What to expect from LGBTQ-focused Evolution Theatre Company in 2023
Evolution Theatre Company will offer mostly area premieres next year, including a recent Tony winner for best play, and its first youth-oriented play.
The small, professional company, founded in 2012 and led by Artistic/Executive Director Mark Phillips Schwamberger, presents works that celebrate and affirm the LGBTQ community.
“Our themes are more about giving people respect for who they are,” Schwamberger said.
The company will expand from its usual five annual productions to six next year, reflecting growth in audience size and the aftermath of the pandemic.
“We’re pretty much returning to normal," Schwamberger said. "Our main goal is to bring shows to the greater Columbus and Dublin community and establish ourselves as Dublin’s professional theater company.”
All performances will take place at the Abbey Theater, 5600 Post Rd., Dublin, where the troupe has been a resident company since 2021.
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“Forbidden Broadway” (Feb. 9-18): The off-Broadway musical-comedy revue celebrates and spoofs Broadway musicals and stars with new lyrics to famous songs.
“Straight” (March 30 through April 8): Scott Elmegreen and Drew Fornarola’s three-character comic drama, in its area premiere, revolves around a young investment banker attracted to both a man and a woman, and explores fidelity, identity, sexuality and acceptance in contemporary America.
“McQueen” (May 25 through June 3): James Phillip’s contemporary play, in its North America premiere and first production outside London’s West End, explores the visionary imagination and dream world of Alexander McQueen, the acclaimed late British fashion designer. The multimedia production will incorporate music, ballet and replicas of McQueen’s fashions.
“Two Plays / One Show” (July 20-29): The world premiere will offer a double bill of two one-act plays by local playwrights, to be announced. Deadline for script submissions is Jan. 1.
“The Inheritance,” Part 1 (Sept. 7-16) and Part 2 (Sept. 21-30): Winner of four 2020 Tony awards, including best play, Matthew Lopez’s two-part, six-hour drama reimagines E.M. Forster’s 1910 novel “Howard’s End” as a portrait of self-discovery, self-destruction, survival, healing and generational trauma in New York’s gay community a generation after the early AIDS crisis.
“It’s quite a coup for us to do ‘The Inheritance,’ though also a risk to do a two-part play that asks people to return to see the second half, but the writing is so engaging,” Schwamberger said. “This drama, based on such an iconic novel, weaves fantasy, imagination and gay history into a gripping story about how the AIDS pandemic affected that generation and the new generation that only heard about it."
“A Real Boy” (Oct. 19-28): Jeff Downing’s youth-oriented and family-friendly play, in only its second U.S. production, explores the joys and trials of growing up and parenting while retelling the classic fairy tale of Pinocchio as a gay boy who discovers that it’s not only his wooden frame that makes him different.
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Subscriptions, on sale now, cost $180, or $160 for senior citizens. Flex subscriptions are $200.
Single tickets, on sale now, cost $33 ($38 for musicals), $28 ($33 for musicals) for senior citizens and $15 for students; or $50 for the two-part play “The Inheritance.”
Call 614-233-1124 or visit evolutiontheatre.org.
mgrossberg1@gmail.com@mgrossberg1
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Evolution Theatre Company 2023 schedule includes LGTBQ-affirming plays
