Court Theatre Announces 69th Season
Court Theatre, under the continuing leadership of Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Charles Newell and Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre, announced its 69th season. The company's 2023/24 season will feature the riveting and clever family saga, James Goldman's The Lion in Winter, directed by Resident Artist Ron OJ Parson; the Sophocles classic bringing Court's Oedipus Trilogy to a defiant conclusion, Antigone, directed by Associate Artistic Director Gabrielle Randle-Bent; one of Tom Stoppard's earliest and best-known works, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, directed by Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Charles Newell; and Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution, an evocative world premiere by Nambi E. Kelley and directed by Tasia A. Jones.
Court's upcoming season marks a thrilling inflection point in the theatre's history, catalyzed by the 2022 Regional Theatre Tony Award. The season centers timeless themes in strikingly rich interpretations, encouraging audiences to find the fresh in the familiar. Court has compiled a carefully curated blend of beloved texts and new voices to take audiences on this invigorating journey.
The 2023/24 season starts later than previous seasons, as Court will return to the renowned Getty Villa in fall of 2023 to remount their production of The Gospel at Colonus, bringing the sound, history, and vibrancy of this uniquely Chicago production to the West Coast. Due to this opportunity, the 2023/24 season will not officially begin until early November 2023. This is just one of many exciting projects that Court has planned for next year - and the years to come.
Marilyn F. Vitale Artistic Director Charles Newell shares: "This season, we're staging a number of well-known works in innovative and creative ways, inviting audiences to reconsider their potential, their cultural and theatrical significance, and their essential message. We commissioned a new work that complicates historical narratives and reinvigorates the form of the memory play. And we remain ever curious about what makes a classic and why. This season will be wonderfully satisfying, without question, and - by shaking the foundation of the typical - we can't wait to celebrate the transformational power of possibility with audiences."
Executive Director Angel Ysaguirre comments: "We received the 2022 Regional Theatre Tony Award for our history of excellent productions and for building participation among residents in our surrounding communities on the South Side. This season continues that work as we artistically invest in telling important stories, reimagine stories we think we know, and continue to deepen relationships and be a place of artistic and civic engagement for our neighbors on the South Side of Chicago. These plays all examine issues of who we are and how we act responsibly toward one another."