Doubt and Rachel Corrie Highlight Seattle Rep Season

Artistic Director David Esbjornson has announcedSeattle Repertory Theatre's upcoming 2006-07 season , which will feature the first regional production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Doubt and the much talked about My Name is Rachel Corrie.

Seattle Rep's 2006-2007 season includes the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Doubt by John Patrick Shanley; the new stage version of the classic novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, adapted by Simon Levy; the long awaited revival of Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque; Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman's Fire on the Mountain, a new musical from the creators of It Ain't Nothin' But the Blue,; August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, the last of August Wilson's plays to be presented at Seattle Rep; the hit of off-Broadway, Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno; two Women Playwright's Festival veteran authors, with Kathleen Tolan's Memory House and Tanya Barfield's Blue Door; and My Name is Rachel Corrie based on the life and writings of political activist Rachel Corrie, by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner.

John Patrick Shanley's 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning Doubt (September 21^st-October 21^st, 2006) is a riveting exploration of paranoia and suspicion in the Catholic Church. Set in a Bronx parochial school in 1964—just as the Vatican II reforms begin to transfigure the Church—evidence of a priest's wrongdoing comes to light. Sister Aloysius, a strict school principal and traditionalist nun, faces the decision of a lifetime: Does she openly accuse a priest and give voice to her fear of his sinful actions, or does she bury her suspicions and leave room for doubt? This intense and personal power struggle between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn ultimately calls into question both faith and justice in the shadows of this cloistered institution.

The hit of off-Broadway when it premiered in 2005, Thom Pain (based on nothing) (October 5^th-November 5^th, 2006) is one of those events in the theatre that invites a string of adjectives – funny, edgy, existential, honest, engaging, raw – and yet defies classification or description. A treatise on life and love, and the profound terror of same, Thom Pain was described in the New York Times as "one of those treasured nights in the theater - treasured nights anywhere, for that matter - that can leave you both breathless with exhilaration and, depending on your sensitivity to meditations on the bleak and beautiful mysteries of human experience, in a puddle of tears. Also in stitches." The audience is invited to join Thom in his exploration of lost love and childhood foibles, and the anxieties brought on by them. It is an odd and intoxicating affirmation of the value of being alive.

Simon Leavy's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby will play November 2nd- December 20^th, 2006. A green light shines at the end of Daisy Buchanan's pier in East Egg, Long Island, in full view of the West Egg home of Nick Carraway across the sound. In the hot summer of 1922, Nick observes the elaborate parties of his neighbor, the infamous and illusive Jay Gatsby. In this languid atmosphere of wealth and privilege, Nick is charmed by Gatsby's power to transform his dreams into reality, and becomes his ally in rekindling a relationship with Daisy. In Fitzgerald's opulent, iconic, carefree lifestyle of The Jazz Age, there lurks a materialistic center, making The Great Gatsby's sharp depiction of the "American Dream" resonate anew for each generation. In this first authorized adaptation since 1926, Simon Levy brings the humor, irony, pathos and loveliness of this American classic to the stage.

There are times when we are called upon to define ourselves. Kathleen Tolan's Memory House (November 16^th-December 17^th, 2006) takes an intimate look at one of those moments, shared between a mother and a daughter. It's New Year's Eve, and Maggie, divorced and jobless, is facing the prospect having to live alone again as her adopted daughter Katia prepares to leave Maggie's home. Katia is struggling to write a personal essay required for her college application. As the clock ticks down to the postmark deadline, anxiety and emotions lurking beneath the surface begin to erupt. Memory House confronts the anguish and guilt we feel when we know our actions will hurt someone we love. Memory House was first developed at Seattle Repertory Theatre as part of the Women Playwright's Festival.