If you’re like me, you care who’s directing, and general behind-the-scenes dish. Here’s a little more about Playhouse in the Park’s just-announced season:

 

“Emma” – Playhouse has the second-ever production, it will be directed by Robert Kelley, artistic director of TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, where the musical premiered. MUCH national interest. Well, of course. Jane Austen has been the belle of the ball since the BBC’s blissful “Pride and Prejudice” (wow – is it really 13 years ago?)

“Emma” is only one of two co-pros this year “Jekyll and Hyde” being the other), both with long-time producing partner St. Louis Rep. After a couple of years with lots of partnerships, and a very recent burn on one that fell through (if I say any more they’ll shoot me), producing artistic director Ed Stern says “I don’t want to become fundamentally dependent” on joint ventures.

 

“Love Song” – This is the one about the strange house-bound dude who falls in love with a female burglar. Playwright John Kolvenbach is a former student of Stern, but that’s not how Stern found the script. He was flagged by Jasson Minadakis, former artistic director of Cincinnati Shakespeare, who continues to be a prodigious reader of new plays as artistic director of Marin Theatre Company.

 

“Love Song” originated at Steppenwolf, was then produced in London (The Daily Telegraph wrote “Richly comic and deeply touching. Outstanding.”) Michael Haney will direct for Playhouse. Haney will also direct “Blackbird” in the Shelterhouse, giving him the corner next season on edgy fare with London cred.

 

Stern will direct Cincinnati playwright Joseph McDonough’s “The Travels of Angelica,” which they’ve been quietly working on for the better part of a year. Stern loves its imagination and spirit of theater and art as grad students go on a literary treasure hunt. A reading by the cast of “Othello” last fall had McDonough over the moon. A summer workshop is also scheduled.

 

While it’s set on the Virginia coast, McDonough started developing the play at New River Dramatists, a playwrights’ residency in North Carolina, and the name of the play’s location is an homage. 

 

Stern will also direct “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” adapted by Playhouse regular Jeffrey Hatcher (“Scotland Road,” “Turn of the Screw,” “Murderers,” the list goes on) who is busy, busy, busy – Hatcher’s latest assignment is adapting “Upstairs, Downstairs” for the big screen.

 

Returning guest directors are Kenneth Albers, last season helming Steve Martin’s “The Underpants,” taking on “The Foreigner.” Dennis Courtney, who first directed “I Love You, You’re Perfect….” in 2000 returns for another go-round.

 

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