Soho Rep Announces Inaugural Off Broadway Season for 2007-2008
(© Nature Theater of Oklahoma)
The Obie Award-winning Soho Rep will present its first ever Off Broadway season during 2007-2008, under the leadership of new artistic director Sarah Benson. The 32-year-old company previously presented its seasons as off-off Broadway offerings.
The season will kick off with Philoketes (October 11-28). The work is written, directed, and designed by John Jesurun, known for his singular integration of text, direction, set and media design.
Next up will be the Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s No Dice (December 8-31). The show, directed by Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper, takes on that very American peculiarity: amateur dinner theater. Described as “an epic of the everyday,” the work is culled from 70-hours of taped conversation with a wide variety of subjects.
The season will conclude with the New York premiere of English playwright Sarah Kane’s Blasted (April 3-24). Benson will direct the late playwright’s first and most controversial play, which made its world premiere in London in 1995, when it initially outraged audiences and critics with its depiction of rape, torture, and violence.
In addition, Soho Rep will introduce Soho Rep Studio, a series of workshops of new plays that will be free and open-to-the-public. Scheduled shows include David Adjmi’s Caligula (September 17), Debbie Tucker Green’s Born Bad (September 19 and 20), Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf’s Macbeth (September 24), and Sybil Kempson’s Crime or Emergency ( January 11-13).
The company will also continue its ever popular Writer/Director Lab — now in its 9th season — which encourages early career writers and directors to generate new plays. The Writer/Director Lab will be free and open-to-the-public over six consecutive Mondays in April and May, with specific dates to be announced.
Soho Rep has also announced that Jenny Schwartz will be the inaugural recipient of the Soho Rep Dorothy Strelsin Playwriting Fellow for the 2007-2008 season. Schwartz is the author of the plays God’s Ear, Cause for Alarm, and Escaping the Modern World. As part of the fellowship, she will be developing her new work, Somewhere Fun, which will have a spring workshop — free and open-to-the-public — on May 20 & 21.
For more information, visit www.sohorep.org.
