Acts of Faith Calendar 2014
Preview Event and Kickoff
Sunday, January 12, 2014 7:00 p.m.
The Sara Belle and Neil November Theatre
(Formerly The Empire Theatre)
114 West Broad Street
Free and Open to Public. No tickets required. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Questions call 804-304-8379
Each theatre will present a brief scene or reading from their upcoming play.
Each theatre will offer talkbacks immediately following a number of performances to discuss the faith issues presented in the play. Talkbacks include the play director, cast members, and faith leaders in the community. Play directors or cast members will also participate in discussions at any faith community to add an inside perspective on the play. In addition to the talk-backs, all participating theatres will highlight a few discussion question in their playbills for folks who may miss the talk-backs or who want to take the conversation back to their faith communities.
Participating Theatres
Cadence Theatre Company in partnership with Virginia Repertory Theatre
Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris
Clybourne Park won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. Clybourne Park is a dramatic follow-up to A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry; it is a moving and thought-provoking story of racism and how it evolves but never ends. Laced with comedy and satire, the play asks the audience to closely examine its own community identity.
Ages 16+
February 20 – March 15, 2014
Discussions: March 2 & 9, 2014
804-282-2620 www.va-rep.org
114 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220
Ticket Prices: $28 adults, $10 students, $22 groups of 10 or more
Chamberlayne Actors Theatre
The Joshua Plant by Amy Berlin & Ann Bucci
The Joshua Plant is the winner of CAT’s 50th Anniversary Original Play Contest and was chosen from dozens of plays submitted by Virginia playwrights. Josh, an autistic teen with little to no language skills, shares a rich friendship with Sid, a houseplant. Together Sid and Josh work to save Josh’s mother from the hands of her manipulative boyfriend, Jimmy, and prevent Jimmy's plan to place Josh in an institution. The dramedy explores the characters' inabilities to communicate and imagines the inner life of a severely autistic teen. The Joshua Plant began as a ten-minute play that was a finalist in the 2005 Chicago Dramatist Fall Ten Minute Workshop. Since then, it has had three developmental readings with Phoenix Theatre and a staged reading at the Pandora Festival, both in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as a reading at the Richmond Public Library as part of the Richmond Writers series.
Ages 13+
January 24 – February 8, 2014
Discussions: January 25 & February 2, 2014
804-262-9760 www.cattheatre.com
319 North Wilkinson Road, Richmond, VA 23227
Tickets: $19 adult, $16 student, $12 - $16 group rates
Firehouse Theatre Project
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz
This 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist is a drop-kicking, body-slamming, balls-out theatrical happening set in the larger-than-life world of professional wrestling. Mace is a great professional wrestler, but he’s no champion — that’s the impossibly charismatic Chad Deity. When Mace discovers a young Indian-American Brooklyn kid whose charisma rivals that of the champ, Mace decides to get him a job in the company. Only problem is, the boss has a very specific plan to put the duo onscreen as terrorists.
Ages 17+
February 8 – March 8, 2014
Discussions: February 21 & 28, 2014
804-355-2001 www.firehousetheatre.org
1609 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220
Tickets $32 adults; $26 seniors 65+; $15 students, military, & RAPT; $24 groups 10 or more
Greater Richmond Children’s Choir in cooperation with Capitol Opera Richmond and River Road Church, Baptist
Noye's Fludde by Benjamin Britten, opus 59
Come and join Noye, his family, a cast of animals and musicians as they escape from the great flood that encompasses the earth in this colorful Biblical-inspired opera written by Benjamin Britten. Noye's Fludde is based on an early 15th-century mystery play. Written with amateurs in mind - and including join-in carols for the audience!
March 22 & 23, 2014, 4:00 pm
Discussion: March 23, 2014
804-201-1894
www.grcchoir.org
River Road Church, Baptist, 8000 River Road, Richmond, VA 23229
Tickets Donations accepted at the door
HATTheatre
The Quality of Life by Jane Anderson
"Playwright Jane Anderson explores a myriad of ethical, religious, and moral beliefs, as well as (some would say) personal rights issues concerning life and death in her remarkable and completely engrossing new play, The Quality of Life." - Terri Roberts, Theater Mania
Winner! 2007 Ted Schmitt Award for the world premiere of an Outstanding New Play. Winner! 2008 Ovation Award for Best New Play. Nominee! 2013 Jeff Award, Best Production of a Play.
