Baltimore Center Stage will celebrate its 60th anniversary with its 2022-2023 season, featuring plays about small town life, living as a Black American, tales from an advice columnist, and more.
“Next year marks the 60th anniversary of Baltimore Center Stage, and I am so excited to honor
this organization’s formidable legacy,” BCS Artistic Director Stephanie Ybarra said in a statement. “For us, this looks like reimagining what a theater can be in its community and how we want to show up on and off our stages – and so as we bring this exciting slate of joyful and compelling programming over the course of the season, we will not only reflect back on the past 60 years of Baltimore Center Stage, but also dream forward to the next 60 years of this theater and this community.”
Baltimore Center Stage memberships for next season went on sale this week, and patrons can purchase individual tickets starting Aug. 16.
The theater requires proof of vaccination, or a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of show time, to attend programs.
The season will kick off with Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” which will run Sept. 15 through Oct. 9. The play, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1938, centers on a fictional American small town in the early 1900s as its residents navigate love, marriage, death and more. The production will be directed by Stevie Walker-Webb, who recently directed “The Folks At Home,” also at Baltimore Center Stage.
Following that production will be “Ain’t No Mo’” by Jordan E. Cooper, running from Oct. 27 through Nov. 20. Peaches, the narrator and flight attendant on African American Airlines’ Flight 1619 on a one-way trip from America to Africa, examines the value of Black lives in the U.S. “Ain’t No Mo’” will be directed by Lili-Anne Brown.
Baltimore Center Stage’s first mainstage production of 2023 will be “Tiny Beautiful Things,” which will run from March 9 through April 2, 2023. The play is based on the book by Cheryl Strayed, who is also the author of “Wild”; and it was adapted for the stage by Nia Vardalos, who wrote and starred in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” “Tiny Beautiful Things” is based on Strayed’s real-life experience as online advice columnist “Sugar” as she helps her column’s readers wade through various issues in their lives.
Next up is “Life Is A Dream,” which will also be directed by Walker-Webb, and will run May 4 through May 21, 2023. In the play, Segismund, a kingdom’s rightful prince, has been locked in a tower his whole life because of a prophecy predicting he will bring destruction. The play was originally written in the early 1600s by Spanish playwright Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and it has been adapted by María Irene Fornés.
In addition to the mainstage productions, Baltimore Center Stage will also present several community-focused artistic programs.
The Baltimore Butterfly Sessions will foster conversations around current events and issues through music, poetry, literary excerpts, and keynote addresses. The sessions will be held Sept. 19, Nov. 7, Dec. 5, and May 1, with more dates to be announced. Baltimore Center Stage will also take select Butterly Sessions on the road to bring these conversations to different parts of the city. So far, the theater has announced that the Sept. 19 keynote will be given by Gavin Witt, director of dramaturgy and associate director at Baltimore Center Stage, and Durryle Brooks, executive director of Baltimore Black Pride; and the Nov. 7 keynote will be given by Lawrence T. Brown, author of “The Black Butterfly: The Harmful Politics of Race and Space in America.”
BCS Sound Check is a Friday-night concert series, with events on Oct. 21, Nov. 18, March 31 and April 14.
Accompanying Baltimore Center Stage’s production of “Our Town” will be a community-centered program “Our Town, Baltimore” running alongside the production in the fall.
Baltimore Center Stage will also present an interactive movie night for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in partnership with the Creative Alliance. The event Oct. 28-29 will feature live performances from Chocolate Covered Rocky Horror and a costume contest.
Winter Solstice events from Dec. 1-19 will welcome families to Baltimore Center Stage for a winter wonderland experience with activities for guests of all ages.
The inaugural Locally Grown Festival from Feb. 2-4 will bring together local performers, artists, and makers.
The Young Playwrights Festival will celebrate its 38th year on May 20, featuring professional productions of six selected plays written by young Maryland playwrights. The theme for the 2023 festival will be “The Looking Glass.”
Baltimore Center Stage will have a virtual student matinee library, which will provide a free online collection of filmed versions of select Baltimore Center Stage’s programs and plays, available to K-12 teachers. The collection will also come with curricula, program guides and other materials to spark discussions inside classrooms and beyond.
This summer, Camp BCS will welcome campers to explore poetry, dance, music and theater as tools for storytelling and share what they create.
