will also present Laura Yee’s smart, feisty and funny THE GREAT LEAP (March 18 – April 11) in the Cook Theatre. San Francisco, spring 1989. Manford Lum is a sparky kid who plays street basketball in Chinatown – vertically challenged, but with undeniable ball skills. He talks his way onto a college team headed to Beijing for an exhibition game and finds himself in the middle of China’s post-Cultural Revolution. Smart, feisty and hilarious, THE GREAT LEAP is about family, history, and learning that every game is a second chance.

In April Asolo Rep proudly presents the world premiere of KNOXVILLE (April 3 – 25). This moving and innovative musical will feature lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty (songwriting team behind Anastasia, Once on this Island) and will be adapted and directed by Frank Galati, reuniting the dynamic Tony Award-winning creative team behind Ragtime, one of the most beloved musicals of all time. KNOXVILLE is based on James Agee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel A Death in the Family and based, in part, on the play All The Way Home by Tad Mosel. When an unexpected turn of events leaves Rufus’ family spinning, he and his mother, Mary, embark on a journey through the mysteries of life and death, faith and doubt, in order to come to terms with what they have lost and what they have found. An enduring illumination of the forces that shape us into who we are, KNOXVILLE is a quintessentially American coming-of-age story about family, faith and love, and the boy who will grow up to write it. The world premiere of KNOXVILLE is made possible by a generous grant from The Roy Cockrum Foundation. 

The season continues with HOOD: A Robin Hood Musical Adventure (May 6 – 31), featuring music and lyrics by Lewis Flinn (Lysistrata Jones), a book by five-time Tony-nominated playwright Douglas Carter Beane (Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Lysistrata Jones, Sister Act, Xanadu) and helmed by Mark Brokaw (Heisenberg, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella, After Miss Julie). The world’s sexiest thief takes to the stage again in this madcap new musical adventure of a legendary tale with a 21st century twist. Follow the exciting escapades of Robin Hood and his merry men as he fights to restore justice for the people of Sherwood, win the heart of the beautiful Maid Marian, who definitely does not need saving, and rid the land from the Sheriff of Nottingham once and for all. 

In June Asolo Rep continues its family programming initiative with a wildly innovative production of SNOW WHITE (June 11 – 28), presented by New International Encounter. Adapted from the classic Brothers Grimm story, this magical, modern fairy-tale experience is perfect for the young and young at heart. Actors play multiple roles and multiple instruments and spontaneity and thrills abound. Intimate, entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny, this new 21st-century SNOW WHITE is incredibly fresh and at the same time reassuringly familiar.

“The overarching theme for our 2019-20 season is that of humanity, adventure and joy,” said Asolo Rep Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards. “Our audiences will soar through the Austrian Alps with the von Trapps, race in the dark of night from Paris to Istanbul on the Orient Express, and chase the truth alongside a precocious fact checker. They will share the stage with a steadfast group of women at a theatre during World War II, reach new heights with a passionate young basketball player and delve into their pasts in order to realize their futures with Rufus in 1915, Knoxville. From there they will venture into Sherwood Forest in a brand new, exhilarating way and then rediscover a dreamy fairy tale as if it were brand new. It is going to be a thrilling ride!”

Asolo Rep will also present its annual fall educational tour, an FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training production of William Shakespeare’s ROMEO & JULIET (September – November, 2019), adapted and directed by Tyler Dobrowsky. The tour presents freshly re-imagined 45-minute adaptations of classic literature to schools and community venues throughout the state of Florida.   

The FSU/Asolo Conservatory’s Dog Days Theatre returns this summer for a third season, featuring smart, contemporary works just light enough for the dog days of summer. The Dog Days Theatre 2019 season begins with Matthew Burnett’s THEOPHILUS NORTH (July 9 – 28) from the novel by Thornton Wilder, directed by Laura Braza. The season will conclude with the outrageously funny and witty comedy, HARBOR (August 6 – 25), by Chad Beguelin, who penned the stage adaptation of Disney’s Aladdin, and directed by FSU/Asolo Conservatory Director, Greg Leaming. This smart and scrappy, outrageously funny comedy tests the constantly shifting nature of the meaning of marriage and family.

The Conservatory opens its season with Sophocles’ ANTIGONE (October 29 – November 17): a war among brothers leaves Antigone’s family torn but she breaks faith with everything she has known in order to defend her family’s honor.  In January, the Conservatory presents Rajiv Joseph’s dark comedy, GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES (December 31 – January 19): a Pulitzer Prize finalist and an insightful and witty story about Doug and Kayleen, and how their friendship and love evolves over the course of 30 years. The season continues in late February with Sarah Ruhl’s DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE (February 18 – March 8). A woman impulsively decides to answer a ringing cell phone only to find that the owner of the phone is dead and involved in some mysterious business. 

The Conservatory will return to Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in April for William Shakespeare’s classic love story ROMEO & JULIET(April 7 – 25). Sarasota’s premier outdoor destination will set the scene for this timeless tale filled with passion, laughter, tears, and arguably the most romantic poetry in all of literature. 

“The FSU/Asolo Conservatory is training the future of the American theatre, and we are thrilled to be able to present these young artists in plays that will showcase their skills, their passion and, most importantly, their incredible talent,” said Greg Leaming, Director of the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. “The 2019-20 season includes some of the greatest plays written for the stage as well as bright, new, highly original work from the 21st century, all starring the 12 brilliant young artists of our second-year class. It promises to be a season of great plays and great young actors ready to be discovered.”