Rep Sets Dates for Extended Season of Plays

Dates have been set for San Diego Repertory Theatre’s season, which, for the first time since the company’s move to Horton Plaza, will extend into January.

“The Marriage of Bette and Boo,” Christopher Durang’s dark comedy about Catholic marriage and divorce, will kick off the series of nine scheduled plays June 7-July 1 at the Lyceum Stage. The Rep’s associate producer, Walter Schoen, will direct. “Orinoco!,” about the travels and travails of two female cabaret singers, will be directed in English and Spanish by Jorge Huerta (a co-director of the Rep’s bilingual “Burning Patience”) in the Lyceum Space July 13-30.

The first of three world premieres, “Squire Haggard’s Journal,” a romp through American history written by the authors of “El Grande de Coca Cola,” Ron House and Alan Sherman, plays at the Lyceum Stage July 26-Aug. 19. The new work continues with “The Albanian Softshoe,” a science-fiction comedy co-directed by the Rep’s artistic director, Douglas Jacobs, and composer, Michael (“A Walk in the Woods”) Roth and “We the Beasts,” a to-be-commissioned work based on the writings of George Orwell.

“The Albanian Softshoe,” written by Mac Wellman, runs Sept. 20-Oct. 28, and “We the Beasts,” a collaboration with the Dell’Arte Players of Blue Lake, Calif., is slotted for Dec. 13-Jan. 20, both in the Lyceum Space.

The San Diego Rep’s producing director, Sam Woodhouse, will direct “Thin Air,” a story of an American trapped by the politics of Central America. The show, by Lynne Alvarez, runs Aug. 10-26 in the Lyceum Space. The American premiere of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” a musical about Elvis Presley peppered with 20 of the King’s hits, plays at the Lyceum Stage Sept. 6-30.

The Rep’s annual “A Christmas Carol” will return Dec. 1-Dec. 24 on the Lyceum Stage, and a slot has been left open for an as-yet-unnamed Soviet production to coincide with the San Diego Soviet Arts Festival Oct. 18-Nov. 11.