From award-winning writer Jane Anderson (AMC's Mad Men, The Baby Dance, Looking for Normal) comes this "magnetic work of theater" (The San Francisco Chronicle) filled with compassion, honesty and humor. In this play, Dinah and husband Bill, still reeling from the loss of
their daughter, find comfort in spirituality. A devout church-going couple from the Midwest, they decide to meet one weekend with distant cousins, who are camped on the burn site of their home that was lost to a wild fire in Northern California. Cousins Jeannette and Neil-who are a wildly irreverent, left-leaning couple, are also facing a devastating loss and dealing with Neil's battle with cancer, a battle he is losing, with healthy doses of red wine, alternative practices and fiercely defiant good cheer. With their widely differing political and religious backgrounds, the couples attempt to join together to confront their physical and emotional challenges as they both deal with grief and survival.
February 7-16, 2014
Discussions: February 9 & 16, 2014
804-343-6364 www.hattheatre.org
1124 Westbriar Drive, Richmond, VA 23238
Tickets $22 for adults, $18 for seniors $15 for groups, $12 for youth/students w/ID
Henley Street Theatre/Richmond Shakespeare
Wittenberg by David Davalos
Trouble brews in the hallowed halls of Wittenberg U., circa 1517. Sparring professors Doctor Faustus and Reverent Martin Luther vie for the allegiance of their star pupil, Prince Hamlet, who is struggling with is faith and his tennis game. Riotous, waggish, and clever as can be, Wittenberg mixes brilliant repartee with slapstick silliness as these nutty professors argue reason verses faith and ignore Hamlet’s back-to-school stress.
March 27 - April 19, 2014
Discussions: April 6 & 13, 2014
804-340-0115 www.henleystreettheatre.org
Richmond Triangle Players – 1300 Altamont Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230
Tickets $30 adults, $15 students, $20 for groups 10 or more
Richmond Triangle Players
The Mormon Boy Trilogy by Stephen Fales
Before The Book of Mormon there was The Mormon Boy! After his sell-out week of performances in Confessions of a Mormon Boy last year, writer/director Steven Fales returns to RTP to perform his trilogy of works – not only Confessions, but its prequel, Missionary Position, which details his first Mormon mission and journey of self-discovery, and the sequel Prodigal Dad, about reclaiming his relationship with his children. The Associated Press called it “the stuff of great theater”! The Trilogy will be presented in rotating repertory, with all three shows presented on Saturdays with special “marathon discount” pricing.
Ages 16+
January 16 – February 9, 2014
Discussions: January 23 & 25, 2014
804-346-8113 www.rtriangle.org
1300 Altamont Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230
Tickets: $30/Adults, $60 for Saturday “Mormon Marathon” of three plays, AOF discount of $5 off
Richmond Triangle Players
High by Matthew Lombardo
Sister Jamison Connelly found personal redemption from own her sordid past through the church, and still uses her street-smarts, acerbic wit and wisdom in her role as a substance abuse counselor in her urban parish. When she is assigned to sponsor a 19-year-old meth-addicted hustler in an effort to help him go clean, her own faith is given the ultimate test. High explores the universal themes of truth, forgiveness, redemption and human fallibility.
Ages 16+
February 26 - March 15, 2014
Discussions: March 2 & 9, 2014
804-346-8113 www.rtriangle.org
1300 Altamont Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230
Tickets: $30/Adults, AOF discount of $5 off
Stage B Theatre in collaboration with Firehouse Theatre Company
And Baby Makes Seven by Paula Voegel
This play tackles the many somber and troublesome moments of adulthood by giving it an energetic, hopeful, adolescent spin. This play will bring your mind out of the haze of what often comes with "maturity" and make you want to sprint to the playground. You will relearn how to love those around you...while giggling all the way.
February 24 – March 4, 2014
Discussions: Following each performance
804-355-2001 www.firehousetheatre.org
1609 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220
Tickets: $15/Adults, $10 for Firehouse Season Subscribers & AOF participants, $10/students with student ID
TheatreLAB in collaboration with Henley Street Theatre/Richmond Shakespeare
Grace by Craig Wright
The difference between belief and knowledge, and the con¬sequences of mistaking one for the other are at the heart of Craig Wright’s acidly funny and relentlessly searching new play, Grace. An evangelical Christian couple, Sara and Steve, leave a dreary life in Minnesota for sunny Florida and the hope of fast money from turn¬ing abandoned hotels into a chain of gospel-themed inns. Their new neighbor, Sam, is struggling to emerge from the trauma of a car accident that killed his fiancée and left him badly maimed. And the building’s pest exterminator, Karl, is still tormented by a dark childhood episode. As their stories converge, Wright’s characters find themselves face-to-face with the most eternally vexing questions—the nature of faith, the meaning of suffering, and the possibility of redemption.
