Guthrie Theater announces 2010-11 season mixing the new with the old

By Quinton Skinner Wed., May 19 2010 at 8:00 AM

Categories: Theater

Joe Dowling: this man would like to sell you a theater ticket

The Guthrie Theater's Joe Dowling on Tuesday announced the upcoming 2010-11 season, which is going to include talent both local and international, balancing Shaw and Shakespeare with a world premiere. While there are no fiery surprises, the Dowling Studio slate will be announced later and tends to be the best bet for encountering the (relatively) unexpected.

Here's the breakdown for the remainder of 2010 and the first half of 2011:

The next production on the Wurtele Thrust Stage will be The Master Butchers Singing Club, a new work by Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman, adapted from a novel by Louise Erdrich.

Next on the McGuire Proscenium Stage is the Joel Sass-directed The 39 Steps, which is a comedy based on the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock cinematic thriller.

The Winter's Tale appears next on the Thrust, directed by the Royal Shakespeare Company's Jonathan Munby.

Arriving next on the Proscenium is George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man (director to be named later); then on the Thrust is Arsenic and Old Lace, directed by Dowling.

Moving deeper into 2011, the 2009 Tony Award winning God of Carnage will be directed by John Miller-Stephany on the Proscenium, with Dowling next directing on the Thrust with Gilbert and Sullivan's musical H.M.S. Pinafore.

After 35 years, A Christmas Carol is being re-tooled with a new script by Crispin Whittell; Dowling will direct it for the first time.

Rounding out the season are a couple of shows previously announced: Tricycle Theatre's The Great Game: Afghanistan, and Penumbra Theatre's production of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

So: some new work, a couple of classics, and some intriguing work brought in from outside the Guthrie's own ecosystem. It's a grab-bag, albeit one filled with a number of very worthy local names. But over-arching statements about these annual announcements are a mug's game. We'll reserve judgment until we see the shows, and in the meantime hope that they are indeed very good.