(SAINT PAUL, Minn.) Park Square Artistic Director Richard Cook and his new team of Artistic Associates announce a season crackling with new scripts from Broadway and beyond. This team Brian Balcom, Aditi Kapil, Carson Kreitzer and James A. Williams has done just what I asked them to do: bring me work I may not have known of or wouldnt normally consider, says Cook.

The creative quartet of Artistic Associates was established last September to work with Cook to expand Park Squares play selection and community reach in preparation for the opening of the Thrust Stage in 2013. My goal with the Artistic Associates is to widen the circle of people who come to me with ideas and open up Park Square to new points of view. They say be careful what you wish for, but I knew I could trust this group. Im delighted with our first season of collaboration.

The season opens September 21 with RED, a passionate portrait of artist Mark Rothkos brilliant, angry mind that The New York Times called intense and exciting. After its triumphant Broadway debut, the script sought after by other area artistic directors stayed in Cooks hands. Just two years after its Broadway debut, this piece combines all the conventions we might expect of a show about a lion of the art world and his apprentice the young cub nipping at his heels, says Cook who will direct Red, but then it drops us in a new place, leaving us saying well, I didnt think we were going there.

Following Red is a new production of KING LEAR, opening October 26 and directed by Park Square favorite Peter Moore, with Raye Birk starring as Lear. Im building this show around Raye, says Moore. Hell be the Godfather type set against the backdrop of Prohibition. The production will be about the central tragedy, not about the setting or its stereotypes, but I want to use a convention that is immediately recognizable to this generation in order to highlight the competing family loyalties and the role of absolute power.

December brings a revival of 2 PIANOS 4 HANDS, which sold out its 2010 run. Michael Pearce Donnelly and Peter Vitale return as a pair of piano whiz kids with stars in their eyes, playing the heart out of two grand pianos and multiple characters. As the Star Tribune reported, These musicians can act! Tom Frey will return from New York to direct.

Artistic Associate Brian Balcom brings an unlikely show to the line-up in January. Since Im not interested in baseball and dont like traditional musicals, I was surprised to leave the Boston performance of JOHNNY BASEBALL entranced and hoping it would find a Twin Cities production, says Balcom. The musical team of brothers Robert and William Reale, who created A Year with Frog and Toad that Childrens Theatre Company produced in 2002 and eventually went to Broadway, and book writer Richard Dresser invited Richard Cook to the New York workshop of their new musical just two months ago. Set over an 80-year span that explores the famous curse of the Boston Red Sox, this show has what I like in a musical a deeply personal story with characters we care about. It has a big heart and toe-tapping music, says Cook.

The season continues with Artistic Associate Carson Kreitzers pick OR, written by another young woman playwright, Liz Duffy Adams, opening March 1, 2013. "Or, is an utterly luminous play, at once hilarious and heartfelt, says Kreitzer. It's got the madcap energy of Irma Vep, with shimmering layers of history and astute observations about the changing roles of women and men and the way we all continue to navigate these waters.

In the end, Kreitzer continues, it's about choices we still need to make about how to pursue what matters most, in love and in art. Leah Cooper, who earned raves for her direction of August: Osage County, returns to direct this delightful story of Englands first female playwright, Aphra Behn, who toys with Charles II and Nell Gwynne in an imaginative romp complete with secret agents, cross dressing, rhyming couplets, and lovers hiding in cupboards.

Fresh from its Broadway run, STICK FLY by Lydia Diamond, opens May 3, 2013. Hailed by The New York Times as a juicy family drama, the storys sparks fly when two sons of a privileged African-American family bring their girlfriends home to Marthas Vineyard to meet their parents. Stick Flys inclusion in the season was contributed by Artistic Associate James A. Williams, who will play Dad.

What attracts me to Stick Fly is the family relationship, says Williams. It's the antithesis of what is normally presented on stage: an African-American family that is not now and has never struggled to make ends meet. This advances the notion that there is no one African- American experience. It has humor, pathos, sincerity and a humanity that is present across ethnicities.

I've known Lydia Diamond for years, comments Aditi Kapil, and got to watch her play Stick Fly go from theater to theater until someone finally got wise and brought it to Broadway. It's a traditional, well-made play that is both hilarious and smart.

The season closes in June 2013 with SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SUICIDE CLUB, a new script by Jeffrey Hatcher with its roots in Park Squares last wildly popular homage to the great sleuth, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily. David Ira Goldstein (Artistic Director of the Arizona Theatre Company, former Artistic Director of Actors Theatre of Saint Paul) and Jeff Hatcher were in the audience at that show, explains Cook. Jeff boasted he could write an even better Sherlock and David Ira said then Ill commission it. David Mann directs and Steve Hendrickson returns once again as the absurdly smart Holmes, this time in a fast-paced thriller with multiple murders in which Holmes is either target or suspect.

Three favorites from Park Squares 3M Student Repertory complete the season. A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM, THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD each have a full schedule of student matinees that will serve 25,000 middle and high school students. In response to the strong public demand for To Kill a Mockingbird in 2011, two weeks of public performances are scheduled April 4-14, 2013.

All performances are in the companys proscenium theater in Saint Pauls historic Hamm Building, 20 W. Seventh Place. Season tickets are on sale now and are available at 651-291-7005 or online at www.parksquaretheatre.org. Packages range from $102-$258.

