The decade of the 2020s started with ACT being dark for the entire 2020 mainstage season. While closed
for the pandemic, there was a change in leadership as Anita Shah moved in as Managing Director. The
first play after the pandemic closure was Hotter Than Egypt, written by Core Company member Yussef el Guindi
- a world premiere.
productions
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1993
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The Red and the Black (1993)
Stendahl's brilliant satirical portrait of post-Revolutionary French society, now in a new adaptation for the state. From the garden of a small provincial town to the dazzling salons of Paris, THE RED AND THE BLACK is the sweeping tale of Julian Sorel, a handsome young tutor determined to climb the social ladder despite his lowly birth. Burning with ambition, Julian sacrifices love and ideals for money and power - but is hopelessly captive of his own romantic soul.
The Cover of Life (1993)
Set in a backwater Louisiana town during World War II, The Cover of LIFE introduces Kate, a savvy reporter assigned to write a morale-boosting story. The article is scheduled to become a LIFE magazine feature focusing on the wives left behind, particularly three women married to three brothers who enlisted in three different branches of the service on the same day. The young war brides have moved in with their no-nonsense mother-in-law But as the big city journalist quickly learns, the home fires are burning — and growing increasingly out of control. Poignant and bittersweet, what begins as a picture-perfect vision of patriotism becomes a smoldering portrait of misplaced hopes and harbored dreams.
Lonely Planet (1993)
Jody's map shop is his haven. He never leaves it, preferring to bury his head in the sands of the Gobi and the Sahara deserts rather than face the world outside his door. Plagued by nightmares, he welcomes visits from his jovial friend Carl, who with each successive visit mysteriously leaves a chair in his wake. As the chairs pile up, Jody and Carl gradually reveal the fear that threatens to engulf their lives. With a nod to the absurdist style of Ionesco, Lonely Planet tells a warm and humorous tale of two men trying desperately to come to grips with a world of frightening uncertainty.
Life During Wartime (1993)
In this dark and menacing comedy,
Tommy, a rookie salesman of home-
security systems, is taught to prey on
our terror of a world ruled by evil
chance. “Fear,” his boss tells him,”sells
itself.” Tommy pitches the product with
all the zeal of a new convert. He locks
in the sale to his first customer, but falls
in love with her in the process. Little
does he suspect that he is part of an
alarming scheme to boost sales by
raising the crime rate — and his
girlfriend is in the line of fire.
Stepping into this nightmare is john
Calvin, the 16th-century theologian
who rants about predestination, sin and
depravity, tossing in a few hilarious
words of advice to Beaver Cleaver and
an occasional movie review as well.
A twilight zone of relentless paranoia, Life During Wartime is frightening,
yes. But against your will, you’ll laugh
like there‘s no tomorrow.
Agnes Smedley: Our American Friend (1993)
War-torn China: from the front lines
to the inner sanctums, she was there.
The year is 1937. Reporting from
guerrilla headquarters, journalist Agnes
Smedley is granted an interview with
the Red Army’s charismatic leader in
exchange for teaching folkclances to the
troops. As General Chu Teh recalls the
hardships of his peasant past, Agnes is
flooded with memories of her own -
and finds with Chu a kinship of the
heart and mind she’d traveled the globe
to discover. Drawing on Eastern and
Western traditions in music and
theatre, the stories of Agnes and Chu
unfold in intertwining vignettes that
weave in and out of time.
Dreams From a Summer House (1993)
A magical musical confection that puts an enchanting
spin on the age-old battle of the sexes. Beauty and the
Beast crash a suburban English garden party when they
are conjured up by a disenchanted artist and his ex-wife.
The fairy tale collides with reality for a fanciful cliff
hanger that raises hilarious new questions about “happily
ever after.”