Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill. Directed by Andrew Upton.
August 13 – August 29, 2010 – Newmark Theatre
One of the most powerful and gut-wrenching dramas in American literature, this is O’Neill’s masterpiece.  The autobiographical story is told with such searing honesty that he stipulated it was not to be published or produced until 25 years after his death. Audiences will be enraptured by the emotional complexity of the Tyrone family – gripped by addiction, shattered by the past, and paralyzed by the prospect of the future.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a co-production with Australia’s Sydney Theatre Company and will feature two Australian actors (including legendary Australian actress Robyn Nevin) and Artists Rep favorites Todd Van Voris and William Hurt. The production will open in Sydney on June 29 and then transfer to Portland. This play earned O’Neill his fourth Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the most ever awarded to a single playwright. 

Ah, Wilderness! by Eugene O’Neill.
September 7 – October 10, 2010 – Alder Stage
While Eugene O’Neill’s autobiographical Long Day’s Journey Into Night paints in dark detail the reality of his family, Ah, Wilderness!, his only comedy, shows us the family he wished he’d had.  A valentine to lost American innocence, the play takes place on an early 20^th century 4^th of July and is a warm and nostalgic look at idyllic family life and young love.

Ah, Wilderness! has been under consideration for production by Artists Rep for nearly 20 years.  This pairing with Long Day’s Journey Into Night provides the perfect opportunity to explore O’Neill’s most well-known drama and his only comedy in tandem.  The two plays were performed in repertory on Broadway in 1988.

Mars on Life – LIVE! featuring Susannah Mars & Special Guests.
November 16 – December 19, 2010 – Alder Stage- World Premiere
Susannah Mars returns with the warmth and charm that Artists Rep audiences have come to expect, but this year she unleashes her edgier side hosting a late-night talk show. Be part of the “studio audience” for an unpredictable show that will be different every night, beginning with a topical monologue, progressing through interviews with her special guests and visits to the studio kitchen for cooking demonstrations. And, of course, she’ll do some singing, too.

Susannah Mars has spent the holiday season on stage with Artists Rep since 2006, starring in Mars on Life: The Holiday Edition and Holidazed. 

Superior Donuts by Tracy Letts. Directed by Allen Nause.
January 4 – February 6, 2011 – Morrison Stage- West Coast Premiere
Hope emerges from despair in Tracy Letts’ newest play – a comedy-drama set in a donut shop in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. An unexpected friendship develops between the shop’s despondent owner and his young assistant eager to infuse the downtrodden establishment with vitality and modernity.  This play introduces audiences to compelling characters they’d recognize in their everyday lives.

Comparing the 2009 Broadway production of Superior Donuts to Letts’ hard-hitting dramas, the New York Times commented, “(it) is a warm bath of a play that will leave audiences with satisfied smiles rather than rattled nerves.” Artists Rep produced Tracy Letts’ earlier plays Bug and Killer Joe, and the world premiere of his adaption of Chekhov’s Three Sisters.  Letts won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for August: Osage County.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh. Directed by Jon Kretzu.
February 8– March 13, 2011 – Alder Stage –Northwest Premiere
Filled with as much laughter as gore, this is a shockingly funny black comedy from one of today’s hottest Irish playwrights about blood, guts, and a little black cat named Wee Thomas. This Monty Python-esque farce shows us to what extremes a man will go when his cat is killed. The fact that this man is an insane and ruthless Irish terrorist who thinks the IRA is “too soft” only makes the play funnier and more daring.

The Lieutenant of Inishmore was nominated for the 2006 Tony Award for Best Play.  The San Francisco Chronicle observed, “Gasps and laughter fill the house simultaneously,” in their review and the New York Observer proclaims, “Best bloody play I ever saw...” Artists Rep first introduced the playwright to Portland audiences in 2000 with their production of The Beauty Queen of Leenane. 

Jack Goes Boating by Bob Glaudini. Directed by Allen Nause.
March 15 – April 17, 2011 – Morrison Stage – Northwest Premiere
A smart and witty romantic comedy about love blossoming in the most unlikely of places.  Jack – a lovable loser who is desperately romantically challenged – finds the girl of his dreams.  His plan for winning her affections is pinned on a boat ride in Central Park and cooking a gourmet meal – never mind the fact that he doesn’t know how to swim and can’t even heat a can of soup.

Jack Goes Boating was an off-Broadway hit of 2007 and will be released as a film in 2010.  Philip Seymour Hoffman makes his directorial debut with this film and reprises the title role he originated off-Broadway.  Variety called the play, “an endearing romantic comedy…witty and knowing and all heart.”

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, adapted by Richard Kramer. Directed by Jon Kretzu.
April 19 – May 22, 2011 – Alder Stage – World Premiere
The Cherry Orchard’s central characters return to their ancestral home and its most beloved feature – the cherry orchard – on the eve of its sale at auction to pay the delinquent mortgage. Ghostlike and ethereal, this striking new adaptation is a unique and avant garde fantasia on the story’s themes of the rising bourgeois and the fall of aristocracy.

This production completes Artists Rep’s Chekhov Project. The company has commissioned new adaptations of each of the playwright’s four major plays. Adapters include Joseph Fisher (The Seagull), Tom Wood (Vanya), and Tracy Letts (Three Sisters).  Richard Kramer is a writer for both television and the stage.  He has been a writer and producer for the television series thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Judging Amy.  His play Theater District was produced by Artists Rep in 2006.

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