Intiman, ACT theaters plan a panoply of plays

Intiman Theatre and ACT Theatre, two leading Seattle playhouses, have announced the dates for their 2007 offerings.

Intiman Theatre

Intiman's five-play, 35th-anniversary season will open with "The Light in the Piazza" (April 17-29), the Broadway, Tony Award-honored version of the Adam Guettel-Craig Lucas musical that had its world debut here in 2003. The touring version plays at the Paramount Theatre as a co-production of Intiman and Seattle Theatre Group.

Also part of the season:

"The Skin of Our Teeth" (April 28-June 2). A new staging of Thornton Wilder's surreal chronicle of human history.

"Uncle Vanya"(June 10-July 15). Intiman associate artistic head Craig Lucas unveils his new English-language adaptation of the hallowed Anton Chekhov play.

"Prayer for My Enemy" (July 27-Aug. 26). A world-premiere drama by Lucas, about a fractured family whose divisions reflect the state of contemporary American society.

"To Kill a Mockingbird" (Sept. 28-Nov. 11). A dramatization of Harper Lee's beloved novel set in the racist Deep South of the 1930s. (This show is part of Intiman's American Cycle of well-known literary works.)

Intiman artistic director Bartlett Sher staged "Light in the Piazza" for Broadway and the incoming tour. Despite his growing notoriety as a busy Broadway-theater-and-opera director, Sher is also slated to direct three other Intiman shows this seasons. "The Skin of Our Teeth," "Prayer for My Enemey" and "Uncle Vanya." (A director for "To Kill a Mockingbird" will be named later).

More season and subscription information: www.intiman.org or 206-269-1900.

ACT Theatre

Founded in 1965, ACT ushers in its next season with the Seattle debut of "The Clean House" (March 30-April 29) a comedy about love, loss and jokery by young playwright Sarah Ruhl, a 2006 MacArthur Fellow. Allison Narver directs.

Also on the docket:

"Souvenir" (May 11-June 10). Locally based singer-actress Patti Cohenour, a Broadway veteran, performs Stephen Temperley's Broadway chamber musical based on a "delightfully demented" real-life wannabe diva, Florence Foster Jenkins. R. Hamilton Wright directs.

"Stuff Happens" (June 22-July 22). David Hare's modern-history play chronicles the machinations in the George W. Bush White House and U.K. prime minister Tony Blair's cabinet, leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Victor Pappas directs.

"First Class" (July 27-Aug. 26). A one-man drama based on the great poet and longtime University of Washington prof Theodore Roethke, written by poet-playwright David Wagoner and portrayed by Seattle's own John Aylward. Kurt Beattie directs.

"The Mojo and the Sayso" (Aug. 31-Sept. 30). Aishah Rahman's play about a black family's struggle to regain its strength and faith after a senseless death is the second production of ACT's Hansberry Project. Valerie Curtis-Newton directs.

"The Women" (Oct. 5-Nov. 11). The claws come out in Clare Booth Luce's 1930s comic profile of wealthy, catty society dames (and those who serve them). Warner Shook directs a cast of primo Seattle actresses.

More information: www.acttheatre.org or 206-292-7676.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com

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