Two Northwest premieres, one West Coast premiere, and one Seattle premiere are on the lineup just announced by ArtsWest for next season, September through May. Read on for the plays and the summaries in the official announcement:

ArtsWest Playhouse and Gallery is pleased to announce selections for the 2014-2015 Season, to run from September 11, 2014 – May 24, 2015. Interim Artistic Director Annie Lareau has chosen a six-show season that focuses on diversity and thought-provoking productions that will challenge the viewer to think, laugh and often to sing-a-long! The 2014-2015 Season is titled Opening Doors.

The Mountaintop
By Katori Hall
September 11 – October 5, 2014
Northwest Premiere, 2010 Oliver Award Winner

On the re-imagined eve of his assassination, we meet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. weary, restless, and in a lonely hotel room. Visited by a mysterious young woman and forced to confront the meaning of his life, his destiny, and his own humanity, we are given a glimpse into the person behind his revered leadership. Gripping, daring, and powerful, this play melds humanness with legacy, and mortality with spirituality. Your heart will be touched and your soul stirred. *strong language

The Pride
By Alexi Kaye Campbell
October 23 – November 16, 2014
West Coast Premiere, 2008 Laurence Olivier Award

A probing play of self-discovery that takes us into the complex love-triangle of Philip, Oliver, and Sylvia as their stories play out, living and loving in 1958 and 2008. These snapshots in time weave in and out juxtaposing scenes from a repressive decade with those from a more liberated yet still imperfect world. This British play leaves us with thought-provoking impressions of closeted love, promiscuity, and the changing world of homosexuality. “What is the point of this stupid, painful life if not to be honest? If not to stand up for what you are in the core of your being.”
*strong language, adult themes

Judy’s Scary Little Christmas
Book by David Church and Jim Webber
Music and Lyrics by Joe Patrick Ward
December 4 – December 28, 2014

Making spirits bright this holiday season is none other than Judy Garland, reveling in all things old Hollywood glam!

“My goodness, I’m back home again. I’ve missed you all so much!”

With spiked grog in hand, Judy welcomes her baggage-ridden celebrity stars – Bing Crosby, Liberace, Ethel Merman, Joan Crawford, Lillian Hellman, VP Richard Nixon, Punch, and a special dark guest – to her 1959 TV Christmas Special. Stylized zany camp is the wrapping on this gift of clever satire, endearing fun and wicked toe-tapping music!

4000 Miles
By Amy Herzog
January 22 – February 15, 2015
Northwest Premiere, 2012 Obie Award Winner, 2012 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award, 2013 Pulitzer-Prize nominee

A story of communication, unspoken bonds, and tenderness with jagged edges, 4000 Miles brings together a 21-year-old grandson and his 91-year-old feisty, fiercely independent grandmother. Through their days spent together in her New York apartment, we realize that Leo is not there to comfort his grandma during her lonely years, but instead he is the one in need of her straight-forward no-nonsense brand of love. That is…. when she has her teeth in and her hearing aide turned on.

Chinglish
By David Henry Hwang
March 5 – March 29, 2015
Seattle Premiere

This laugh-out-loud comedy by the much celebrated Tony-Award winning playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), merrily spews forth mutilated and mangled idioms, slang and pronunciations, against the backdrop of stranger-in-a-strange-land tensions. Our protagonist, a naïve American business man, finds himself in China trying to sell a Communist Minister signs with proper English translations, all the while making his own blunders not only in language, but in cultural etiquette, sex, and in searching for the best guanxi!

Angry Housewives
Book by A.M. Collins
Music and Lyrics by Chad Henry
April 23 – May 24

The Angry Housewives are baaaaaccckkk!! Bored with their everyday mediocre existence and tired of the men in their lives, our four heroines get angry and form a punk-rock band to win some much needed cash in a local contest. Beginning with the first licks, this satirical twist on 1980’s feminism turns into a feverishly rompy rock-musical. Outrageous and irresistible, first produced in 1983 with music and lyrics by Seattlelite Chad Henry, Angry Housewives lays claim to the longest sold out run of a musical in Seattle history. These gals will have you Eating Your… Cornflakes!
*strong language

Tickets
Ticket information with a variety of season subscription options, including the newly launched Marquee Club, can be found online at www.artswest.org or by phone 206.938.0339.