2014 Season Announcement!

Big Idea Theatre also announced their upcoming 2014 Season: UNBOUND.

"The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome." -Helen Keller

Mankind is endowed with one of the greatest gifts of the human experience: the desire to overcome the limits on our potential by any means necessary. When we succeed, it provides us with connection, purpose, joy and love. Even within cultures and ideologies that value submission and community over the individual, there is a overwhelming drive to overcome selfishness and ego. It is a truly universal and innately human quality to seek to better ourselves. Inversely, however, giving into our shackles can become a curse of despair leading to bitterness, fear, and apathy.

For 2014, Big Idea Theatre's company has chosen to tell 7 distinct stories about breaking free from the binds that confine our potential as human beings. These stories of the 'UNBOUND' will each explore struggles to surmount various constraints, real or imagined, placed on us by society, family, and even ourselves.

The season begins with an epic inter-generational story of one man's fight to break free from the destructive and abusive patterns of his family. The season then takes on battles against the binds of social pressure, self-doubt, racial and gender prejudice, fear of rejection, intellectual complacency, and ultimately ends with a classic American story of man's fight to forgive himself amidst a jungle of alluring temptations and distractions.

Big Idea Theatre hopes you'll join them for this varied season chock full of humor, passion and pain as they strive to discover what it means to live truly UNBOUND.

WHEN THE RAIN STOPS FALLING by Andrew Bovell
January 10 – February 8

Sacramento Premiere

It's raining.  Gabriel York is anxiously awaiting the arrival of the son he abandoned decades ago. "I know what he wants. He wants what all young men want from their fathers. He wants to know who he is. Where he comes from. Where he belongs. And for the life of me I don't know what to tell him."

Thus begins this compelling family saga that brings us on an intricate, heart-breaking journey from one generation to another, from 1959 to 2039, from London to Australia. Telling the story of four generations of fathers and sons, their mothers, lovers and wives, the play is epic in its scope, yet at the same time extraordinarily intimate. 

"...It is a powerful metaphor for the impossibility of escaping the past, for the way we are all shaped by what came before—and are living in the shadow of what comes next."  —Time

THE MERRY WIVES by William Shakespeare
Adapted by Big Idea Theatre
February 28 - March 29 

Step back in time to the wild, wild West, where anything goes. It's the Gold Rush, and tens of thousands of immigrants from around the world have flocked to California in search of their fortune.  Among them is Sir John Falstaff, who, having failed to strike gold in the foothills, now attempts to win his fortune by other, less noble means. Enter Mistresses Page and Ford, whom Falstaff plots to separate from their gold by falsely pledging his love. The women, however, are not so easily fooled and turn the tables on the hapless Falstaff through a series of bawdy, raucous and hilarious pranks. 

Enjoy this playful twist on Shakespeare's classic comedy that celebrates our region's vibrant history.

INVENTING VAN GOGH by Steven Dietz
April 18 – May 17

Sacramento Premiere

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” —Oscar Wilde. 

In September 2013, the art world reeled when a painting, which had languished for years in a Norwegian attic, was revealed to be a previously undiscovered masterpiece by Vincent Van Gogh.

Inventing Van Gogh pulls us into the tale surrounding Van Gogh’s famed, final, lost self-portrait that has never been seen... until now.  This time-bending mystery about the making of art introduces us to the legendary artist himself, the modern-day art expert whose quest for the lost portrait consumes his life, and the protégé who is lured into perpetrating a breathtaking, audacious fraud. 

THE SUBMISSION by Jeff Talbot
June 6 – July 5 

Sacramento Premiere

Danny’s complex new drama about an African-American family struggling to leave the projects has just been selected for the nation's preeminent play festival. But Danny, a young white playwright, submitted his work under a pseudonym in the hope of increasing its chances for production. So he hires Emilie, a black actress, to stand in for him as author. What starts out as a questionable idea pulls Danny, Emilie, Danny’s boyfriend, and his best friend down a path littered with truth, lies, revelation, and betrayal. This whip-smart, fearless and funny new play takes an unflinching look at the quiet prejudice that exists within us all. 

THE LANGUAGE ARCHIVE by Julia Cho
July 25 – August 23 

Sacramento Premiere

George has spent his life documenting languages, but words fail him when Mary, his wife, tells George that she is leaving him.  That same day, the last two speakers of a vanishing tongue arrive to work with George and his love-struck assistant, Emma, to record their language for posterity. This magical tale is filled with love and loss, beginning and endings and examines the force and failings of language.

"Quirky, but ravishingly well-written piece that is smart, funny, deep and tender." —OC Weekly.

THE EXIT INTERVIEW by William Missouri Downs
September 12 – October 11 

Sacramento Premiere

Dick Fig has been fired.  On his last day at his university Dick’s excruciating exit interview with Eunice, a humorless HR representative, is interrupted by an unexpected and violent incident.  Downs' witty play bounces from Brechtian interludes to a pair of politically-radicalized cheerleaders, from a pompous newsman to dispatches from God, and includes debates on religion, science and politics before reaching its startling conclusion.

THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA by Tennessee Williams
November 7 – December 6

De-frocked priest T. Lawrence Shannon attempts to hide from his personal demons in a dilapidated hotel on the coast of Mexico and instead finds himself enmeshed in intrigue as three women battle for his attention:  Maxine, a sensuous, earthy proprietor of the hotel, who wants Shannon to share her bed; Charlotte, a young girl looking to escape her conservative upbringing; and Hannah, a penniless artist of heartbreaking dignity and courage who wants to save Shannon from himself. Tennessee Williams last great play is a haunting story of dying dreams, frustrated sexuality, and lost-souls transformed as people are pushed to their breaking point.

2014 Ticket Info:           

All “Thrifty Thursday” show tickets: $10

General Admission Tickets: $16 online, $20 at the door

SARTA/Senior/Student Tickets: $14 online, $18 at the door

All-Access Season Pass: $80

Thursday Season Saver Pass: $60

Flex Passes: 4-show ($52); 6-show ($78)

Gift Certificates available!

www.bigideatheatre.com