What’s Playing at Ford’s Theatre: American Classics, A Holiday Favorite and A World Premiere
The Ford’s Theatre theatrical season for 2015-2016 is announced! Productions include: the world-premiere play The Guard by Jessica Dickey and directed by Sharon Ott—part of Washington’s Women’s Voices Theater Festival; The Glass Menagerie; and the musical 110 In the Shade directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge and featuring Tracy Lynn Olivera (Freedom’s Song; Hello, Dolly!). The season also includes the holiday favorite A Christmas Carol.
Check out the season below! You can now reserve tickets for The Guard. Performances of A Christmas Carol, The Glass Menagerie and 110 in the Shade will be available to Ford’s Theatre Members and Groups on August 3, 2015, with public sale on August 17, 2015.
We have a responsibility as theatre practitioners to showcase a diversity of American voices in the work we produce. We are thrilled to produce a season chosen in collaboration with and featuring so many outstanding women artists. Throughout our season, our productions will explore the expectations of family and society, and the universal need for human connection. We are especially thrilled to have commissioned Jessica Dickey to write The Guard for us this year—a captivating new play about the art world; and to welcome Marcia Milgrom Dodge back to Washington. –Paul R. Tetreault, Ford’s Theatre Director
The Guard (World Premiere) By Jessica Dickey; Directed by Sharon Ott September 25-October 18, 2015 In this world-premiere comedic drama, playwright Jessica Dickey paints shimmering portraits of Rembrandt, Homer and those who protect the art we cherish. The play opens in a modern-day art museum where three individuals yearn to experience first-hand the wonder and glory of Rembrandt’s work. When a museum guard decides to touch a famous Rembrandt painting, a remarkable journey across the ages ensues. Spanning centuries of human experience, The Guard movingly explores the power of creative expression and the sacrifices we make in the pursuit of love and beauty. Ford’s Theatre commissioned The Guard as part of the 2015 Women’s Voices Theater Festival—a celebration of original works by female writers in more than 50 of the Washington region’s professional theatres.
A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens; Adapted by Michael Wilson; Directed by Michael Baron November 19-December 31, 2015 The annual Ford’s Theatre production of A Christmas Carol has been a Washington tradition for more than 30 years. Join the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future as they lead the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge on a journey of transformation and redemption. Originally conceived by Michael Baron, this music-infused production captures the magic and joy of Dickens’s Yuletide classic. Celebrate the season with the production The Washington Post hailed as “musically high-spirited” and “infectiously jolly.”
The Glass Menagerie By Tennessee Williams; Directed by Mark Ramont January 22-February 21, 2016 One of the greatest American plays of the 20th century, The Glass Menagerie explores the visceral bonds of family. Southern matriarch Amanda frets constantly over her two live-in adult children—the painfully shy Laura and Laura’s restless poet brother, Tom. With great cajoling, Tom brings home a possible suitor for Laura, but reality soon casts a shadow on Amanda’s dreams for both her children. This iconic, emotional and enduring family drama made Williams famous and has become a classic of the American repertoire.
110 in the Shade Music by Harvey Schmidt; Lyrics by Tom Jones; Book by N. Richard Nash Directed and Choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge March 11-May 14, 2016 In sweltering 1936 Texas, headstrong and eternally single Lizzie Curry dreams of a life beyond her small town. When a charming stranger named Starbuck swaggers into town, he brings both the promise to end the region’s drought and awakens Lizzie to the promise she holds within. Ford’s Theatre presents this classic American musical about cowboys, confidence and courtship, based on The Rainmaker and featuring a lively score from the creators of The Fantasticks. Local favorite Tracy Lynn Olivera stars as Lizzie.