Theatrical Outfit, Theater Emory keep their eyes on the (Pulitzer) Prize
The Pulitzer Prize provides a defining theme for the 2010-2011 seasons of two Atlanta theaters.
Theatrical Outfit and Theater Emory something in common this year, as both companies use the Pulitzer Prize as a unifying theme for their 2010-2011 season.
Theatrical Outfit applies the Pulitzer label a bit loosely. Its season began last week with A Confederacy of Dunces, artistic director Tom Key’s adaptation of John Kennedy Toole’s Pulitzer winning novel. It ontinues Jan. 26-=Feb. 20 with Horton Foote’s The Young Man From Atlanta — ironically, the play’s Atlanta premiere after the play won the Pulitzer in 1995 . Tony Kushner won his Pulitzer for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, but the Outfit will be presenting the Atlanta premiere of his segregation-era musical, Caroline, or Change (March 16-April 10). The Outfit’s Christmas show, Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory, doesn’t count, since Capote never won a Pulitzer, although he seems like he should have.
Theater Emory presents three straight-up winners: the AIDS-era rock musical Rent (Sep. 30-Oct. 3); Kaufman and Hart’s 1936 family comedy You Can’t Take It With You (Nov. 11-24); and Sam Shepard’s dysfunctional family drama Buried Child (Feb. 17-27). The theater concludes the year with its biennial Brave New Works play series, some of which could possibly be the Pulitzer contenders of the future.
Coincidentally, the Alliance Theatre will be staging the winning play from 2008, August: Osage County with (reportedly with an all local cast), while Actor’s Express presents one of the 2009 Pulitzer nominees, Becky Shaw, as the opening play of its season.