CENTRAL WORKS 2017 SEASON of World Premiere Plays include a Comedy, a Drama, a Mystery and a Musical. Running February – November 2017, it is a season of new works about Personal Choice, Fate, Free Will & Civil Rights.
Central Works 2017 Season (CW ‘17) reflects the growth and compensation of more than a quarter century of new play creation. Central Works 25th anniversary season launched with Patricia Milton’s Enemies: Foreign and Domestic, winner of the TBA award for “Outstanding World Premiere Play,” and concluded with the SRO premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s new play Ada and the Memory Engine. The 2016 season followed with 3 productions extended after sold out performances and included CW’s first NNPN Rolling World Premiere Into the Beautiful North by Karen Zacarías. Overall box office has grown by 23% over the last two seasons.
In 2017 the nation and world are careening through wave after wave of disruption and seemingly unimaginable change. But disruption often leads to innovation. So it is with Central Works 2017 season, launching in February with Years in the Hundreds by Jesse Potterveld (Feb 18–Mar 12), a quirky look at identical twins who have shared illicit secrets for the past half a century. Spring brings the new comedy Edward King by Gary Graves (May 13–Jun 11), in which a hard working couple hilariously confront the hapless enmity of Fate. The funny and touching summer NNPN Rolling World Premiere, Winter by Julie Jensen (Jul 15–Aug 13), is a thought-provoking look at our right to die. And marking the 100th anniversary of the imprisonment of Suffragists for picketing the White House, CW’s 2017 season concludes this fall with Strange Ladies by Susan Sobeloff (Oct 14–Nov 12), a Central Works Method Musical about the struggle to get the vote.
The Plays:
Years in the Hundreds written by Jesse Potterveld: For over half a century, identical twin sisters, Jessie and Inez, have concealed a series of illicit secrets behind the locked door of their neatly arranged apartment. But then Marcus arrives, and their carefully constructed life begins to unravel. Peculiar intimacies, unabashed love, and criminal misconduct make for the strangest of bedfellows in this quirky new look at “twin nature.” Cast features Tamar Cohn, Anne Hallinan and Adam Roy. Directed by Gary Graves. World Premiere #54: from the Central Works Writers Workshop (Feb 18–Mar 12).
Edward King written and directed by Gary Graves. Ed King is a mail carrier for the US Postal Service. He’s been married to his wife, Jo, for almost twenty years. They’re a hard working couple, struggling to maintain a modest home in the San Bernardino Valley. And they’ve gone deep into debt in order to get their son into college. But there’s a problem in the house. There’s something growing in the basement. Some kind of mold? Whatever it is, it’s spreading. And it’s eating away at the foundation of the house, threatening ultimately to bring the whole place down. Ed vows to figure out what the hell this hideous blight on his home is, and to get rid of it – whatever it takes. “God save us from the hapless enmity of Fate.” Edward King: a new comedy, based on a very old story. Cast features John Patrick Moore (member AEA), Michelle Talgarow and Jan Zvaifler. World Premiere #55: A Central Works Method Comedy (May 13–Jun 11).
Winter written by Julie Jensen. A beautiful, empowering story about a woman whose once-brilliant mind is now diminishing. Her decline is troubling not only to herself, but to her family, who each have different ideas about what’s right for her. Funny, touching, and very topical, Winter is a thought-provoking look at our right to die inspired by the story Robeck, written by renowned bio-ethicist, Margaret Pabst Battin (in Ending Life: Ethics & the Way We Die). Winter is produced at Central Works as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere. Other partnering theatres are Salt Lake Acting Company (Utah) and Rivendell Theatre Exchange (Illinois). World Premiere #56: a NNPN Rolling World Premiere (July 15–Aug 13).
Strange Ladies written by Susan Sobeloff. The story of a diverse group of Suffragists fighting to gain the vote for women as the US enters the First World War in 1917. Torn between loyalty to their political cause, and loyalty to the war effort, these women each struggle to make difficult choices in a time of tremendous social upheaval. The personal pits each against the political in this new musical from Central Works. 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the imprisonment of the “Silent Sentinels” of the Suffrage movement. These women were arrested and sent to Occoquan Workhouse Prison after picketing the White House and demanding the right to vote. Their brutal treatment and subsequent hunger strike earned them the epithet of the “Strange Ladies” and forced the issue of Woman Suffrage into the national consciousness. 2020 will be the centenary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the constitution, granting women the right to vote. World Premiere #57: A Central Works Method Musical (Oct 14–Nov 12).