Two River Theater has announced their 30th anniversary season, including the musical Hair, and two world-premiere productions. This will be the first season led by the New Jersey company’s new Artistic Director Justin Waldman and Managing Director Nora DeVeau-Rosen.
The 2023-2024 season will kick off with the rock musical Hair in September, directed by James Vásquez and featuring original choreography by Mayte Natalio. October will bring the world premiere of Kate Hamill’s The Scarlet Letter, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel. Shelley Butler (Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, A Doll’s House Part 2) is at the helm.
Between the fall and spring season, the theatre will present A Little Shakespeare: Love’s Labour’s Lost in March 2024. The abridged Shakespeare comedy is developed through Two River’s educational program, and is designed by theatre professionals, while performed by high school students.
The world premiere of Tony Meneses’ A Thousand Maids will run in April 2024, directed by May Adrales. A Thousand Maids follows designer Cordelia, who, while designing a maid costume, contemplates the controversy and nuances behind woman of color characters as maids across films like Maid in Manhattan and Gone With the Wind.
The season will conclude in June with August Wilson‘s Gem of the Ocean, the prolific playwright’s first installment in his American Century Cycle. Regarded as one of Wilson’s most spiritual plays, it follows the Black community of Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1904, as they reconcile with the lingering effects of slavery. Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, it is the seventh August Wilson play to be produced by the theatre company, in their mission to produce all 10 of Wilson’s epics. It will feature performances by Crystal A. Dickinson and Brandon J. Dirden.
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