James Monroe Iglehart-Directed SPELLING BEE And More Announced For TheatreWorks Silicon Valley 53rd Season

The line-up will include a World Premiere musical tribute to one of theatre's greatest composers, a quirky Tony-winning musical and more!

By: Apr. 10, 2023
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James Monroe Iglehart-Directed SPELLING BEE And More Announced For TheatreWorks Silicon Valley 53rd Season

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has announced its 53rd season to be presented October 2023 through June 2024.

The line-up will include a World Premiere musical tribute to one of theatre's greatest composers, a quirky Tony-winning musical directed by a Tony Award-winner, a laugh-out-loud take on tiger parenting, a West Coast Premiere investigating an unsolved mystery about a world-famed mystery writer, an acclaimed tour de force about an American icon playwright, and a high-stakes environmental drama. Four of the season's productions will be mounted at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, and two will be staged at Palo Alto's Lucie Stern Theatre. .

The season kicks off in the Fall with the West Coast Premiere of Heidi Armbruster's Mrs. Christie (October 4-29, 2023). TheatreWorks Artistic Associate and Director of New Works Giovanna Sardelli helms this madcap mystery investigating the unsolved 1926 disappearance of the queen of mystery herself, Agatha Christie. For the holidays, TheatreWorks welcomes back Tony Award winning actor and TheatreWorks veteran James Monroe Iglehart (Disney's Aladdin, Memphis, and Hamilton on Broadway) to helm a work in which he once starred in San Francisco and later made his Broadway debut: the exuberant hit musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (November 29 - December 24, 2023). In this charming musical comedy, middle-school misfits personified by adult actors face off in a spelling showdown, vying for glory and a coveted slot at the National Spelling Bee.

TheatreWorks will ring in 2024 with a stunning new production of August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned (January 17 - February 11, 2024), directed by TheatreWorks Artistic Director and internationally acclaimed interpreter of Wilson's works, Tim Bond. Chronicling the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright's life, this heartfelt one-man theatrical memoir follows Wilson's journey from struggling young writer to one of America's most honored and acclaimed theatrical icons in a tale of self-discovery, adversity, love, and what it means to be a Black artist in America. Award-winning Bay Area theatre artist Steven Anthony Jones will star.

In the Spring, TheatreWorks will present the brand new high-stakes environmental drama Queen (March 6-31, 2024) in collaboration with Silicon Valley-based EnActe Arts. Written by San Jose-born playwright and filmmaker Madhuri Shekar (House of Joy, Amazon/ Blumhouse's Evil Eye, HBO's "The Nevers"), this timely work follows female PhD candidates poised to reveal information about the rapid global honeybee demise. Miriam A. Laube will direct. The season continues with Mike Lew's Tiger Style! (April 3-28, 2024), a hilarious, razor-sharp satire offering a claws-out examination of the ramifications of tiger parenting, as ultra-achieving Ivy League graduate siblings wrestle with dissatisfaction. In-demand director/ playwright and TheatreWorks Casting Director Jeffrey Lo directs. "Gilmore Girls" actor/ theatre mainstay Emily Kuroda will return to TheatreWorks as the siblings' mother, with additional casting to be announced.

TheatreWorks will close the season with the World Premiere of a new musical tribute honoring Stephen Sondheim, Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration (June 5-30, 2024). Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley returns to TheatreWorks, collaborating with TheatreWorks Resident Musical Director William Liberatore to conceive this unique musical celebration of the legacy of one of Broadway's greatest composers. TheatreWorks' most produced composer of all time, the company has presented 21 productions of Sondheim's work.

"It's a season of turning points," said Artistic Director Tim Bond. "The characters in this season's works are facing watershed moments in their lives, deciding what kind of people they want to become - something we can all identify with. This season also celebrates some of the world's greatest authors and composers and welcomes home some of TheatreWorks' favorite artists and dearest friends. As we look toward the future of our Tony Award recipient theatre, we are excited to invite audiences to revel in this incredible art form that uplifts thrilling voices and celebrates the human spirit-something that is integral to TheatreWorks' DNA."

