Arts - Workhouse Theatre 2008 2009 Season - Workhouse Theatre announces 2008-2009 Season

Camden’s own Workhouse Theatre Company (WTC), no small contributor to the artistic transformation of the Northside that has occurred over the past few years, has announced their third full season of theatre. The lineup this year will again feature three mainstage plays on the Workhouse Stage at The Warren (4400 Osseo Road).

 This fall WTC presents 100 by Christopher Heimann, Diene Petterle and Neil Monaghan. In this groundbreaking play, which will be directed by Workhouse Theatre veteran Diane Mountford (also a Camden resident and artistic director of the Minnesota Shakespeare Project), WTC invites you to choose: “From your whole life, from all that you have ever done or felt…what is the one thing you treasure most? Imagine that you must choose one single memory from your life - everything else will be erased forever. That choosing this memory is your only way of passing through to eternity. That you have one hour to choose. Choose now.” 100 runs October 3-18 and open auditions will be held on July 28 and July 29 at The Warren. To prepare for auditions, interested persons should prepare a one-to-two minute contemporary monologue plus provide a headshot and resume. Callbacks will be July 31 and August 1 and will consist of movement and ensemble exercises. More info at www.workhousetheatre.org.

 In early spring, audiences will have the chance to see an adaptation from the cult comic book series Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children by Dave Louapre and Dan Sweetman, as WTC teams up with Minneapolis-based Hardcover Theatre to bring these stories to life. This piece is a hilarious examination of the unending search for happiness and the sometimes desperate measures taken to achieve it, and will be directed and produced by WTC’s newest company member (and director of last season’s The Underpants), Chris McGahan. Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children will run from March 6-21.

 For the final mainstage show of the season, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play will take audiences on a journey down the bumpy roads of rural Maryland to deliver a story of survival and forgiveness. Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive chronicles the troubling relationship between a young girl and her uncle, and is described by The New York Times as “a lovely, harrowing guide to the crippling persistence of one woman’s memories.” How I Learned to Drive runs May 1-16.

 Carrying on a tradition of partnering with community, WTC will present mid-stage productions of company-developed plays at both the Heritage Day Festival at Kroening Interpretive Center and during Holiday on 44th. And, in response to requests for additional theatre arts education options, WTC has made some exciting changes for its 2008-2009 season. For the first time, in addition to ongoing improvisation and beginning theatre classes at Patrick Henry High, WTC will be offering a series of short, intensive Saturday workshops in various aspects of theatre arts. For info about any of these educational opportunities or to get involved with WTC visit www.workhousetheatre.org, or email contact@ workhousetheatre.org or call 612-386-5763.