2013-2014 Season
BUFFALO RISES
A World-Premiere Play
A showcase of short plays by RLTP Playwrights
September 13th, 2013 – October 6th, 2013
Directed by Scott Behrend
Our tenth-anniversary season begins with a celebration of the community we live in and love, through the eyes, minds, and hearts of Buffalo’s favorite playwrights. RLTP Ensemble members Jon Elston (2012: End Of The Road), Donna Hoke (Seeds), Darryl Schneider (Clean Break), and Ibn Shabazz (Insidious) are joined by other outstanding local dramatists as they weave provocative, funny, and hopeful tales of the challenges, achievements, and aspirations of this city and its residents.
CLYBOURNE PARK
A WNY-Premiere Play
By Bruce Norris
November 8th, 2013 – December 1st, 2013
Directed by Scott Behrend
This visionary satire—simultaneously a prequel, sequel, and modern commentary on the American theatre classic A Raisin In The Sun – spans fifty years in the history of one much-contested house in a constantly evolving suburb. In 1959, nervous homeowners scramble to discourage the arrival of the neighborhood’s first black family; the tables turn in 2009, as the now predominantly African-American community struggles to resist a new onset of gentrification. A ferocious expose of segregation, white flight, and ever-shifting cultural insecurities, Clybourne Park is the winner of nearly every imaginable major drama prize, including the Tony and Olivier Awards and the Pulitzer Prize. Though set in Chicago, it’s a story sure to resonate with Buffalonians.
VERY FINE USE OF A GRENADE
A World-Premiere Play and Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop Selection
January 24th, 2014 – February 16th, 2014
By Mark Witteveen
Directed by Doug Zschiegner
A man and a woman (a couple?) check out of a rural Midwest motel room, nerves frayed, ready to leave their pasts behind them. The events that brought them to this point: a power struggle over an independent motion picture, an unusual seduction, an enigmatic disappearance. This world-premiere play by WNY’s Mark Witteveen is a mystery that unfolds in the grand tradition of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal and Christopher Nolan’s Memento, as we watch a grenade explode in reverse and are reminded that often the most bizarre events may happen quite naturally…
AN ILIAD
A WNY-Premiere Play
March 7th, 2014 – 30th, 2014
By Denis O’Hare & Lisa Peterson
The clash of swords and shields; the bonds of friendship, honor, and undying love; the machinations of gods and goddesses, meddling in the bloody affairs of mere mortals. An Iliad is an evocation of all of this, as Homer himself materializes – ancient yet timeless, both weary and tireless – to share his sweeping account of humanity’s unshakeable attraction to violence, chaos, and self-destruction. This muscular production spotlights a tour de force performance by RLTP Ensemble member Matt Witten, as he makes each blow of this legendary conflict seem both vivid and relevant.
RACE
A WNY-Premiere Play
April 25th, 2014 – May 18th, 2014
By David Mamet
Directed by Scott Behrend
A wealthy executive is charged with assault; two comfortably established lawyers (one black, one white) undertake his defense, with characteristic jaded detachment: an open-and-shut case, business as usual. But the case becomes far more complex when their ambitious young assistant forces the attorneys to confront the role of color in both the crime and also in their perceptions of that crime. RLTP presents the work of master playwright David Mamet for the first time in this gripping new drama, resplendent in Mamet’s trademark humor, rapid-fire repartee, and unique blend of profundity and profanity, as his characters grapple with the most combustible four-letter word of all – race.
