Monthly Archives: April 2019

WOMEN OF INFLUENCE: THEIR POWER, PASSION AND PITFALLS

“This may be the first time in our 33 years,” stated Human Race Artistic Director and Founding Member Kevin Moore, “that we selected a season theme before we selected our shows.” And for good reason. The 2019-20 Human Race Theatre season at the Loft Theatre coincides with the 100^th anniversary of the ratification of the 19^th Amendment, the first step in all women having the right to vote and the catalyst for our movements for Equality.

“In celebration of this monumental year,” continued Moore, “The Human Race titled its new seasonWomen of Influence: Their Power, Passion and Pitfalls.  The season showcases unique women’s stories and plentiful, strong female characters – both factual and fictional.  It also features some of the country’s outstanding women playwrights.”

“Throughout this remarkable season, I am especially thrilled about all the opportunities it presents to further our engagement with our audience and collaborate with many old and new community partners,” said Executive Director Kappy Kilburn.

The Human Race kicks off the season in September with Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill by Lanie Robertson. In 1959, Billie Holiday, or “Lady Day” as she was called, performed one of her final shows in a run-down bar in South Philly.  In Robertson’s award-winning play, Holiday engages the audience with salty, often humorous reminiscences of her troubled life as a travelling performer in a segregated south.  With the help of her piano man, Jimmy Powers, she lets music tell her story, sharing soulful, heart-wrenching and bawdy songs from her memorable canon including: “Strange Fruit,” “God Bless the Child,” “When a Woman Loves a Man,” and “Taint Nobody’s Business If I Do.”

November brings us The Cake, a new comedy by Bekah Brunstetter, the Supervising Producer and Writer of the hit NBC show This Is Us. Della makes cakes, not judgment calls — those she leaves to her husband, Tim. Besides, she was just selected as a contestant on The Great American Bake-Off, so she has her hands full.  But when her best friend’s daughter comes home to North Carolina to get married, Della’s life gets turned upside down when she realizes there’s not just one bride, but two. She can’t really make a cake for such a wedding, can she? For the first time in her life Della has to think for herself, forcing her to re-examine some of her deeply-held beliefs, as well as her own marriage.

Our March 2020 production celebrates Ohio-born journalist, social political activist and nationally recognized leader of the American feminist movement, Gloria Steinem, with the play by Emily Mann,Gloria: A Life, which recently ran Off-Broadway. Fifty years after Gloria Steinem began raising her voice for equality and advocating for others, her vision is as urgent as ever.   This richly detailed tapestry is about one of the most inspiring and remarkable women of our time.  Gloria’s life’s work and belief in the necessity of conversation as a catalyst for change offers us all a path forward in a way that only live theater can provide.

In the spring, playwright Lauren Gunderson brings us Sex in the City circa 1793 Paris with The Revolutionists. Four beautiful, badass women lose their heads in this irreverent, girl-powered comedy set during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Playwright Olympe de Gouges, assassin Charlotte Corday, former queen (and big fan of ribbons) Marie Antoinette, and Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle all are committed to finding Equality for Women while trying to figure out what it means for a woman to be “revolutionary.” This grand and zany comedy is about violence and legacy, art and activism, feminism and terrorism, compatriots and chosen sisters, and how we actually go about changing the world without losing our heads.

In June we are Hollywood-bound with Matthew Lombardo’s comedy Looped, based on a real event that has been the subject of gossip for years – featuring the outspoken film legend, Tallulah Bankhead. Loopedtakes place in the summer of 1965, and the film legend shows up to redub – or loop – one line of dialogue for her last movie, Die! Die! My Darling!!  It should have taken 8 minutes, but an inebriated Tallulah, well known for her husky voice, outrageous personality and devastating wit,needed eight hours.  Why?  Find out as Bankhead’s outsized personality dominates the young, frustrated film editor who is “knocked for a loop” by the tempestuous stage and screen icon.

This five-show Loft season will be The Human Race’s 33^rd season of professional theatre in the Miami Valley. Subscribers’ renewal packets will be available when they attend the upcoming show,Sylvia, April 25 – May 12, or they can call Ticket Center Stage at 937-228-3630. Subscriber deadline for renewal is May 24. New subscription orders are available anytime, but will not be seated until the renewal process has completed.

LADY DAY AT EMERSON’S BAR & GRILL
by Lanie Robertson
September 12 – 29, 2019

THE CAKE
by Bekah Brunstetter
October 31 – November 17, 2019

GLORIA: A LIFE
by Emily Mann
February 27 – March 15, 2020

THE REVOLUTIONISTS
by Lauren Gunderson
April 16 – May 3, 2020

LOOPED
by Matthew Lombardo
June 11 – 28, 2020

Renewal Options:

1.) Pick up renewal packets when you attend any performance of SYLVIA
2.) Call Ticket Center Stage at 937-228-3630
3.) Visit the Schuster Center Box Office
4.) Wait for mailed packet – mailing date May 18

RENEWAL DEADLINE: May 24, 2019