After teases and empty promises for so long, the time has finally come that we can announce our 8th season (2011/2012). Many apologies for the constant "Very, VERY soon we will announce" messages over the various outlets, post-show speeches, and blog posts. It really was our goal to have a slate of shows ready to share with you all in February, but one thing after another made that difficult. The battle over rights to certain scripts, scheduling concerns, and the promise to always choose a season that we believe in, fully, made this a much more protracted experience that we had hoped or expected.

 

At the end of the day, we are super pumped about this upcoming season. All the planning and discussion have really come together to forge a line-up that we are very proud of and are very eager to put onstage and share with you.

 

And so, here is the first of the four shows that make up Season 8:

 

Mad Forest, by Caryl Churchill, is a play that we have considered for many years. It's probably the most-debated script we've looked at over the past few seasons. Set just around the revolution in Romania in 1989, Churchill traveled to Bucharest with students from London's Central School of Speech and Drama and with theatre students in Romania, developed the play based on first-hand accounts of the events of December 1989. 

 

When we re-visited the play, it became apparent that it felt like many of the stories coming out of the "Arab Spring" movements in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and various other locations. As these news stories hit our airwaves, I know that I, personally, had difficulty in knowing how to understand exactly what was happening. "Who is protesting what? What are the sides?" Now, some of this ignorance comes down to lack of education about the region, but it became clear that these are still questions with unclear answers. It was much the same in 1989 Romania. 

 

So, we thought this might be an interesting way to not only view the stories from our daily headlines, but to look at a situation that occurred over 20 years ago and explore what the future might hold for our current world. Along with the run of Mad Forest, we are also planning some other really exciting events and discussions to help place Churchill's play in context with our present-day global community.

 

I've asked a company member to send me their thoughts on what they love about each of these shows. For Mad Forest, Hannah Hessel (who lists the play as her "favorite play, ever") says:

 

"Caryl Churchill uses every dramatic tool at her disposal to tell the story of Romanians at a turning point. The language, the characters, and the structure all serve the story and help to create more than just a play – they create an experience." 

 

Mad Forest will begin on September 22nd and run until October 15th, 2011.