ENSEMBLE THEATRE'S 2008-09 SEASON

Take me out by Richard Greenberg

September 25 to October 19, 2008

Darren Lemming is a major league superstar: handsome, talented, rich, unapproachable … in other words, a god. But he's just announced to the world that he's gay. And the locker room will never be the same.

In this comic drama by one of America's hottest contemporary playwrights and author of the Broadway hits Eastern Standard and Three Days of Rain, Richard Greenberg examines – with his usual intellectual prowess and verbal wit – the dynamics of homophobia, racial tension, and the cult of celebrity.

A shocking, funny, twisted love letter to that classic American sport: baseball

Tony-Award winning Broadway hit comedy

Striking 12 by Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheinkin
and Valerie Vigoda

December 4 to December 28, 2008

A giddy and hip new musical, and the perfect holiday entertainment for those not in the holiday mood.

A grumpy, overworked New Yorker is determined to spend New Year's Eve alone in his apartment reading Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl." The story comes to life through New York band Groovelily's musical fusion of rock, pop, and jazz.

(Read reviews, view video, browse show program and more >>)

Buried Child by Sam Shepard

January 29 to February 22, 2009

Dark secrets and forbidden desires – and what in God's name is buried out there in the backyard?

When Vince returns with his girlfriend to the family home in Illinois, no one recognizes him. Meanwhile, the family's farmland, barren for so many years, starts sprouting corn. All is not right – in fact, it's quite weird – in this Norman Rockwell landscape. A macabre look at an American Midwestern family and a bizarrely comic portrait of the disintegrating American dream.

An American masterpiece ... Winner of the 1979 Pulitzer Prize

In the Continuum by Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter

March 26 to April 19, 2009

Two actresses play a multitude of characters in a story of two women – living continents apart – who discover that the men in their lives have infected them with HIV. Abigail is a professional newscaster balancing a career and family in Zimbabwe. Nia, a teenager in South Central LA, is pregnant and facing adulthood.

Their personal journeys mirror each other in this beautiful, uplifting and joyous story

"One of the 10 Best Plays of the Year." THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Scene by Theresa Rebeck

May 28 to June 21, 2009

Manhattan penthouse soirees, the entertainment industry, wealthy and self-obsessed New Yorkers: for Clea, a hot, young femme fatale fresh from Ohio, it's a real scene. In her zeal to get in on the action, she upends the lives of three friends hitting middle age: Charlie, an out-of-work actor, his wife Stella, a television producer, and Lewis, Charlie's best friend.

A sexy, brutal comedy of ill-manners, filled with Rebeck's caustic wit, surprising plot twists, and keen social satire.

A brutal comedy. “Hilarious.” –The New York Times.

Questions? ... call the Ensemble Theatre box office at 805-965-5400.

 

(subject to change, all sales final)