Michael Arden to Direct Jefferson Mays in One-Man A Christmas Carol

The Geffen Playhouse has added three directors to its upcoming 2018-19 season, the first under the artistic direction of Matt Shakman.

Tony nominee Michael Arden will direct Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, adapted and performed by Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays; Jo Bonney will direct the world premiere of José Rivera's The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona; and Robert O'Hara will direct the world premiere of Inda Craig-Galván's Black Super Hero Magic Mama.

Arden is the director of Broadway's current production of Once on This Island, which is nominated for eight 2018 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical. He directed the celebrated Deaf West revival of Spring Awakening, which earned three Tony Award nominations, and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts 2016 production of Merrily We Roll Along.

Bonney returns to the Geffen Playhouse having recently completed off-Broadway productions of Suzan-Lori Parks's The Red Letter Plays: Fucking A at Signature Theatre and Martyna Majok's Pulitzer Prize-winning Cost of Living at Manhattan Theatre Club. In 2011, she helmed the off-Broadway production of Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, which she directed at the Geffen the following year.

O'Hara is the writer and director of Bootycandy, which debuted off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2014, and the director of Center Theatre Group's production of Danai Gurira's Eclipsed. His playwriting credits include Antebellum and Barbecue, which ran at the Geffen in 2016.

Arden, Bonney, and O'Hara join previously announced directors Jennifer Chambers (The Cake), Frank Marshall (Invisible Tango), Patricia McGregor (Lights Out: Nat "King" Cole), Steven Robman (Hughie, Krapp's Last Tape), Matt Shakman (Mysterious Circumstances), and Kate Whoriskey (Antigone).

The new season will focus on world-premiere plays from acclaimed playwrights that reflect a culturally diverse Los Angeles and revivals of classic works that are relevant to the issues of today.