Geva Theatre Center has announced its 2019-2020 season. It begins in September and includes 10 major productions and two festivals.
The non-profit organization says it is committed to serving diverse artists and communities. More than half of the season’s productions are written and directed by women, and three of the plays featured in the next season are written by playwrights of color and five plays will be directed by people of color.
Christopher Mannelli is Executive Director for the theater. He says it’s important that Geva reflects its community.
“Our theater exists to serve this community, and so, we need to make sure that the work that we’re putting on the stage represents everyone; so we do look at that and make sure that it’s not just the folks that you see on the stage, but those directors, all those other folks that are behind the scenes too that are making that work happen,” Mannelli explained.
And the upcoming season will be a landmark one for Artistic Director Mark Cuddy. He will be marking his 25th season in that role.
He says they’ve seen strong ticket sales, and he does not see the plethora of viewing and entertainment options, such as all of the productions available through companies like Amazon and Netflix, cutting into their base of theater-goers.
“People need a human contact, we have a very successful subscription audience and that’s because we go out of our way to make personal contact with everybody and create a great place for the community to come together to share stories and that will always happen,” Cuddy said.
Cuddy says that many of the plays being performed in the upcoming season, have been written in the last 20 years or so. He says a lot of audiences are looking for topical material that they can relate to.
The new Geva season begins September 3 with La Cage Aux Folle. Other plays include, The Niceties, Queen, Slow Food, Once, Cry it Out, Looks Like Pretty, Where Did We Sit On The Bus,? and Vietgone.
You can get more details on the season at www.gevatheatre.org and in CITY newspaper.