The TheatreWorks Silicon Valley 2023/24 season is as follows:

Mrs. Christie

By Heidi Armbruster

Directed by Giovanna Sardelli

West Coast Premiere

October 4-29, 2023 (opening night: October 7)

MOUNTAIN VIEW CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

This madcap mystery investigates the unsolved 1926 disappearance of the queen of mystery herself, Agatha Christie. Almost a century later, Christie superfan Lucy unveils a clue about the author's highly publicized eleven-day vanishing and resolves to crack the case. In parallel storylines that blend past, present, and Poirot, Lucy discovers the power of finding oneself by disappearing. This imaginative and speculative romp received its World Premiere in a production directed by Giovanna Sardelli at Dorset Theatre Festival following workshops with Dorset Theatre Festival's Women Artists Writing Group, Primary Stages, and The Orchard Project. Berkshire On Stage declared the play "a most entertaining mélange of biography, sparkling with magical realism and theatrical wit." BroadwayWorld lauded the work as "sophisticated, smart, funny, heartbreaking, and hopeful. Whether you're an Agatha Christie aficionado or you just like great art, this play has the power to move you. It is a love letter to writing, to theatre, to the mysterious and indomitable human spirit."

Heidi Armbruster (playwright) is a New York based theater artist dedicated to creating new work and discovering new approaches to classical literature and theater. She is a founding member and co-curator of Dorset Theater Festival's Women Artists Writing. Her plays include Dairyland, Mrs. Christie, Murder Girl, Every Good Girl Deserves Fun (and other misremembered things), Purgatory, Where the I Divides, Miss Angela's Legitimate Home for Women Living in Sin, and her solo show Scarecrow. Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival commissioned her to adapt Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which will receive a reading in the summer of 2023.

Giovanna Sardelli (Director) is TheatreWorks Artistic Associate and Director of New Works. Her many directing credits at TheatreWorks include the recent World Premiere of A Distinct Society in association with Pioneer Theatre Company, as well as Nan and the Lower Body (World Premiere), They Promised Her the Moon, Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph's Archduke, The Lake Effect (World Premiere), and The North Pool (World Premiere), FINKS, Somewhere by Matthew Lopez, and many more. She has directed World Premieres around the country of plays by Rajiv Joseph, Theresa Rebeck, Lynn Rosen, Joe Gilford, Jeff Augustine, Lauren Yee, Zayd Dohrn, Melissa Ross, Lila Rose Kaplan, Matthew Lopez, and Zoe Kazan among others. Sardelli recently directed "Marvel's Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show!," a podcast series by Marvel Entertainment and Sirius XM.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Music and lyrics by William Finn
Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Conceived by Rebecca Feldman

Additional Material by Jay Reiss

Directed by James Monroe Iglehart

Music Direction by William Liberatore

November 29 - December 24, 2023 (opening night: December 2)

LUCIE STERN THEATRE, PALO ALTO

TheatreWorks alumnus James Monroe Iglehart, Best Actor Tony Award winner for his unforgettable turn as the Genie in the Disney musical hit Aladdin, and star of Broadway's Hamilton, Memphis, and Freestyle Love Supreme, returns to direct this uproarious Tony Award winning musical in which six ambitious, hilarious middle schoolers (played by some equally hilarious grownups) compete. While they wage war with words like "crepuscular" and "hasenpfeffer," this ragtag crew wrestles with the highs and lows of competition and find self-discovery along the way. At each performance a few audience members are selected to be a part of the fun as competitors, providing them a front row seat to the pandemonium in this heartwarming holiday hit that captures all the chaos, heartbreak, and elation of becoming a childhood champion. Developed at Barrington Stage Company, this musical transferred to Broadway after a sold-out engagement Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theater. TheaterMania called the show "a treat and a half," while The New York Times deemed it "effortlessly endearing." Hayward native Iglehart, who was seen in many TheatreWorks productions earlier in his career including the company's Broadway-bound Memphis, returns to direct this show in which he once starred in San Francisco (Post Street Theatre 2006) and made his Broadway debut (2007). The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee features a joyful score by Falsettos composer William Finn and a Tony-winning book by Rachel Sheinkin, who co-authored the TheatreWorks hit Striking 12 with GrooveLily's Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda. (some adult language/situations - advised for kids 12+).

