As I exhaustively mused-upon in an earlier post, the Yale Rep announced its 2011 season back on March 10, on the early side for regional theaters these days.
The Long Wharf Theatre’s season announcement, which I was told was close to finalized last month (it came up in relation to which business was finished or unfinished when Managing Director Ray Cullom tendered his resignation in the first week of March) won’t come until May 9.
Two big reasons why:
- There’ll be fanfare: a “season announcement event” with performances, a Founders Award ceremony and a reception.
- They can afford to wait. I’m told that subscription renewals (known as “blind” renewals, since subscribers are reupping happily without even knowing what next season’s shows will be) are so strong that there’s no urgent incentive to announce until they feel like it. Nice feeling, huh? LWT spokesguy Steve Scarpa says the theater sees this encouraging response as a real expression of support for the theater’s programming and its importance in the community: “The response has been fantastic. It’s heartening that people know and trust and like what we do.”
Still, announce already! We’re biting our nails in anticipation.
The current Long Wharf season is in its final weeks. The theater’s Next Stage (i.e. interns and emerging backstage talent) production of Mac Wellman’s family-friendly soul-searching expedition tigertigertiger plays this Saturday, April 9, at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. The 2010-11 mainstage subscription season concludes with Italian American Reconciliation, April 27-May 22. The season-ending gala (unrelated to the season-announcement bash mentioned above) will be June 3 and feature The Midtown Men, the vocal group made up of original cast members of Jersey Boys.