2012-2013 Season

The U.Va. Drama Department’s 2012-2013 season will go from the ridiculous to the sublime, bookended by Eugene Ionesco’s celebrated absurdist comedy Rhinoceros and the debut of the brand-new, state-of-the-art Ruth Caplin Theatre with the classic screwball comedy You Can’t Take it With You. In between, audiences will get a chance to experience the passion and power of the Tony Award-winning musical Spring Awakening and discover a talented new voice in the theatre world, with God’s Ear, a powerful, poignant and funny look at life, love and loss by playwright Jenny Schwartz.

PRESS RELEASE: Click here to download the season press release as an Adobe PDF

Rhinoceros
By Eugène Ionesco
Translated by Derek Prouse
Directed by Marianne Kubik
October 4-6, 10-13 at 8pm
Helms Theatre
One of the most iconic works in the absurdist theater movement, Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros puts mindless conformity firmly in its crosshairs in response to seemingly unchecked rise of Nazism and Fascism. When residents of a small village begin transforming into rhinoceroses, only one man is able to resist the urge and retain his own individuality and integrity against the pull of mass culture. This funny, bizarre, and biting satire is a cautionary tale for all eras.

Spring Awakening
Book & Lyrics by Steven Sater
Music by Duncan Sheik
Directed by Bob Chapel
November 29-30, December 1, 5-8 at 8pm
Culbreth Theatre
Taking Broadway by storm in 2007, this pop/rock/folk adaptation of this 1892 play by Frank Wedekind follows the lives, loves and longings of a group of German teens exploring and embracing their emerging sexuality under the disapproving eyes of their repressive parents and society at large. Capturing eight Tony Awards including Best Musical, the show features an infectious score by Grammy-winning artist and composer Duncan Sheik.

God’s Ear
By Jenny Schwartz
Directed by Sandy Shinner
February 21-23, February 26-28 and March 1-2 at 8pm
Helms Theatre
Playwright Jenny Schwartz launches buckshot barrages of lyrical wordplay in this touching look at life, love and loss. When a tragedy leaves a couple unable to escape their grief, the power of language to enlighten and obscure takes center stage. Stuck in a world where real has lost all meaning, the characters create new ones where the Tooth Fairy is real, GI Joe is a family therapist and love is more a question than an answer.

You Can’t Take It With You
By George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart
Directed by John Paul Scheidler
April 18-20, 24-27 at 8pm
The Ruth Caplin Theatre
Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman’s classic 1936 screwball comedy proves that when it comes to crazy families, everything is relative! When the time comes for a young woman to introduce her exceedingly eccentric brood to her buttoned-up future in-laws, the resulting catastrophe brings cascades of laughter along with important questions about individualism, conformity and the real meaning of “normal.”

For press photo click here.

For documents describing past productions, click here.

If you have questions or would like to request additional press materials, please contact James Scales at scales@virginia.edu or (434) 982-5279.

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