RIOT ACT, INC. announces its 16th Season
Riot Act, Inc. is thrilled to announce its 2018/2019 production schedule bringing drama, comedy and our annual series of shorts back to Jackson stages for the theater company’s 16th season.
The season kicks off in the autumn of 2018 with The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer. Performances will run in Oct. 10-13, 2018, 7:30pm nightly with a Sat. matinee at 2:30pm at the Pink Garter.
A searing drama about public and private indifference to the AIDS plague and one man’s lonely fight to awaken the world to the crisis. Produced to acclaim in New York, London and Los Angeles, The Normal Heart follows Ned Weeks, a gay activist enraged at the indifference of public officials and the gay community. While trying to save the world from itself, he confronts the personal toll of AIDS when his lover dies of the disease. ~ Samuel French.
Next up, Riot Act brings the popular musical, Chicago by Maurine Dallas Watkins, Fred Ebb, John Kander, and Bob Fosse, to life. The performances will run March 7-9 & 14-16, 2019 at Walk Festival Hall.
In roaring twenties Chicago, chorine Roxie Hart murders a faithless lover and convinces her hapless husband, Amos, to take the rap…until he finds out he’s been duped and turns on Roxie. Covicted and sent to death row, Roxie and another “Merry Murderess”, Velma Kelly, vie for the spotlight and the headlines, ultimately joining forces in search of the “American Dream”: fame, fortune, and acquittal. ~ Samuel French
The final full-length production will be Fat Pig by Neil LaBute, running in the May 2019.
Cow. Slob. Pig. How many insults can you hear before you have to stand up and defend the woman you love? Tom faces just that question when he falls for Helen, a bright, funny, sexy young woman who happens to be plus sized-and then some. Forced to explain his new relationship to his shallow (although shockingly funny) friends, finally he comes to terms with his own preconceptions of the importance of conventional good looks. Neil LaBute’s sharply drawn play not only critiques our slavish adherence to Hollywood ideals of beauty but boldy questions our own ability to change what we dislike about ourselves.
Finally, Riot Act will close the season with its longstanding and popular series of Short Plays and our sixth annual New Play Festival. Always a community favorite, Shorts offers a sort of theatrical hors d’oeuvre for artists and audiences with multiple one-act plays sharing the bill. In the past, Riot Act has produced not only well-known plays, but several original works by local playwrights, all while providing new actors and directors a chance to stretch their creative legs. In the 2013/14 season the New Play Festival was introduced as a way for playwrights to submit work and get it produced. Shorts is scheduled for June 2019.
Riot Act was founded in 2002 to provide opportunities for local actors, directors, designers and playwrights to bring innovative, thought-provoking, challenging theater to the Jackson stage. Riot Act will continue to collaborate with dancers, musicians, videographers, visual artists, and other local non-profits to create great stories for our adventurous audience.
Please join us at the performances! For more information, contact us at riotactinc@earthlink.net or www.riotactinc.org