Palm Beach Dramaworks
announces

2019/2020 Season

A Streetcar Named Desire ,
Ordinary Americans (World Premiere),
Skylight , The Light in the Piazza ,
and Lobby Hero 

 Opening Night October 11
January 9, 2019 – A world premiere and four popular, critically acclaimed works make up Palm Beach Dramaworks’ 2019-2020 season, it was announced today by Producing Artistic Director William Hayes.

The season gets underway at the Don & Ann Brown Theatre on Friday evening, October 11 with Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire , the Pulitzer Prize-winner that is on virtually every critic’s short list of greatest American plays. Williams gave us two characters for the ages: Blanche DuBois, who’s searching for magic and has a tenuous grip on reality, and the brutal, domineering Stanley Kowalski. Neither has a place in the other’s world, and their mutual antagonism leads to inevitable tragedy. J. Barry Lewis directs. 

Up next is the world premiere of Joseph McDonough’s Ordinary Americans , inspired by the true story of television pioneer Gertrude Berg. The play, to be directed by William Hayes, was commissioned by PBD and was included in the recently concluded New Year/New Plays Festival, which featured readings of five promising works. Ordinary Americans was developed in The Dramaworkshop, where it will continue to be shaped and polished prior to opening night, December 6.  

That’s followed on February 7 by David Hare’s Olivier Award-winning Skylight , in which two former lovers, who see the world from starkly different vantage points and agree on nothing, look back and look ahead, trying to determine whether they have a future. Hayes directs.
For the second consecutive season, PBD is including a musical during its subscription season. The Light in the Piazza , one of the loveliest musicals of the twenty-first century, opens on April 3. Written by Adam Guettel (music and lyrics) and Craig Lucas (book), the show won six 2005 Tony awards, including Best Original Score. Based on a novella by Elizabeth Spencer, the show is about family secrets and the pursuit of happiness. Bruce Linser will direct.

Closing out the season is Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero , a serio-comic play set in the lobby of a New York apartment building, in which four characters face ethical challenges all too familiar to contemporary audiences. The play opens on May 22, with Lewis directing.
2019 – 2020 SEASON
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
by Tennessee Williams
October 11 - November 3, 2019
This Pulitzer Prize-winning play features two of the most memorable characters ever created for the stage: the fragile, fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois and her working class, brutish, testosterone-driven brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. When Blanche arrives in New Orleans to stay with her sister, Stella, in the cramped quarters of the dingy Kowalski apartment, the tension between Blanche and Stanley is instantaneous and leads to growing hostility that culminates in a shattering confrontation.
ORDINARY AMERICANS (World Premiere)
by Joseph McDonough
December 6 - December 29, 2019
In the early 1950s, Gertrude Berg and Philip Loeb, the pioneering stars of television’s groundbreaking sitcom, The Goldbergs , heroically struggle to save their show, their careers, and their friendship in the face of McCarthyism, anti-Semitism, and the political climate of the country. Based on actual events, Ordinary Americans reveals the double-edged sword between speaking out and staying silent.
SKYLIGHT by David Hare
February 7- March 1, 2020
Tom Sergeant, a wealthy, middle-aged businessman, and the much younger Kyra Hollis, his former employee, had a long, ardent love affair until his wife discovered their relationship. Kyra walked out, and a year after his wife’s death, Tom pays a visit to his ex, who now teaches underprivileged children and chooses to live in poverty. Can incompatible values and opposing worldviews be bridged if the passion remains? Winner of the 1996 Olivier Award for Best New Play.
THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel
Book by Craig Lucas
April 3 - April 26, 2020

In this lyrical, shimmering musical, winner of six Tony awards, Margaret Johnson takes a trip to Italy in the summer of 1953 with her daughter, Clara, a beautiful young woman with the mind of a 10-year-old. Clara falls in love with Fabrizio, a handsome Florentine who wants to marry her. The protective Margaret, trying to come to terms with her own unhappy marriage, must decide whether to allow her determined, challenged daughter to follow her heart.
LOBBY HERO by Kenneth Lonergan    
May 22 - June 7, 2020
Four New Yorkers involved in a murder investigation – a slacker security guard in a Manhattan apartment building, his by-the-book boss, a rookie cop and her macho partner – face moral and ethical dilemmas in this comic drama by the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Manchester by the Sea . The play explores issues of racism and sexism, and whether it’s ever honorable to do the wrong thing for the right reason.
Palm Beach Dramaworks is a non-profit, professional theatre and is a member of the Theatre Communications Group, the South Florida Theatre League, Florida Professional Theatres Association, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County.

Evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30PM, Friday and Saturday at 8PM, and select Sundays at 7PM. Matinee performances are on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2PM. Post-performance discussions follow Wednesday matinee and Sunday evening performances.

The Don & Ann Brown Theatre is located in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach, at 201 Clematis Street. For ticket information contact the box office at (561) 514-4042, or visit www.palmbeachdramaworks.org .
Theatre To Think About