William Finn (Music & Lyrics) is the writer and composer of Falsettos, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score. His work includes the Tony-nominated score for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, music, and lyrics for the musical adaptation of Little Miss Sunshine, March of the Falsettos, and Falsettoland (Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, two Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award and Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting). He wrote music and lyrics and co-wrote book with James Lapine for A New Brain, which was produced at Lincoln Center and seen in 2015 at Encores! Off-Center.

Rachel Sheinkin (Book) won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Book of a Musical for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. She collaborated with GrooveLily's Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda on the musical Striking 12, seen at TheatreWorks in 2004 and nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical for its Off-Broadway run. Other work includes Sleeping Beauty Wakes with Deaf West Theatre, which won the LA Ovation Award for World Premiere Musical; Serenade; and book and lyrics for Blood Drive.

James Monroe Iglehart (Director) won a Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for playing the Genie in Disney's Aladdin on Broadway. His other Broadway credits include Hamliton, Memphis, Chicago, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, in addition to performances with Freestyle Love Supreme. He was recently seen in Paper Mill Playhouse's World Premiere stage production of Disney's Hercules. His Film and TV credits include Disney's Disenchanted, Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," Amazon Prime Video's "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," Peacock's "Girls5eva," Fox's "Gotham," Netflix's "Maniac," NBC's "Perfect Harmony," Three Christs, and Disney's "Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure," "Elena of Avalor," "Vampirina" and "DuckTales." A Bay Area native, Iglehart appeared in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's productions of Memphis (TheatreWorks 2004, Broadway 2009-11), Big River (TheatreWorks 2012), It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues (TheatreWorks 2009), and Into the Woods (TheatreWorks 2005).

August Wilson's

How I Learned What I Learned

Co-conceived by Todd Kreidler

Directed by Tim Bond

Featuring Steven Anthony Jones

January 17- February 11, 2024 (opening night: January 20)

MOUNTAIN VIEW CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Originally performed by August Wilson himself, How I Learned What I Learned charts one man's journey of self-discovery through adversity and what it means to be a Black artist in America, creating a celebration of Wilson's necessary voice and gorgeous poetry. Seen in leading regional theatres around the globe, this show has been hailed as "complex and surprisingly funny. A crowd-pleasing 100 minutes in the company of a wonderful writer" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). For this new production director Tim Bond, a close friend of the late playwright and a leading interpreter of his work, has re-envisioned How I Learned What I Learned for an acclaimed production at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which will transfer this month to Seattle Repertory Theatre where it celebrates the play's 20th anniversary before coming to TheatreWorks next Spring. Said Bond, "I am honored to celebrate the legacy of self-respect and self-actualization of the monumental Black artist who was one of the greatest American Playwrights of the 20th Century. While an elevating and delightful night of theatre, this piece is also a clarion call, urgent and uncannily resonant in our current climate of division regarding America's racialized history." Bond reunites with award-winning Bay Area theatre artist Steven Anthony Jones, who stars. Jones' tour de force solo performance at Oregon Shakespeare Festival was hailed as "brilliant" (Talkin' Broadway) and "a masterful performance that shouldn't be missed" (Bay City News).

