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Tony Award-winning playwright Tom\u00a0Stoppard poses for a portrait at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco on Oct. 9, 2016.<\/p>\n
Santiago Mejia\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Epic, multigenerational, identity-specific plays are coming to Berkeley Repertory Theatre next year, with a lineup that travels from 1958 Cuba to Ohio in the 1970s, from 19th-century Vienna to an Armenian American family in Portland in the 1920s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s become pretty standard for we in this industry to talk about empathy and all of the ways in which theater can be a quote-unquote empathy generator,\u201d Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer told the Chronicle in advance of unveiling of the company\u2019s 2026-27 season on Wednesday, April 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt occurred to me that before we get to empathy, we have to ignite curiosity,\u201d she continued. With her 2026-27 schedule, she wondered, \u201cCan we ignite some curiosity about what these people who may feel or appear to be so different from us, share with us?\u201d<\/p>\n
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The seven-show slate opens with \u201cThe Cook\u201d (Sept. 4-Oct. 11). Eduardo Machado\u2019s play, which premiered in 2003, is set in the kitchen of a Havana mansion in two pivotal moments: on the eve of Fidel Castro\u2019s revolution, when its aristocratic family flees to Miami, and four decades later, when the cook who\u2019s been faithfully maintaining it this whole time meets the family\u2019s daughter. Associate Artistic Director David Mendiz\u00e1bal, fresh off the company\u2019s first-rate \u201cAll My Sons,\u201d<\/a> returns to the director\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n Director David Mendiz\u00e1bal, center, rehearses Berkeley Repertory Theatre\u2019s \u201cAll My Sons\u201d with actors MaYaa Boateng, left, and Wanda De Jes\u00fas\u00a0at Berkeley Rep\u2019s rehearsal studios in Berkeley on Jan. 29.\u00a0<\/p>\n Don Feria\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n \u201cIt plays on class, devotion, memory, what it is to sustain relationships,\u201d Pfaelzer said. \u201cIt also indicates both the damage and, to some extent, the opportunity that revolution can bring.\u201d<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n That last dynamic also figures into the company\u2019s next title, \u201cLiberation\u201d (Oct. 23-Nov. 29) by Bess Wohl (\u201cSmall Mouth Sounds\u201d<\/a>). It\u2019s set partly in a \u201870s feminist consciousness-raising circle, partly decades later as a daughter examines her mother\u2019s legacy. Whitney White (\u201cJaja\u2019s African Hair Braiding\u201d), who directed the show on Broadway, reprises her role here.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Pfaelzer said that she and Wohl both \u201chave the privilege of coming of age and coming into our own as women whose mothers did fight these battles.\u201d Now, she added, \u201cThe question remains, certainly for my mom and some of her friends, of what are you going to do now?\u201d<\/p>\n Up next is York Walker\u2019s \u201cThe Covenant\u201d (Nov. 6-Dec. 13), what Pfaelzer describes as a Southern Gothic thriller. The ghost story follows two sisters in a small Georgia town and a returning prodigal-son-turned-blues star who\u2019s possibly made a secret Faustian bargain.<\/p>\n \u201cFor people who loved films like \u2018Sinners<\/a>,\u2019 there will feel like there is some resonance genre-wise,\u201d said Pfaelzer, referring to the Oscar-winning horror film by Oakland writer-director Ryan Coogler.\u00a0<\/p>\n This title follows the recent record-breaking success of \u201cParanormal Activity,\u201d<\/a> another horror play, at American Conservatory Theater. Pfaelzer pointed out that while the genre is hard to pull off onstage, not least because film has conditioned audiences to expect certain tricks and effects, \u201cWe forget how spellbinding a person telling you a story alone in the dark really can be.\u201d<\/p>\n Ryan\u00a0J. Haddad in \u201cHold Me in the Water,\u201d which is part of Berkeley Repertory Theatre\u2019s next season.<\/p>\n Valerie Terranova\/Berkeley Repertory Theatre<\/p>\n After the previously announced \u201cThe Interestings\u201d<\/a> (Jan. 31-March 21) \u2014 a world-premiere musical with Sara Bareilles, Sarah Ruhl, Meg Wolitzer and Michael Arden attached \u2014 the new year brings the solo play \u201cHold Me in the Water\u201d (March 12-April 18). The romantic comedy by Ryan J. Haddad (\u201cDark Disabled Stories\u201d) was developed at Berkeley Rep\u2019s prestigious Ground Floor program. Danny Sharron directs.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s sexy, it’s funny, it is raw, and it’s surprising,\u201d Pfaelzer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n If the company\u2019s next show, \u201cMeet the Cartozians\u201d (May 21-June 27), sounds a lot like a certain reality TV show, that\u2019s no accident. Talene Monahon\u2019s play, which morphs from a drama into a satire, tells the story of two generations of an Armenian American family a century apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe inciting incident of Act One is based on a historical case of an Armenian American and an attempt to rescind his American citizenship based on the idea that Armenians weren’t white,\u201d Pfaelzer explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Act Two, his descendant in Glendale (Los Angeles County) is on a reality TV show \u2014 and once again the family\u2019s relationship to whiteness is under the microscope.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carey\u00a0Perloff, left, and Tom Stoppard in rehearsal for \u201cThe Hard Problem\u201d at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco on Oct. 9, 2016.\u00a0Perloff directs Stoppard\u2019s \u201cLeopoldstadt\u201d at Berkeley Repertory Theatre next year.<\/p>\n Santiago Mejia\/Special to The Chronicle<\/p>\n The season concludes with the Tony Award-winning \u201cLeopoldstadt\u201d (June 4-July 11), the last major script written by playwriting titan Tom Stoppard<\/a>, who died in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In his 50s, Stoppard, who was born in Czechoslovakia and raised in India and England, discovered that all four of his grandparents had been Jewish and were killed in the Holocaust. A five-act play with 16 principal actors, \u201cLeopoldstadt\u201d follows multiple generations of a Viennese Jewish family from 1899 to 1955.\u00a0<\/p>\n Former American Conservatory Theater Artistic Director Carey Perloff \u2014 a frequent Stoppard collaborator \u2014 directs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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