Tulsa’s American Theatre Company announces 2015-2016 season

The works of Samuel Beckett, Terrance McNally, William Shakespeare, Buddy Holly and Charles Dickens are all represented in American Theatre Company’s 2015-2016 season.

As Clive Barnes wrote, “Time catches up with genius … Waiting for Godot is one of the masterpieces of the century.” Godot, plays the Williams Theatre October 23-31.

“There they are; a leafless tree on a desolate road and Vladimir and Estragon, those two homeless men in tattered bowler hats - one with stinky feet and boots that don’t fit properly, and the other with pockets full of paper scraps and turnips, and weak kidneys that send him rushing off to relieve himself.” Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, which will open the season, has become of the most important and enigmatic plays of the past fifty years and a cornerstone of twentieth-century drama.

December marks the 39th return of the Tulsa family holiday tradition, A Christmas Carol where Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence. This heartwarming production traces the money-hoarding skinflint Ebenezer Scrooge’s triumphant overnight journey to redemption, illuminating the meaning of the holiday season in a way that has resonated for generations.

Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story, March 11-19, by Alan Janes, tells the true story of Buddy’s meteoric rise to fame. From the moment in 1957 when “That’ll Be The Day” hit the airwaves until his tragic death less than two years later on “The Day The Music Died.” The show features over 20 of Buddy Holly’s greatest hits including “That’ll Be The Day,” “Peggy Sue,” and “Raining On My Heart,” plus Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba” and the Big Bopper’s “Chantilly Lace.” The incredible legacy of the young man with the glasses, whose musical career spanned an all-to-brief period during the golden days of rock and roll continues to live on in Buddy.

In May, 2016, the 2014 Tony Nominee for Best Play, Mothers & Sons, by Terrance McNally, is a timely and touching new play that explores our evolving understanding of what it means to be a family. Funny, provocative, and poignant, this acclaimed drama follows Dallas matriarch Katharine Gerard on an unexpected visit to New York to meet with her late son’s former partner, who is now married to another man and raising a young son.

Katharine is forced to consider the life her own son might have led and must now come to terms with her own life choices and how society has changed around her.

On the lawn and under the stars. The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place by using illusion and skillful manipulation. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to lure his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island. There, his machinations bring about the revelation of Antonio's lowly nature, the redemption of the King, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso's son, Ferdinand.

All shows, with the exception of The Tempest, will be presented at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center in the Williams Theatre. Tempest will be performed on the lawn under the stars at Philbrook Museum of Art.

Evening performances are at 8:00 PM and matinee curtain times of 2pm. Tickets range from $16 to $32 and may be purchased at MyTicketOffice.com or by calling (918) 596-7111.

The Gayly – October 16, 2015 @ 3:10pm.