August Wilson (April 27, 1945 - October 2, 2005) authored Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. These works explore the heritage and experience of African-Americans, decade-by-decade, over the course of the twentieth century. His plays have been produced at regional theaters across the country and all over the world, as well as on Broadway. In 2003, Mr. Wilson made his professional stage debut in his one-man show, How I Learned What I Learned. Mr. Wilson's works garnered many awards including Pulitzer Prizes for Fences (1987); and for The Piano Lesson (1990); a Tony Award for Fences; Great Britain's Olivier Award for Jitney; as well as eight New York Drama Critics Circle Awards for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Jitney, and Radio Golf.

Tim Bond (Director) is the Artistic Director of TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Recent credits include the acclaimed productions of How I Learned What I Learned (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Fannie: The Music and Life of Fannie Lou Hamer and Gem of the Ocean (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), The Children (Seattle Repertory Theatre), and Pass Over (A Contemporary Theatre). He is an internationally known director and educator with past leadership roles as Producing Artistic Director at Syracuse Stage, Associate Artistic Director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Artistic Director at Seattle Group Theatre, and full Professor and Head of the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington School of Drama.

Queen

By Madhuri Shekar
Directed by Miriam A. Laube
In partnership with EnActe Arts
March 6-31, 2024 (opening night: March 9)

LUCIE STERN THEATRE, PALO ALTO

What if all the bees abandoned their Queen? In this high-stakes environmental drama, best friends Sanam and Ariel, PhD candidates from India and the U.S., research the collapse of bee colonies worldwide, dreaming they might collapse the glass ceiling of academia. When a flaw emerges in their research, their friendship, careers, and even an arranged marriage are at risk. With ecological disaster on the horizon, should they withdraw their findings or compromise them to protect the planet?

An Edgerton Foundation New Play Award Winner, Queen received its World Premiere at Chicago's Victory Gardens Theater, where it was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play. Chicago Sun-Times called it "A winning story about science, conscience, and the heart," while Stage and Cinema Chicago lauded it as "taut and truthful...a credit to our hive."

Madhuri Shekar is a playwright and screenwriter whose plays include House of Joy; Bucket of Blessings; Antigone, presented by the girls of St. Catherine's; Queen; In Love and Warcraft; A Nice Indian Boy; and Dhaba on Devon Avenue. She has been commissioned by the Kennedy Center, South Coast Repertory, and Victory Gardens Theater, and her work has also been produced at The Old Globe, Center Theatre Group, Alliance Theater, the Hedgebrook Playwrights Festival (in conjunction with Seattle Repertory Theatre), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, California Shakespeare Theater, and EnActe Arts. She was the screenwriter of the Amazon/ Blumhouse film Evil Eye, by Priyanka Chopra Jonas and starring Sarita Choudhury, based on her Audible original audio drama. She is currently writing the screenplay for Sister Act 3, produced by Whoopi Goldberg and Tyler Perry, and directed by Tim Federle. Her TV credits include the upcoming series adaptation of "Three Body Problem" for Netflix, executive produced by Benioff and Weiss, Alex Woo, and Rian Johnson, and the HBO fantasy epic "The Nevers." She is writing a new epic drama pilot for Hulu, ABC Studios and Nisha Ganatra. Her play A Nice Indian Boy is also being adapted into a film by Levantine Films.

Miriam A. Laube's directing credits include The Tempest for Santa Cruz Shakespeare and serving as the associate director for Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Oklahoma! and Pirates of Penzance. She spent 16 seasons as an actor and producer at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she originated the roles of Gynecia in Head Over Heels, Maruca in Party People, and Cleo in Family Album. She has worked regionally at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, and The Guthrie Theater.

Tiger Style!

