Griffin Theatre Company has revealed three titles for its 2016–17 season, including a rarely revived 1930s drama, a fresh take on a popular musical and a new play by artistic director William Massolia.
The season opens in November with Maxwell Anderson’s Winterset (Nov 19–Dec 23). In keeping with Griffin’s recent string of reviving “lost” dramas Men Should Weep and London Wall—and winning the top prize at the Jeff Awards for both of them—Jonathan Berry will helm the 1935 play about a son trying to clear his father’s name of murder. The play, inspired by the Sacco and Vanzetti case, was the first winner of the New York Drama Critic’s Circle award for best play.
Lifeline Theatre’s Dorothy Milne will direct Massolia’s world premiere In to America (Mar 18–Apr 23), a sprawling look at the American immigrant experience from Jamestown to today.
Finally, Scott Weinstein will stage a new “chamber version” of Ragtime (May 27–Jul 16), the 1998 Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty musical based on E.L. Doctorow’s novel about societal upheaval at the turn of the 20th century. Musical director Matt Deitchman will prepare new orchestrations for just two pianos and a wind instrument.
All three productions will be staged in various spaces within the Den Theatre complex. Construction on Griffin’s future home in a former police station at Foster and Damen Avenues remains, as it has for some time now, stuck in the fundraising stage.