Local News: Theater LaB Houston new season starts Oct 13th.....

Posted by: ThLaBon 2010/9/27 6:33:57 2893 reads Theatre LaB Announces 18th Season

Theater LaB Houston is pleased to present a diverse, eclectic and outstanding selection of current theatrical productions that include recent Tony Award winners and nominated plays and the introduction to Houston audiences of a NYC based Obie Award winner troupe, plus the return of award winning Fringe actress Gemma Wilcox who brings her NEW sold-out show to Houston in a limited engagement...

All Houston Premieres as always from Houston’s Premiere Off-Broadway venue, it’s truly an exciting time to be in Houston with TLH’s 2010-2011 season.

Shadows in Bloom
Written and Performed by Gemma Wilcox
Houston Premiere

From the 2010 Canadian Fringe Festivals – Victoria, Edmonton and Vancouver – BEST of Fringe winner Gemma Wilcox returns to Houston with her latest production Shadows in Bloom. Chalk full of miniature portraits examining the ticking biological clock and romantic neuroses of a woman on the edge of 30 and at the end of her rope. Audiences are voyeurs to Sandra’s confessional as well as witnesses to Wilcox’s personal affiliation with the subject matter, illustrated in the fine distinctions she draws in her characters...shadows lurk, jealousy seethes, plants talk . . . 20 new characters! From the creator of the award-winning Fringe hit, The Honeymoon Period Is Officially Over. Shadows in Bloom is its own piece, one does not have to have seen ‘Honeymoon’…to experience this exciting and fresh theatrical voice.

See Gemma on stage at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIMLC4MLqS4

Pick of the Fringe, Vancouver Fringe
2010 Best Female Performer, Victoria Fringe
2010 Best Solo Performance

"Gemma Wilcox is both an adroit chronicler of the human condition and a wondrous chameleon of a performer." Minneapolis Pioneer Press

“Wilcox does sterling work…a versatile, personable actress with a flair for comic characterizations and evocative body language” Houston Chronicle

“(to TLH) a great big high-five for introducing us to Gemma Wilcox…the only thing to do now is implore TLH to bring Wilcox back for an encore” Houston Press

6 PERFORMANCES ONLY
Press & Opening night, Wednesday, October 13th 2010 at 8pm.
Thursday Oct 14th, Friday Oct 15th and Saturday Oct 16th at 8pm
Sunday, Oct 17th at 4pm and 6pm.

NOT part of the season ticket package. Single tickets are now on sell.
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Season Ticket package includes the following:

The Little Dog Laughed
by Douglas Carter Beane
Houston Premiere

Yes, we love the cinema for its great auteurs, its glorious faces and its daring images. But in this tabloid age where big stars go on Oprah and jump around like heartsick schoolboys, what we really love is all that dish! The players here include a hard-driving Hollywood agent, her budding screen idol client, a sexy young drifter, and the drifter's naive, needy girlfriend. The Little Dog Laughed follows the adventures of Mitchell Green, a movie star who could hit big if it weren't for one teensy-weensy problem. His agent, Diane, can't seem to keep him in the closet. Trying to help him navigate Hollywood's choppy waters, the devilish Diane is doing all she can to keep Mitchell away from the cute rent boy who's caught his eye and the rent boy's girlfriend (wait, the rent boy has a girlfriend?). Will there be a happy ending as the final credits roll?

In 2007 – The Little Dog Laughed was nominated for Best Play by the Tony Awards and Julie White won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a play.

Beane’s works include the screenplay of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, and other plays including 2010’s Mr and Mrs Fitch; The Country Club and As Bees in Honey Drown. In 2007 he wrote the book for Xanadu, a stage musical adaptation of the 1980 film of the same name, adding new plot twists and humor parodying the original movie, the production ran on Broadway in 2008.

"Theatergoers have cause to rejoice. Devastatingly funny, with dizzy, irresistible writing that brings down the house." The New York Times

"Big fun and an out-and-out delight…Don't be surprised after seeing it that you giggle in your dreams." New York Daily News.

"A laugh-out-loud lampoon of Hollywood humbuggery…Tremendously funny." Star-Ledger

Press & Opening night, Wednesday, November 10th at 8pm.
Friday’s & Saturday’s at 8pm thru December 11th
Thursday, December 9th at 8pm
2 Sunday matinees at 5pm – December 5th and 12th
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reasons to be pretty
by Neil LaBute
Houston Premiere

In reasons to be pretty, Greg’s tight-knit social circle is thrown into turmoil when his offhand remarks about a female coworker’s pretty face and his own girlfriend Steph’s lack thereof get back to Steph. But that’s just the beginning. Greg’s best buddy, Kent, and Kent’s wife, Carly, also enter into the picture, and the emotional equation becomes exponentially more complicated. As their relationships crumble, the four friends are forced to confront a sea of deceit, infidelity and betrayed trust in their journey to answer that oh-so-American question: How much is pretty worth? America’s obsession with physical beauty is confronted headlong in this brutal and exhilarating work.
Neil LaBute’s bristling new comic drama puts the final ferocious cap on a trilogy of plays that began with The Shape of Things and Fat Pig (which had its critically acclaimed Houston premiere at TLH in 2007).

In 2009 - reasons to be pretty was nominated for Best Play by the Tony Awards and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.

"Mr. LaBute is writing some of the freshest and most illuminating American dialogue to be heard anywhere these days." The New York Times

Press & Opening night, Wednesday, January 5th 2011 at 8pm.
Fridays and Saturdays thru Feb 5th at 8pm
Thursday, Jan 3rd at 8pm
Sundays, Jan 23rd and 30th at 5pm
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Gone Missing
Created by The Civilians
Written by Steven Cosson
from Interviews by the Company
Music and Lyrics by Michael Friedman
Regional Premiere

TLH is pleased to present to Houston audiences the acclaimed work of New York based theatrical Company and Obie award winning troupe - The Civilians. This is a TLH in-house production, the Civilians are NOT appearing in it.

A wry and whimsical documentary musical of loss devised from interviews with real-life New Yorkers by The Civilians, the acclaimed New York-based company. This collection of very personal accounts of things "gone missing"—everything from keys, personal identification and a Gucci pump to family heirlooms, your dog and your mind—creates a unique tapestry of the ways in which we deal with loss in our lives. A flexible company of six performs more than thirty characters, intertwining these stories of lost objects with tales from some unusual "finders," ranging from a retired NYPD cop to a pet psychic. Set against eclectic and tuneful songs by Michael Friedman.

Gone Missing opened Off-Broadway in June 2007 and was extended twice running thru early 2008. Initially created after 9/11 the piece played NYC and later to outstanding reviews in London, continuing to morph into its new incarnation, set against Mr. Friedman’s score, which incorporates salsa, ballards, operetta and pop.

Named as one of the Top Ten productions of 2007 by Christopher Isherwood New York Times.

"GONE MISSING is not merely a witty, quick-footed and entertaining evening of theater; it is also a finely tuned inquiry into the nature of memory…Miss it and weep." Time Out New York

"A startling combination executed with great panache, satirical acumen and covert tenderness."
The Independent (London).

Press & Opening night, Wednesday, March 9th at 8pm.
Fridays and Saturdays through April 9th at 8pm.
Thursday, April 7th at 8pm
Sundays, April 3rd & 10th at 5:00pm
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To Be Announced
We’re working to get the rights to a recent Off-Broadway hit which we will announce in the
New Year. So stay tuned!
Opening in late April 2011
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Individual tickets for Shadows in Bloom and Season Ticket packages are
available by calling the theater's Box Office at (713) 868-7516 or by visiting
Theatre LaB Houston!

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