By Mike Lew
Directed by Jeffrey Lo

April 3-28, 2024 (opening night: April 6)

MOUNTAIN VIEW CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

This hilarious, razor-sharp satire examines the ramifications of tiger parenting, as thirty-something Ivy League graduate siblings Albert and Jennifer wrestle with their dissatisfactions with life despite their ultra-achievements. When their lives fall apart, they blame their parents and run away to China on an "Asian Freedom Tour" where calamity ensues. Written by Guggenheim Fellow Mike Lew (Teenage Dick), Tiger Style! premiered at The Alliance Theatre and has since performed at leading theatres across the country. The San Diego Union-Tribune called it "a cultural mixmaster of laughs, attitude and insight...Lew's bursting-with-imagination comedy works up its own restless, breathless sense of investigation, as it takes on thorny topics of prejudice and cultural expectation." In-demand director/ playwright and TheatreWorks Casting Director Jeffrey Lo, whose productions of Little Shop of Horrors, The Language Archive, and The Santaland Diaries have been seen at TheatreWorks, directs. "Gilmore Girls" actor/ theatre mainstay Emily Kuroda, who has been seen in TheatreWorks' productions of The Language Archive and Calligraphy and the livestreamed reading of Lo's Writing Fragments Home, will return to TheatreWorks as the siblings' mother, with additional casting to be announced.

Mike Lew's (Playwright) plays include Teenage Dick, Tiger Style!, Bike America, microcrisis , Moustache Guys, and the book to the musical Bhangin' It (Richard Rodgers Award; La Jolla Playhouse). They have been performed at theatres including Donmar Warehouse, Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company, Ma-Yi Theater Company at The Public Theater, ART, Huntington Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse, Alliance Theatre and more. He is a Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence at Ma-Yi Theater Company and former La Jolla Playhouse Artist-in-Residence (both with wife Rehana Lew Mirza). He is former co-director of Ma-Yi Writers' Lab, the largest collective of Asian-American Playwrights in the country.

Jeffrey Lo (Director) is a Filipino-American playwright and director who helmed TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's productions of Little Shop of Horrors, The Language Archive, and The Santaland Diaries. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers

Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director's TITAN Award. His plays have been produced and workshopped at TheatreWorks, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The BindleStiff

Studio, City Lights Theater Company, and The Custom Made Theatre Company. Directing credits include Chinglish, Hold These Truths, and The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin at San Francisco Playhouse; Red Bike at Center Repertory Company; Vietgone and The Great Leap at Capital Stage; Uncle Vanya at the Pear Theatre (BATCC award for Best Production); and A Doll's House, Part 2 and Eurydice at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards finalist for Best Direction) and many more. Lo has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, San Jose Repertory Theatre, and is a company member of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company and San Francisco Playground.

Being Alive:
A Sondheim Celebration

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Conceived by Robert Kelley and William Liberatore

Directed by Robert Kelley

Music Direction by William Liberatore

World Premiere

June 5-30, 2024 (opening night: June 8)

MOUNTAIN VIEW CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

TheatreWorks will close the season with the World Premiere of a new musical tribute honoring Stephen Sondheim, Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration. Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley returns to TheatreWorks, collaborating with TheatreWorks Resident Musical Director William Liberatore to conceive this unique musical celebration of the legacy of one of Broadway's greatest composers. Throughout his storied career, Sondheim chronicled the depth of human relationships, exploring love and loss as well as breakdowns and breakthroughs in a wealth of unforgettable musicals, including Into the Woods (TheatreWorks 1990, 1992, 1994 & 2005), A Little Night Music (TheatreWorks 1983 & 2003), Sunday in the Park with George (TheatreWorks 1987 & 1999), Sweeney Todd (TheatreWorks 1992 & 2014), Company (TheatreWorks 1982), Pacific Overtures (TheatreWorks 1988 & 2001), Passion (TheatreWorks 1996), Merrily We Roll Along (TheatreWorks 1986 & 2007), Gypsy (TheatreWorks 2000), and many more. TheatreWorks has also staged revues of his work, including Side by Side by Sondheim (1979), Putting it Together (1998), and Marry Me a Little (2014). Sondheim's brilliant wit, exquisite melodies, and astonishing lyrics made him a TheatreWorks favorite, its most produced composer in the past 52 seasons with the company presenting 21 productions of his work. In this revelatory World Premiere, Sondheim's profound understanding of the human heart takes center stage once again.

