RTP's recent sell-out production of “It Shoulda Been You,” featuring Susan Sanford (left) and Jacqueline O'Connor as mothers-in-law-to-be. (Photo by John McClellan)
Richmond Triangle Players’ 2017-18, 25th-anniversary season showcases some of the most influential works in LGBTQ theater. Some of these are new to the RTP stage, some have been produced by the company in the past and some are collaborations with other theaters.
Philip Crosby (Photo by Robyn O'Neill)
“We wanted a sense of occasion for our 25th anniversary, to look both backward and forward,” says Philip Crosby, RTP’s executive director. “Our history is being overlooked by certain of the new-generation LGBTQ folks. We want to remind audiences that our history [of social progress] is recent and discriminatory treatment of LGBTQ folks can very quickly happen again.”
For 25 years, RTP has influenced and affected Richmond audiences’ conversations about diversity and inclusion through the performance of LGBTQ-themed works. “In the beginning, we were gay folks in a gay club telling gay stories to each other,” Crosby says. “It was a way for us to feel that we mattered, and to feel strong. We still do exclusively LGBTQ work, but we are no longer telling stories to ourselves in order to feel strong. We are telling stories to the community at large to make our community a better place.”
Next up in the RTP’s Mainstage 25th-anniversary season: “Cloud 9” by Caryl Churchill, directed by Rusty Wilson. Identities whirl and evolve in Churchill’s period-hopping comedy, with its first act set in British colonial Africa during the Victorian era and the second in a London park in 1979. “Cloud 9” runs from Sept. 27-Oct. 21.
“The Santaland Diaries and Season’s Greetings” by David Sedaris, adapted by Joe Mantello and directed by T. Ross Aitken, was first produced by RTP nearly 15 years ago. In a revival, this hilarious holiday production brings two of satirist Sedaris’ most beloved pieces to life onstage: a loving grandma’s annual holiday letter about a Christmas gone wrong, and the secret revelations of what really goes on at Macy’s Santaland as told by “Crumpet the Elf.” RTP’s revival will feature its original stars, Jacqueline Jones and Robert Throckmorton. “The Santaland Diaries and Season’s Greetings” runs from Nov. 15-Dec. 16.
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Past RTP production “The Ten Percent” (Photo by Michael Gooding)
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Past RTP production “Christina Darling” (Photo by Michael Gooding)
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Past RTP production “The Kathy & Mo Show: Parallel Lives” (Photo by Michael Gooding)
“Corpus Christi,” by Terrence McNally and directed by Dexter Ramey, will be part of Richmond’s annual Acts of Faith Festival. This provocative play tells the story of Joshua, a young gay man who flees his hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas, in the early 1950s in search of a more accepting environment, gathering along the way a group of disciples who are bound to him by his message of love and tolerance. “Corpus Christi” runs from Jan. 31-Feb. 24, 2018.
“The Normal Heart,” a searing drama by Larry Kramer and directed by George Boyd, has been chosen by RTP for its 25th-anniversary season because it is central to the history of the LGBTQ movement. The play is a story about indifference to the AIDS plague and one man’s lonely fight to awaken the world to the crisis. Produced to acclaim all over the world, most recently in a Tony-winning Broadway revival and a highly praised HBO film, “The Normal Heart” runs from April 18-May 12, 2018.
The final production of RTP’s 2017-18 season is the perennial favorite “A Chorus Line,” with book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, lyrics by Edward Kleban, music by Marvin Hamlisch, and direction and choreography by Justin Amellio and Penny Ayn Maas. This landmark musical celebrates those unsung heroes of American musical theater: the chorus dancers. A box-office and critical hit first produced in 1975, “A Chorus Line” was one of the first mainstream Broadway shows to feature a major gay character in a fully realized way. The RTP production of “A Chorus Line” runs from June 6-July 7, 2018.
RTP’s 25th-anniversary season also includes a Sister Series of films and staged readings; a Spotlight Series presenting cabaret artists of local, national and international renown; and occasional special events.
Tickets:
Mainstage subscriptions are available for the 25th-anniversary season at a 20 percent discount, with series tickets starting at $140. For more information, visit rtriangle.org or call 804-346-8113.
More Theater Happenings
9/7–10/8 ‘Fun Home’
Graphic novelist Alison Bechdel remembers growing up in her family’s funeral home. Presented by Virginia Rep and Cadence Theatre Co. at Theatre Gym. cadencetheatre.org
9/13–10/8 ‘Shakespeare in Love’
This show reimagines the romance between the writer and his muse. Virginia Rep’s November Theatre. va-rep.org
9/21-9/30 ‘Wine in the Wilderness’
Written by Alice Childress and directed by D.L. Hopkins, this play centers on an artist during the 1964 race riots in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood. Pine Camp Cultural Arts and Community Center. theheritageensemble.wixsite.com/thetc
9/22–10/14 ‘The Last Five Years’
TheatreLab presents this musical about falling in and out of love over the course of five years. The Basement. theatrelabrva.org
9/29–11/5 ‘Akeelah and the Bee’
Akeelah is an 11-year-old spelling prodigy who travels from the south side of Chicago to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Virginia Rep’s Children’s Theatre at Willow Lawn. va-rep.org
10/26–11/18 ‘Murder Ballad’
5th Wall Theatre presents a musical love triangle gone wrong. Club Infuzion. 5thwalltheatre.org
