L.A. Theatre Works Announces New Season

L.A. Theatre Works kicks off its 2013-2014 season on September 19 with Neil LaBute’s “Reasons To Be Pretty.” All shows will be performed radio-theater style and recorded for radio at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater.
In the play, the stars are crossed as two couples in flux struggle to find fulfillment. LaBute captures a woman’s directness, a man’s loss for words and every person’s struggle to communicate honestly about beauty. “Reasons To Be Pretty” stars Tony nominee Thomas Sadoski and Fred Weller. Through September 22.
The 10-play season also includes “Uncle Vanya” (October 17 through 20). Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet creates a haunting portrait of the decline of Czarist Russia in his powerful adaptation of Chekhov’s masterpiece. “Uncle Vanya” stars Stacy Keach and Mamet’s daughter, Zosia.
From November 14 through 17, actress Marsha Mason directs JoBeth Williams and Tara Lynne Barr in the West Coast premiere of “The Columnist,” the sensitive and humorous drama by Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn. Joseph Alsop’s scathing newspaper columns incensed millions of Americans and influenced the Washington powerbrokers that ran America. While he exposed McCarthyism, extolled Kennedy’s Camelot and advocated an escalation of the war in Vietnam, he could never reveal his life as a closeted gay man.
Calista Flockhart and Hector Elizonda star in “The Other Place,” a gripping psychological thriller by Sharr White, from March 13 through 16. Juliana Smithton is a successful neurologist whose life seems to be coming unhinged. Her husband has filed for divorce, her daughter has eloped with a much older man and her own health is in jeopardy, but nothing is as it seems. Piece by piece, a mystery unfolds as fact blurs with fiction, past collides with present and the elusive truth about Juliana boils to the surface. The Other Place is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays.
“The Comedy of Errors,” starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Hamish Linklater, runs from January 30 through February 2. The actors will recreate their roles from this summer’s “Shakespeare in Central Park” production. For a complete schedule and to purchase tickets, visit latw.org.