Ages 13+
March 22 - April 5, 2014
Discussions: March 23 & April 4
804-340-0115 www.theatrelabrva.com
RVA Event Space, 0 East 4th Street, Richmond, VA 23224
Tickets $25 adults, $10 seniors/students, $10 groups 10 or more and Acts of Faith Participants
Virginia Repertory Theatre at Sara Belle and Neil November Theatre
Tartuffe by Moliere
Tartuffe, a religious hypocrite, uses his connections to swindle his generous host, Orgon, out of his wealth, his home, and his wife. Despite his cunning, he hasn't fooled everyone, and the family and servants rally together to reveal his slippery nature before it's too late. Sharp, funny, and insightful, Molière’s comic masterpiece, was first performed in 1664; this year marks the 350th anniversary.
February 13 – March 9, 2014
Discussions: February 21, 28, & March 7, 2014
804-282-2620 www.va-rep.org
114 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220
Ticket prices $30 - $46, Call for Group Discounts
Virginia Rep's Children Theatre of Virginia at Willow Lawn
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Book & Lyrics by Douglas Jones, Music by Ron Barnett
This stirring drama with music is a classic tribute to the great American who freed herself and hundreds of her people from the bonds of slavery. As Harriet and her friend Sarah Bradford narrate her adventurous life, we share in the joys, sorrows, and challenges faced by this brave women who changed the world through her courage. Accurate and deeply moving, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad is at turns inspiring, heart-warming, and comical, full of the good humor, determination and the charity of its subject. Your students will find a new appreciation for Harriet Tubman and a deeper understanding of her times.
January 31 – February 9, 2014
Discussion: February 9, 2014
804-282-2620 www.va-rep.org
1601 Willow Lawn Drive, Richmond, VA 23230
Ticket Prices $15, Call for Group Discounts
Virginia Rep's Barksdale Season at Hanover Tavern
Olympus on my Mind, Music by Grant Sturiale, Book & Lyrics by Barry Harman
In this contemporary musical take on Greek mythology, Jupiter comes to Earth in human form to woo beautiful Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon. The story follows Jupiter’s transformation from a questionable god to a deity of love and compassion.
January 31 - March 16, 2014
Discussions: February 16 & March 9, 2014
804-282-2620 www.va-rep.org
13181 Hanover Courthouse Road, Hanover, VA 23069
Ticket Prices $38, Call for Group Discounts
Associate Theatre Productions
For Our Children Productions
The Shootout by Jihad Abdulmumit
The Shootout takes a raw account of the conflicting impressions in the African-American community of slavery, post-Reconstruction, years of Ku Klux Klan terror and lynching, the depression, the blues, jazz, and Hip Hop, the civil rights struggle, the Black Liberation Movement, drugs, prison, unemployment, gangs, black on black crime and violence, police brutality and --- HOPE.
Ages 13+
March 1 & 2, 2014
Discussion: After each performance
804-647-0832 forourchildrenproduction@gmail.com
Muslim Community Center of Chesterfield, 16831 Hull Street Road, Mosely, VA 23120
Tickets: $20
Islamic Theatre Company
15...Navigating through Stoneland by Mahasin D. Shamsid-Deen
"God makes us perceive." says the woman as she walks a path of self-determination and commitment of faith. She treads through time alone and sometimes with the assistance of others attempting to navigate herself through time and conditions of hardhearted resistance by both mind and institution to her right to "be" that perceptible person. The time intersects on the 15th in this story and the place spans the Arabian peninsula, Africa and America in this story where faith is conceptually distinct in the mind of the woman and expressed through spoken word, song and movement.
January 17 & 19, 2014
Discussion: After each performance
804-943-3237 www.islamictheatre.com
“The Shop” at Richmond’s Artspace, 0 East 4th Street, Richmond, VA 23224
Tickets: Free
Jewish Family Theatre
From Door to Door by James Sherman
A heartwarming, bittersweet comedy about three generations of American women. Mary Goodman, a woman of the "greatest generation" is mourning the loss of her husband. Her daughter, Deborah, is encouraging her to end her period of mourning and move on with a new independence. In a series of scenes between Mary, Deborah, and Mary's mother, Bessie, Mary reflects back on her life as a daughter, wife and mother. As Mary's life progresses from childhood to matrimony to motherhood, we see how each successive generation of women lives up to the expectations of the past and makes brave new choices about the future. At the end of the play, the three women stand as links in a chain made of faith, love, and understanding.
February 20 – March 2, 2014
Discussion: February 27
804-285-6500 www.weinsteinjcc.org
5403 Monument Ave, Richmond, VA 23226
Tickets: $10 members, $15 non-members, $8 seniors & groups of 10 or more
