Syracuse’s Red House Theater has announced the line-up for its mainstage productions that will start later this year. The theater is taking on ambitious works and sticking to its mission.
The opening “Songs for a New World” artistic director Steven
Svoboda admits presents some challenges.
“It tells the story about a whole bunch of different characters and as they make large momentous decisions or life changing transformations in their lives. For us the music of the show is impossibly difficult and beautiful and amazing so we are really focusing on the musicality of the show and the orchestra of the show and those sort of transformational and inspiring moments.”
He’s also excited to put on both the Pulitzer prize winning “Next to normal, in repertory along with “Pterodactyls”
“These are two plays, one written in the last 5 years, the other written in the early 90s and they use the same exact dramatic conceit. They are both about families sort of struggling with mental illness and denial and disease and how the American family sort of falls apart because we can’t actually deal and confront our problems.
- Other plays in the season include
- The Music Man,
- Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,
- Metamorphoses and
- a version of Hamlet, set in Orange County with suburban housewives.
Educational Director Marguerite Mitchell-Sundberg says the upcoming season also includes works in their “Lab Series” to develop talent.
“It takes place in our rehearsal space and it gives emerging directors a chance to cast the show, go through the rehearsal process learn what it is to be a director and be mentored by Stephen who directs our mainstage shows. So that is local directors, local talent, college kids, learning the tech process of putting a show together”
An extension of that education mission is something Svoboda is excited about. He says children from Hillside learning taking part in the plays.
“so they are auditioning in the regular auditions and getting cast to be in the shows and in addition two of the kids from hillside actually work here full time as wardrobe and set construction so they’ve started to see arts as a method for living life which is what’s really exciting”
The main stage productions start in August and run through next April with subscriptions available starting next month.
Dates and other information about the upcoming season are at The-Redhouse-dot-org.
