2016-2017 Season Announced

BATHTUBS, BRONTES, SARDINES, AND PERFUME…IT MUST BE BAG&BAGGAGE’S 16-17 SEASON!

 

HILLSBORO, OR – Bag&Baggage Productions, Hillsboro’s only professional theatre, is thrilled to announce six provocative shows for their 2016-2017 Season. The 16-17 Season features one world premiere adaptation, two Pacific Northwest premieres of internationally acclaimed plays, a family-friendly, romantic holiday show, a play based on one of the most successful films in American history, and the funniest farce ever written.
“Our ninth season also happens to be our final full season of work at the Venetian, so we are taking full advantage of the amazing historic space one last time before moving into our brand new home,” said Scott Palmer, B&B’s Founding Artistic Director. “This season is full of challenging new works, alongside some very familiar shows, and continues our focus on telling stories by and about powerful women.”

The 16-17 Season begins outdoors at the Tom Hughes Civic Center Plaza with a world-premiere adaptation based on William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, and will be B&B’s third all-female Shakespeare production. William Shakespeare’s searing tragedy of political manipulation and familial betrayal is a shockingly contemporary tale of intrigue, spin-doctors, and divided politics. Coriolanus, a powerful and arrogant Roman general, holds nothing but contempt for the people of Rome. After the Tribunes banish him, Coriolanus raises an army to take back his position and exact his revenge; but his mother and the citizens have other plans. Bag&Baggage continues our exploration of lost classics by staging the nearly lost 1749 adaptation of the Shakespeare play by Thomas Sheridan; Coriolanus, or the Roman Matron is largely credited with being the adaptation that saved Shakespeare’s work from an ignominious slide into history. Performances take place from July 7 – 23, 2016.

Moving back indoors to the Venetian in September, B&B turns their attention to one of the most iconic tales from America’s turbulent 1960s in an Oregon premiere; The Graduate by Buck Henry, Terry Johnson, Charles Webb and Calder Willingham. The 2000 stage play, adapted from both the 1963 cult novel by Charles Webb and the 1967 film starring Dustin Hoffman, brings the story of a young man’s first disastrous sexual odyssey playfully, creatively and sexily to life.

The Graduate is a bittersweet comedy that takes audiences back in time to the beginnings of the counter-culture and sexual revolutions of the 1960s. Performances take place at The Venetian Theatre from September 8 – October 2, 2016.

Following on from our past two years of critically acclaimed murder mysteries during Halloween, our October production is a Pacific Northwest premiere of one of Canada’s most haunting and powerful recent theatrical works; The Drowning Girls by Beth Graham, Daniela Vlaskalic, and Charlie Thomlinson. Based on The Brides In The Bath murders in England at the beginning of the 20^th Century, The Drowning Girls tells the story of George Smith and the three wives he brutally murdered. Surfacing from the bathtubs they were drowned in, the three breathless brides gather evidence against their womanizing, murderous husband by reliving the shocking events leading up to their deaths. Reflecting on the misconceptions of love, married life, and the not-so-happily ever after, The Drowning Girls is both a breathtaking fantasia and a social critique, full of rich images, a myriad of characters, and lyrical language. The performance takes place at The Venetian Theatre from October 13 – 31, 2016.

The holidays see a major departure for B&B, which has performed riotous, over the top 1940s-style radio farces for the past three years. The 2016 holiday show is a completely different style; a warm, romantic comedy set in 1930s Europe during Christmas called Parfumerie.

This new adaptation of the 1936 Hungarian play that inspired a trio of iconic films (Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime, and You’ve Got Mail), and the popular Broadway musical She Loves Me is a warm, gentle comedy that follows the tangled tale of Parfumerie employee George Horvath.

Just days before Christmas, George’s boss fires him after mistakenly suspecting him to be the lover of his unfaithful wife. Meanwhile, George’s own love life goes awry when he discovers that the stranger he has fallen in love with through a secret correspondence is none other than Amalia Balash, a co-worker with whom he constantly feuds. Parfumerie is presented at The Venetian Theatre from November 25 – December 23, 2016.

The new year brings another Pacific Northwest premiere of an internationally acclaimed work, this one from the United Kingdom: Brontë, by Polly Teale. This dramatic reconstruction of the turbulent inner and outer lives of the Bronte sisters has been staged in London, Dublin, and all over the UK.  The short, troubled lives of the Brontë sisters have become one of the great literary mysteries of all time. How was it possible that three women who had never had sex, and had probably never even been kissed, could write some of the most erotic literature of all time? Why should these plain, reclusive women, who lived in rural isolation, have invented such stories? What was it in their lives that compelled them to write such passion and power? Brontë takes place at The Venetian Theatre from March 2 – 19, 2017.

The final show of the 16-17 Season has been called “the funniest farce ever written,” and is an ideal vehicle for B&B’s unique style of physical comedy: Michael Frayn’s Noises Off.

The opening night performance of the farce Nothing On is just hours away, and as the cast stumbles through their final dress rehearsal, things couldn’t be going any worse. With lines being forgotten, love triangles unraveling, and sardines flying everywhere, it’s complete pandemonium, and they haven’t even reached intermission!

Full of shocking surprises and gut-busting humor, Noises Off is the classic show-within-a-show farce that will likely be B&B’s final performance at The Venetian Theatre. Performances run from May 4 – 21, 2017.

The 2016-2017 Season is sponsored by Ronni Lacroute and WillaKenzie Estate winery and is presented by The Hillsboro Hops. Season Ticket options include the PLATINUM PASS, which includes one ticket to each of the six shows ($150 for adults and $120 for students and seniors), or the PICK FOUR pass, which provides one ticket to any four shows ($105 for adults and $85 for students and seniors). Season tickets can be purchased online at bagnbaggage.org or by calling the box office at 503 345 9590.

 

# # #

ABOUT BAG&BAGGAGE PRODUCTIONS: Bag&Baggage Productions is Hillsboro’s only professional theatre company. Based at the historic Venetian Theatre in downtown Hillsboro, B&B is committed to innovative and provocative new interpretations of the classics of American and English drama, bringing surprising new insight to stories and writers from our past. Led by Hillsboro native Scott Palmer, B&B is one of the largest non-profit cultural organizations in Hillsboro, has gained an international reputation for excellence, and regularly attracts audiences of more than 18,000 to the company’s six-show season.

 

Calendar Listings: 

Coriolanus, Or The Roman Matron
by Thomas Sheridan, adapted from William Shakespeare
The Tom Hughes Civic Center Plaza
July 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 2016

The Graduate
by Buck Henry, Terry Johnson, Charles Webb & Calder Willingham
The Venetian Theatre
September 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, 29, 30; October 1, 2, 2016

The Drowning Girls
by Beth Graham, Daniela Vlaskalic, and Charlie Thomlinson
The Venetian Theatre
October 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 2016

Parfumerie
by Miklos Laszlo, adapted by EP Dowdall
The Venetian Theatre
November 25, 26, 27; December 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, 23, 2016

Brontë
by Polly Teale
The Venetian Theatre
March 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2017

Noises Off
by Michael Frayn
The Venetian Theatre
May 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 ,14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 2017