PARK SQUARE THEATRE 2012-13 SEASON

Proscenium Series Play #1

September 21-October 7, 2012 (Previews begin September 14)

RED

By John Logan

Directed by Richard Cook

Area Premiere

In a New York studio on the Bowery in the late 1950s, artist Mark Rothko stares endlessly at his painting, an impressive commission for an unusual setting: the new Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building on Park Avenue. Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant and the threatening presence of a new generation of artists, we see the portrait of a brilliant, yet angry mind. There is only one thing I fear in life, my friendone day the black will swallow the red.

Proscenium Series Play #2

October 26-November 11, 2012 (Previews begin October 19)

KING LEAR

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Peter Moore

New Production

Brothers betray brothers, daughters betray fathers. Fathers misjudge which child to trust. The ageless theme of the failure of authority amid chaos resonates still today. Shakespeares tale of Lear, the aging king of Britain, is told in a new production, imaginatively set in the Prohibition era, with Raye Birk as Lear. As George Bernard Shaw wrote, No man will ever write a better tragedy than Lear.

3M Student Series

3 public performances: Thanksgiving Weekend November 23-24, 2012

Student matinee performances November 19-December 19, 2012

A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Jef Hall-Flavin

Enchantment, farce and Victorian lingerie fly in the adventure of four young lovers and a group of amateur actors, all bewitched by Oberon and his band of fairies who inhabit the forest. Three interlocking plots of magic, mistaken identity, dreams and love unfold under the light of the full moon.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

Holiday Special

December 7-December 30, 2012 (Previews Dec. 5 & 6)

2 PIANOS 4 HANDS

By Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt

Directed by Tom Frey

Piano whiz kids with stars in their eyes. Two talented actor/pianists (Michael Pearce Donley and Peter Vitale) play multiple roles and two grand pianos, zinging sidesplitting one-liners as they switch back and forth between charactersfrom a petrified student to an irritable parent, to quirky music teachers and a conservatory snob. One jumps in where the other leaves off, all while performing Bach, Mozart, Billy Joel and more. These musicians can act! (Star Tribune)

Proscenium Series Play #3

January 25-February 10, 2013 (Previews begin January 18)

JOHNNY BASEBALL

Music by Robert Reale

Lyrics by Willie Reale

Book by Richard Dresser

From a story by Richard Dresser & Willie Reale

Regional Premiere

A collision of three orphaned souls: Johnny O'Brien, a hard-luck right-hander on the 1919 Red Sox; his idol, Babe Ruth; and Daisy Wyatt, a stunning African-American blues singer and the love of Johnny's life. Tracing the American institution of baseball from the "Curse of the Bambino" through the Red Sox 2004 World Series win, this show sends you into the street with a bounce in your step. (Boston Globe)

3M Student Series

Student matinee performances only, February 27-March 22, 2013

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

By Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett

Directed by Scott Rubsam

Be inspired by a girl whose imagination and hope would not be stifled by adversity. In this extraordinary account of eight Jews hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, Anne Frank emerges from history as a lyrical and intensely gifted young woman.

Proscenium Series Play #4

March 1-17, 2013 (Previews begin February 22)

OR,

By Liz Duffy Adams

Directed by Leah Cooper

Regional Premiere

A comedic romp set in 1666 Restoration England, complete with secret agents, cross dressing, rhyming couplets, and lovers hiding in cupboards. London has survived the plague and the Great Fire, and Englands first female playwright, Aphra Behn, toys with Charles II and Nell Gwynne, the eras It Girl.

Adult sexual themes and language.

3M Student Series

8 public performances April 4-April 14, 2013

Student matinee performances: April 2-May 17, 2013

Harper Lees

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

By Christopher Sergel

Directed by David Mann

The summer of 1935 is a hot one in Maycomb, Alabama. Eight-year-old Scout watches her father stand up against the towns anger when he defends a young black man. A simple story of complex truths, a tale that doesn't grow old with the telling. (Star Tribune)

Proscenium Series Play #5

May 3-19, 2013 (Previews begin April 26)

STICK FLY

By Lydia R. Diamond

Regional Premiere

A relaxing weekend on Marthas Vineyard until the baggage gets unpacked. Two sons of a financially privileged African-American family bring their girlfriends home to meet their parents, only to find that Dad is the only one in residence. As family secrets unravel and sibling rivalries flare, class distinctions rise to the surface. Conflict and sexual sparks. A juicy family drama. (New York Times)

Adult sexual themes and language.

Proscenium Series Play #6

June 14-July 14, 2013 (Previews begin June 7)

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ADVENTURE OF THE SUICIDE CLUB

By Jeffrey Hatcher

Directed by David Mann

Regional Premiere

In the heart of London, behind the impassive facade of a windowless house, some of Europes most powerful men gather to play a game. The game is murder. This is The Suicide Club, and they have a new member: Sherlock Holmesbrilliant, perceptive, the greatest detective in the English-speaking world. Does Holmes (Park Square favorite Steve Hendrickson) wish to die? Will he have to kill? Can Dr. Watson save him? A rapid-fire parade of clues that keeps your mind racing. (azcentral.com)

All performances are in the companys proscenium theater in Saint Pauls historic Hamm Building, 20 W. Seventh Place. Season tickets are on sale now and are available at 651-291-7005 or online at www.parksquaretheatre.org. Packages range from $102-$258.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Connie Shaver, 612.308.5785

connieshaver@charter.net

Susan Berdahl, 651.767.8492

berdahl@parksquaretheatre.org

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