reIGNITE Live Arts: Solo Gem, Timely Drama, Fabulous Comedy, Eco-Thriller, and Explosive Political Farce
September 20, 2021 – Live Arts is thrilled to announce five dynamic productions for its 2021/22 Season: reIGNITE Live Arts. The season opens with EVERY BRILLIANT THING, an uplifting solo show by Duncan Macmillan, with Jonny Donahoe. It continues with A NEW PLAY by Dominique Morisseau, followed by Matthew Lopez’s fabulously sassy comedy THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE and the chilling eco-thriller THE CHILDREN by Lucy Kirkwood. The season closes with Dario Fo’s classic political farce ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST. Subscription package sales are now available.
“The creative flames never went out at Live Arts,” says Artistic Director Susan E. Evans. “During the past 18 months, Live Arts demonstrated impressive creative resiliency. Our volunteers continue to sustain us, and they ensure that theater and community-building continue to thrive. Like fire, live theater doesn’t exist in a vacuum. As we open the doors of these beautiful theaters, we’re excited to reignite the joy that happens when we commune and connect.”
The plays in this 31st Live Arts Season all reflect the “eternal flame” theater keeps lit. These five playwrights celebrate the desire to keep on living, to push back against broken systems, to transform one’s identity, to be responsible to future generations, and to boldly to laugh at overweening authority.
The 2021/22 Live Arts Season is generously sponsored by Elizabeth and Joe LeVaca.
Learn More About the Season!
What does a six-year-old do to cheer up their mom after she’s tried to kill herself? They make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world, everything worth living for, and leaves it for her on her pillow. The 2021/22 Season kicks off in October with EVERY BRILLIANT THING, an uplifting and humorous solo show about depression and resilience by Duncan Macmillan, with Jonny Donahoe, where the audience becomes part of the story. In a unique Live Arts twist, three different performers will appear in rotating repertory during the run.
Starts in October 2021. Gibson Theater. Directed by Clinton Johnston
In January 2022, Live Arts introduces Charlottesville to a dynamic NEW PLAY by award-winning playwright Dominique Morisseau, with a title to be announced. David Vaughn Straughn makes his Live Arts directorial debut in January 2022 at the helm of this new play by Morisseau, the Tony-nominated book writer on the new Broadway musical Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations. Straughn recently appeared on the Live Arts stage in THE ROYALE (2019).
Starts January 2022. Gibson Theater. Directed by David Vaughn Straughn
THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE arrives on the Live Arts stage in a Central Virginia premiere in March 2022. It’s “Showtime” at Cleo’s Lounge, a dilapidated, small-time club in the Florida Panhandle. Casey needs to get a new act together fast—he’s broke, and his wife just told him there’s a baby on the way. Can this young Elvis impersonator transform himself into a platform-pump-panty-hose-wearing drag queen? Outrageous and campy, sweet yet spicy, GEORGIA MCBRIDE is a heartfelt valentine to drag queens, a celebration of divas and difference.
Starts March 2022. Gibson Theater. Directed by Perry Medlin.
Named one of the greatest theatrical works since 2000 by The Guardian,THE CHILDREN by Lucy Kirkwood opens in Live Arts’ Founders Theater next spring 2022. A thought-provoking and challenging eco-thriller, THE CHILDREN was part of Live Arts’ 2019/20 Season cut short by the pandemic. “We are excited to now share THE CHILDREN with Charlottesville audiences in a Central Virginia premiere” says Evans. “Kirkwood’s pressure-cooker of a play, centered around three retired nuclear scientists with an intertwined past, demands that we consider our generational and social responsibilities.”
Starts April 2022. Founders Theater. Directed by Betsy Rudelich Tucker
Closing out the season is ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Dario Fo. The play is based on an actual case from 1969, where an Italian railway worker “accidentally” fell to his death from a window in a police interrogation room. ACCIDENTAL DEATH is a searingly hilarious exposé of rampant, and thoroughly institutionalized, corruption of the police. Seen by over a half million people in the first two years after its 1970 premiere, performed in more than 40 countries, Fo’s political farce is considered a classic of 20th century theater.
Starts May 2022. Gibson Theater. Directed by Susan E. Evans
Looking Ahead
In addition to the five shows included in 2021/22 subscription packages, the Live Arts teen musical returns in July 2022 with Stephen Sondheim’s INTO THE WOODS. This enchanting, topsy-turvy musical weaves together the journeys of familiar storybook characters as they attempt to fulfill their deepest wishes. What would you wish for? And if that wish was granted, what consequences would you be willing to accept in return? INTO THE WOODS is a twisted musical fairytale unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Starts July 2022. Gibson Theater.
