RACE, THE THREEPENNY OPERA and More Set for San Jose Stage Company's 2012-13 Season

San Jose Stage Company has announced its landmark 30th Anniversary 2012-2013 Season. For three decades, San Jose Stage Company has been committed to providing Silicon Valley with bold, challenging, thought-provoking theatre and this season will be no different.

When asked about the slate for The Stage’s Season 30, Artistic Director Randall King says, “over the years we have always pursued titles and playwrights that feast us in food for thought, challenge our artistry, and fulfill our passions. How can the 30th Season be any less? We selected each of the shows for the 2012-2013 Season with our core players and artists in mind, playing to their strengths.” 

“From the season opener of David Mamet’s incendiary RACE to our revival of Bertolt Brecht’s revolutionary THE THREEPENNY OPERA, San Jose Stage Company’s 30th Season highlights our greatest strengths as a theatre company. Each play challenges, provokes and explores both a retrospective reflection of where we have been and a prescient teaser of where we are going in the future.”

The significance of opening Season 30 with David Mamet’s RACE not only exemplifies the company’s artistic mission but also represents the company’s early roots in the early 1980s. The collective of artists who founded The Stage were premiering the work of new American Playwrights such as David Mamet. SJSC has produced Mamet’s AMERICAN BUFFALO (1985), SPEED-THE-PLOW (1993) and GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (1988 & 2008).

RACE
Written by David Mamet
Directed by Tony Kelly
October 3 - October 28, 2012

Multiple award-winning playwright/director David Mamet’s RACE tackles America's most controversial topic in a provocative tale of sex, guilt and bold accusations. Two lawyers – one black, one white – and the firm’s young associate scramble to decide if they want to represent a wealthy white man accused of the rape of a black woman. A true case of "he said, she said," RACE questions what you thought, what you heard, and what you think you know. RACE is the central theme, but the issues are more than skin deep as the redhot debate delves into questions of sex, gender equality, and social class.

RECKLESS
Written by Craig Lucas
Directed by Kenneth Kelleher
November 28 - December 16, 2012

For the holidays, The Stage will offer a twist on traditional fare. RECKLESS, from gifted playwright Craig Lucas (THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, PRELUDE TO A KISS), is a darkly comic tale of a modern-day Alice in a perilous winter wonderland. This surreal comedy follows the fate of Rachel, whose blissful life gets turned upside down after one fateful Christmas Eve when her husband reveals he has taken a contract out on her life. She flees her home and embarks on a series of misadventures that challenges her preconceptions concerning family, love and the wonders of life. RECKLESS is essentially a timeless story of triumph and transformation in the face of crazy adversity.

RED
Written by John Logan
Directed by Kenneth Kelleher
February 6 - March 3, 2013

Full-blooded and visceral, winner of six 2010 Tony Awards including Best Play, RED by John Logan takes you into the mind of abstract expressionist Mark Rothko. After landing the biggest commission in the history of modern art, Mark Rothko begins work on a series of large murals with the help of a new young assistant. Set amid the swiftly changing cultural tide of the early 1960s, celebrated bad boy of the art world for whom paintings are "pulsating" life forces and art is intended to stop the heart. The Stage’s venue will serve as the ultimate environment for the up close and personal portrait of an artist's ambition and vulnerability. RED is a startling snapshot of a brilliant artist at the height of his fame.

THE THREEPENNY OPERA
Written by Bertolt Brecht (playwright) and Kurt Weill (composer)
Directed by Kenneth Kelleher
April 3, 2013 - April 28, 2013

A milestone of 20th century musical theater, THE THREEPENNY OPERA (Die Dreigroschenoper) rolls on unstoppably into the 21st with absolute relevance in today’s world. In their opera “by and for beggars,“ composer Kurt Weill (1900–1950) and playwright Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) transformed saccharine, old-fashioned opera and operetta forms, incorporating a sharp political perspective and the sound of 1920s Berlin dance bands and cabaret. This musical saga of the villainous but irresistible Mack the Knife and his marauding band of thieves is a revolutionary musical theatre piece, inspiring such hits as CABARET (at The 3 of 4 Stage in 2011 for an extended run) and URINETOWN, THE MUSICAL (at The Stage in 2006 for an extended run).

HOT NEW MUSICAL (in negotiations)
May 29 - June 30, 2013

The Stage is located at 490 South First Street at William Street in the SoFA district of downtown San Jose. 2012-13 Subscriptions available at 408.283.7142 or www.thestage.org 

Founded in 1983, San Jose Stage Company is recognized as The Bay Area's Premiere Off- Broadway Theatre, and known for its devotion to new and cutting-edge work and for its commitment to showcasing high-quality local talent. In 1986, San Jose Stage Company set precedence as the first arts organization to negotiate and receive support from the Redevelopment Agency and the City of San Jose when over $500,000 was appropriated in support of the development of a new 200-seat theatre featuring a 3/4-thrust stage, which opened in 1990. Now in its 30th Season, SJSC continues to center its operations in this facility and has successfully produced over 143 productions and premiered 44 new works, including 11 world premieres and is acclaimed for maintaining high artistic standards, investing in local talent and supporting the region’s community of working artists while taking artistic risks. In addition to its core programming, San Jose Stage Company offers five core education and outreach programs and has housed over 200 independent performance groups. San Jose Stage Company is a vital force in the community and has earned a reputation for artistic excellence by providing high- quality, edgy theatrical experiences that engage, educate and provoke audiences. San Jose Stage Company serves an audience base of 30,000 and is recognized as a leader in the arts for a theatre of its size.

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