For Immediate Release
July 17, 2024
Press Contact: Michael Kyrioglou
michael.kyrioglou@gmail.com
WSG’s 39th Season Features Patricia Milton’s Victorian Ladies’ Detective Sequel
Plus Plays by Klein, Shaw & Kimball
Season of Determination Productions to be directed by Steven Carpenter, Morgan Duncan, Laura Giannarelli & Deidra LaWan Starnes
Washington, DC — The Washington Stage Guild proudly announces the plays to be produced in its 39th season – the Season of Determination. The 2024-2025 productions feature three area premieres – Sofonisba by Callie Kimball, Faithless by Jon Klein, and Escape From The Asylum: A Madcap Mystery by Patricia Milton (the sequel to last season’s hit The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective) – and Shaw’s Shorts, a collection of three short plays by the company’s playwright of choice, GB Shaw. Performances begin September 26, 2024 at the Washington Stage Guild’s home, The Undercroft Theatre in the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, NW.
“As a valued part of the DC-area theatre landscape since 1986, The Washington Stage Guild has seen neighborhoods change, economic upturns and downturns, and colleague theatres come and, sadly, go. For our Season of Determination – the 15th year at the Undercroft Theatre and our longest residency anywhere — we’re determined to produce the kind of plays we love that has made that possible. We’ve chosen plays about determination, in which characters’ commitment to something important drives their choices. Whether it’s a religious vocation, a desire for justice to finally win out, or the belief in the value of a literary or artistic career, these plays show us that, even if goals change or outcomes are unexpected, the strongest characters are those who don’t –won’t– give up.” — Bill Largess
2024-2025 SEASON
FAITHLESS by Jon Klein
Directed by Helen Hayes Award nominee Steven Carpenter, WSG Associate Artistic Director
September 26-October 20, 2024 (Press/Opening: September 29, 2024 at 2:30pm)
Family differences become amplified when faith is the main point of conversation AND contention in Jon Klein’s latest comic drama. Aging atheist Gus and his two adult stepchildren – a minister suffering from a crisis of faith, and his hardened, non-believer sister who’s had a glimpse of the afterlife following a head injury – come together when Gus’ teenage adopted daughter stuns them with her decision that she’d like to become a nun. From the author and director of Stage Guild’s 2019 hit Resolving Hedda. Area Premiere.
“ACHINGLY FUNNY, AND ULTIMATELY QUITE TOUCHING” – Ticketholders L.A.
“LAUGHTER-AND-DISCUSSION-PROVOKING…tackles serious matters with both nuance and depth” – Stage Scene L.A.
SHAW’S SHORTS by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Laura Giannarelli, WSG Founding Company Member
November 21-December 15, 2024 (Press/Opening: November 24, 2024 at 2:30pm)
A fresh look at two of GB Shaw’s most delicious one-act plays, first produced by Stage Guild in 2007. In O’Flaherty VC, the winner of the Victoria Cross for outstanding bravery, is confronted by his Irish-to-the-core Catholic mother, incensed to discover he’s been fighting for the British. In the imaginative The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Will Shakespeare goes to the palace to meet his Dark Lady to whom he addressed sonnets of love, only to find Her Majesty the Queen instead – followed by the Dark Lady herself who lambasts them both! Plus, The Interlude at the Playhouse, a comic curtain-raiser in which a nervous theatre owner must give a big speech at a gala opening, but his wife may have to save the day.
“Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.” – GB Shaw
ESCAPE FROM THE ASYLUM: A MADCAP MYSTERY by Patricia Milton
Directed by Morgan Duncan, director of The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective with returning cast Steven Carpenter, Debora Crabbe, Jen Furlong & WSG Founding Company Member Laura Giannarelli
January 30-February 23, 2025 (Press/Opening: February 2, 2025 at 2:30pm)
Will the women outsmart the men AGAIN?! Dual adventures ensue in this sequel to last season’s sell-out, The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective. Three intrepid lady detectives hatch a plan to free a perfectly sane woman explorer shut away in an asylum by her husband. If that weren’t enough, they also try to identify who is stealing the explorer’s inheritance. Follow the clues to solve two mysteries amid a Victorian seance, a pre-Freudian alienist, some cross-dressing, and barriers to gender equality at every turn. Welcoming back Stage Guild’s Victorian Ladies’ cast and director! Area Premiere.
“WHIP-SMART DIALOGUE” — San Francisco Chronicle
“[A] BLEND OF PUNS, POLITICAL SATIRE, AND SCHOLARLY FEMINIST INSIGHT, all played for laughs and maximum damage to patriarchal pomposity.” — Theatrestorm
SOFONISBA by Callie Kimball
Directed by Deidra LaWan Starnes
April 10-May 4, 2025 (Press/Opening: April 13, 2025 at 2:30pm)
She was one of the first known female artists. And one of the first women artists to establish an international reputation. A student of Michelangelo, 27-year-old noblewoman and renowned portrait artist Sofonisba Anguissola travels from Italy to Spain to paint for King Philip II. In her 20 years at the Royal Court, she must play to and against the expectations of the king, friendship with and service to a 14-year-old Queen Isabel, and navigate the tricky waters of court politics as an unmarried woman. A play about the hunger for creation – of birth and of art – and what it costs. Area Premiere.
“FUNNY, WITTY AND INTELLIGENT. This artist’s story is inspiring and enlightening”
– Bangor Daily News
SEASON PASSES & PRICING
2024-2025 Season Passes are available now. Each Pass gives the recipient four admissions that can be used any way: all four at once; two for one show, two for another; or one for each production.
PERFORMANCE TIMES AND PRICES* FOR ALL PRODUCTIONS
Thursday evenings at 7:30 pm $50.00
Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 pm $60.00
Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 pm $50.00
Discounts are available for senior citizens, students, and groups.
Season passes are available, offering incredible savings for the entire Washington Stage Guild season. $125 each.
*(Prices have not increased!)
Purchase at www.stageguild.org/buy-tickets/
ABOUT THE THEATRE
Founded in 1986 by a professional company of theatre artists dedicated to producing literate, challenging works in a collegial and supportive atmosphere, the Washington Stage Guild quickly established itself as an indispensable component of the D.C. area theatre scene, recognized as early as the end of the first season (1987) by The Washington Post. The ensemble theatre company’s acclaimed repertoire of neglected classics, unfamiliar works by familiar playwrights, and stimulating new plays from around the world is presented in a style that is the Guild’s own – direct and clear, with a strong commitment to adhering to the author’s intent.
###