Stephen Sondheim is widely acknowledged as the most innovative, most influential, and most important composer and lyricist in modern Broadway history. He received eight Tony Awards, more than any other composer, including a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. He also won eight Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, Company, Pacific Overtures, Passion, Merrily We Roll Along, Assassins, Follies, Anyone Can Whistle, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Road Show as well as the lyrics for West Side Story, Gypsy, Do I Hear a Waltz?, and additional lyrics for Candide. Anthologies of his work include Side by Side by Sondheim, Putting it Together, Marry Me a Little, You're Gonna Love Tomorrow, and Sondheim on Sondheim. He composed the film scores of Stavisky and Reds and songs for Dick Tracy, for which he won the Academy Award. He also wrote songs for the television productions and provided incidental music for plays. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Sunday in the Park with George.

Robert Kelley is TheatreWorks' Founder. In 2020, Kelley retired from his post as Founding Artistic Director, where he had served as artistic head of the company since its inception in 1970. During his 50 seasons at the helm of the Tony recipient regional theatre, he directed more than 175 TheatreWorks productions, including many world and regional premieres. In 2003 Kelley was honored with the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle (SFBATCC) Paine Knickerbocker Award for Lifetime Achievement, in 2016 was awarded the Jerry Friedman Lifetime Achievement Award from the SFBATCC, and in 2019 he received a TBA Legacy Award. Kelley received a TBA Award for his direction of Daddy Long Legs and SFBATCC Awards for Outstanding Direction for his productions of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Into the Woods, Pacific Overtures, Rags, Sweeney Todd, Another Midsummer Night, Sunday in the Park with George, and Caroline, or Change.

William Liberatore is TheatreWorks's Resident Musical Director and has worked as a Choir Director at Gunn High School for more than 30 years. Liberatore has conducted more than 40 shows at Theatreworks, including the World Premieres of Pride and Prejudice, The Prince of Egypt, and The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga, as well as hit productions of Little Shop of Horrors, Sense and Sensibility, Tuck Everlasting, Fun Home, Rags, The Life of the Party, Sweeney Todd, Once on This Island (TBA Award), Crowns, Ragtime, and Pacific Overtures. He has been a frequent recipient of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Direction.

Led by Artistic Director Tim Bond and Executive Director Debbie Chinn, the Palo Alto-based theatre company serves more than 100,000 patrons per year and has captured a national reputation for artistic innovation and integrity, often presenting Bay Area theatregoers with their first look at acclaimed musicals, comedies, and dramas, directed by award-winning local and guest directors, and performed by professional actors cast locally and from across the country. In June 2019, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley received the Regional Theatre Tony Award, the highest honor bestowed on an American theatre not on Broadway. In June 2020, Founding Artistic Director Robert Kelley retired after 50 years at the helm of the theatre he founded, ending what is believed to be the longest tenure of an Artistic Director at a League of Resident Theatres (LORT) theatre.

Since its founding in 1970, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has become one of the nation's leaders in cultivating and producing new musicals and plays, developing and premiering 73 works by new and veteran artists and 171 Regional Premieres. The company's New Works Festival and Writers' Retreat programs attract authors and composers of national stature (Rajiv Joseph, Stephen Schwartz, Beth Henley, Paul Gordon, Marsha Norman, Henry Krieger, Duncan Sheik, Jules Feiffer, Joe DiPietro, and Andrew Lippa, among many others), providing an artistic home in which America's theatre artists can create new works. In addition, the company has developed scores of works which have gone on to both regional and Off-Broadway productions. It was at TheatreWorks that the 2010 Best Musical Tony Award-winner Memphis was first workshopped and received its World Premiere. Stephen Schwartz's musical The Prince of Egypt, based on the DreamWorks movie of the same name, also made its World Premiere at TheatreWorks and debuted in London's West End in 2020.

For more information the public can visit theatreworks.org. Subscriptions are now available and single tickets will be available in the coming months.



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