Synchronicity Theatre will begin its 20th anniversary season Sept. 27 with a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and end it June 24, 2018, with Lauren Gunderson’s political farce The Taming.
The five-show 2017/18 season will include three plays, including a world premiere, in the company’s Bold Voices series (bold, contemporary plays for adults) and two Family Series productions (plays for children and families). The Spark Series — curated events and performances featuring new voices — returns for a second season. And SheWRITES, a new-play festival that celebrates work by female writers, returns for the first time in five years.
Synchronicity, which is dedicated to lifting up the voices of women and girls, performs at its own 137-seat space in Midtown’s Peachtree Pointe complex. About 85 percent of the work it does comes from female playwrights. Season subscriptions ($100-$350) are available now. Single tickets go on sale July 28. Call 404.484.8636 for details.
The company is now in the final weeks of its 2016/17 season — Danai Gurira’s acclaimed Eclipsed, a history-making drama about five women in the Second Liberian Civil War, runs through June 25 (details, tickets HERE). The annual Playmaking for Girls summer performance, which showcases short plays written by at-risk girls in group homes and the refugee community, takes place June 17 (one show only) at Agnes Scott College (details, free tickets HERE).
Synchronicity is led by Rachel May, co-founder and producing artistic director, and managing director Lee Nowell.
Bold Voices performances are at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday. Family Series performances are at 7 p.m. Friday; 1 & 4 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. & 5 p.m. Sunday. Here’s a look ahead, in chronological order.
Sense and Sensibility
SEPT. 22-OCT. 15 | BOLD VOICES. This adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1811 novel by New York-based playwright Kate Hamill has been called “playful.” It follows the fortunes and misfortunes of the Dashwood sisters — sensible Elinor and hypersensitive Marianne — after their father’s death leaves them financially destitute and socially vulnerable. S&S had its world premiere at Dallas Theater Center in 2015 and has played the renowned Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the Folger Theater in Washington, D.C. The New York Times and Huffington Post named it to their “Top 10 Theater of 2014” lists. The HuffPost called it “the greatest stage adaptation of this novel in history.”
Heidi
DEC. 8-31 | FAMILY SERIES. In this new musical retelling of the classic Victorian-era book, Heidi moves from a small Swiss village, to the Alps, to Germany and back to her beloved mountains. She brings joy to those around her everywhere she goes: her lonely grandfather and neighbor, Peter, as well as her sickly friend, Clara. This story celebrates the power of love. Adapted from the Johanna Spyri novel. Book by Martha King De Silva, music and lyrics by Joan Cushing (Junie B. Jones, Miss Nelson Is Missing, Petite Rouge).
The Miraculous Story of Edward Tulane
FEB. 2-25, 2018 | FAMILY SERIES. Edward Tulane is a dapper china rabbit — a birthday present for 10-year-old Abilene, who loves him almost as much as Edward loves himself. When Edward gets lost at sea, he finds himself in a fisherman’s net, a garbage dump, traveling with a hobo and comforting a sick child, bouncing from person to person for decades until he learns a lesson about love. Adapted by Dwayne Hartford from the Kate DiCamillo book.
Ripe Frenzy
APRIL 13-MAY 6, 2018 | BOLD VOICES. This world premiere by Jennifer Barclay won the National New Play Network’s 2016 Smith Prize for political theater. It brings us to Tavistown, N.Y., where a recent tragedy has rocked the community to its core. Zoe, the narrator and town historian, recounts the days leading up to the incident, as the high school prepares for its semiannual production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
The Taming
JUNE 1-24, 2018 | BOLD VOICES. A crackling modern political farce by Decatur-born, San Francisco-based playwright Lauren Gunderson. The Taming received a staged reading on Inauguration Day 2017 in a co-production sponsored by 7 Stages, the Weird Sisters Theatre Project and Synchronicity. This is a full staging. The Taming takes on America’s overheated political rhetoric and upends historical truths about our Founding Fathers. It features a conservative senatorial aide, a liberal political activist and a super-sparkly beauty queen who find themselves locked in a hotel room together. This farce, first inspired by Shakespeare’s Taming of The Shrew, grew out of Gunderson’s desire to wrestle with elements inside the bard’s battle of the sexes.
Spark Series
Dates TBD. In its second year, Synchronicity’s arts incubator project, Stripped Bare, will give early-career artists a space to create and present new work. Stripped Bare focuses on projects that emphasize words and ideas, with minimal technical elements, and encourages young artists to think about the essentials of theater, “stripped of” intricate sets, lights, props, sound design, and costumes. Each project chosen receives a technician, producer and/or facility manager, house manager and a box-office staffer for each performance along with marketing support and mention on Synchronicity’s website. Look for applications online in July.
SheWRITES
EARLY 2018. The third incarnation of this new-play festival celebrating female playwrights will provide a week of readings and workshops of three pieces.
