The REP's 2012-13 Season to Include AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, ROPE and More

The REP, Point Park University's professional theatre company, will produce four works, including one world premiere and one Pittsburgh premiere, in the 2012 - 2013 season, which opens Sept. 7, 2012 and runs through April 6, 2013 at the Pittsburgh Playhouse.

The REP's 2012 – 2013 season is as follows:

August: Osage County
By Tracy Letts
Directed by John Shepard

Friday, Sept. 7 – Sunday, September 23
Rauh Theatre

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, Tracy Letts' August: Osage County is a wild ride that tells the story of the Westons, a hysterical yet horrifically dysfunctional clan that comes together at their Oklahoma home when the patriarch disappears. Forced to confront unspoken truths and secrets, the family must also contend with Violet, a pill-popping, deeply unsettled woman at the center of this storm. Los Angeles Times says it is "sensationally entertaining…a feast for actors and audiences alike." Time Magazine named it the "#1 Show of the Year!" Described by Variety as a "very juicy…epic evening…( a) richly entertaining dysfunctional-family juggles the hilarious, the poignant and the appalling on a scale seldom seen," August: Osage County is a tale brimming with savory characters told with unremitting honesty.

Rope
By PatRick Hamilton
Directed by Elmore James

Friday, Sept. 28 – Sunday, Oct. 14
Studio Theatre

For the mere sake of adventure, danger, and the "fun of the thing," Wyndham Brandon persuades his weak-minded friend, Charles Granillo, to assist him in the murder of a fellow undergraduate. They place the body in a wooden chest, invite a few acquaintances, and host a dinner party with the chest as the supper table. Horror and tension swell gradually; thunder grows outside, the guests leave, and we see the reactions of the two murderers to the strange, twisted series of events. Elmore James creates an edgy, American-ized version of this psychological drama brimming with shock and suspense.

James is a theater director, musical performer, opera singer and is a teacher of acting and musical theater, having worked both here in the United States and in Europe, having worked on Broadway, in regional theater and in opera, at the Metropolitan Opera House as well as the opera houses of Italy, Germany, France and Scandinavia. He has directed everything from Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Harold Pinter and Lanford Wilson to Jerry Herman, Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Andrew Lloyd Weber. His award-winning career spans over 40 years.

Becky's New Car
By Steven Dietz
Directed by Kim Martin

Friday, Feb. 1 – Sunday, Feb. 17
Studio Theatre

Becky Foster is caught in middle age, middle management and in a middling marriage-with no prospects for change on the horizon. Then one night a socially inept and grief-struck millionaire stumbles into the car dealership where Becky works. Becky is offered nothing short of a new life…and the audience is offered a chance to ride shotgun in a way that most plays wouldn't dare. Becky's New Car is a thoroughly original comedy with serious overtones, a devious and delightful romp down the road not taken.

Variety says, "Perhaps the highest praise that can be given to Steven Dietz's praiseworthy new comedy is that it's funny…gently and consistently funny-right up to the point that it's touching, and then even a little bit after that. Becky's New Car takes the audience on a smart, comic cruise through the perils of middle-aged longing and regret."

Antarktikos (World Premiere)
By Andrea Stolowitz
Directed by Sheila McKenna

Friday, March 22 – Saturday, April 6

Studio Theatre

Antarktikos is a mind-bending play about heroism, saying goodbye, and moving forward. Somewhere between Oregon and Antarctica lie several points on a continuum: Susan, a writer at an artists residency at the South Pole; Captain Robert Falcon Scott, leader of the British Antarctic expedition of 1912; and Hilary, Susan's 21-year-old daughter. When an insomniac EMT named Alex becomes the hapless link among them, time collapses, geographies blend, and destinies emerge.

Andrea Stolowitz is a graduate of the M.F.A. playwriting program at UC-San Diego. Her plays have been developed and produced nationally and internationally at theaters like The Old Globe, The Long Wharf, Victory Gardens, and the Cherry Lane. Antarktikos has been developed at Artists Repertory Theater (OR), Key City Public Theater (WA), the 2011 New Harmony Project (IN), White Pine Productions Play Series (PA) dir: Ed Sobel (Arden Theater), and the JAW festival at Portland Center Stage. The play was named a finalist for PlayPenn (PA) and Premiere Stages (NJ).

The REP 2012 - 2013 season subscriptions-which save patrons up to 35% off single ticket prices-are available now and can be purchased for $64 - $72; single tickets, which can be purchased for $24 - $27, will go on sale August 20 at
10 a.m. Subscribers are invited to Point Park University's exclusive season-opening party. Those who purchase three subscriptions get the fourth free. To order a season subscription, contact the Pittsburgh Playhouse box office by phone 412-392-8000 or online www.pittsburghplayhouse.com.