Huntington Theatre Company

BOSTON -- The Huntington Theatre Company announced its plans for the 2005-06 Season, which features seven productions including world premieres by Stephen Belber and Marc Wolf, two of America.s hottest young playwrights.

The Huntington presents five productions at the Boston University Theatre, its main stage venue, and two productions at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts.

In announcing the season, Artistic Director Nicholas Martin said, "This coming season underscores the Huntington's commitment to time-honored, classic plays and musicals by established artists alongside terrific new works by rising playwrights whom we are proud to support and nurture in the early phases of their careers."

The 2005-2006 season includes:

The Real Thing
by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Evan Yionoulis
Sept. 9 - Oct. 9, 2005 at the Boston University Theatre
Originally produced in London in 1982, and on Broadway in 1984, this multi-Tony Awardwinning play received rave reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. A brilliant wordsmith, Stoppard explores the complex joy and pain of love in this drama about art and relationships. A successful playwright takes his marriage to the brink when he falls in love with another actress. But, is it the real thing?

Carol Mulroney (World Premiere)
by Stephen Belber
Directed by Lisa Peterson
Oct. 14 - Nov. 20, 2005 at the Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion
In this world premiere production, which was part of the Huntington.s 2003 Breaking Ground play reading festival, the lure of the simple life finds its way into the souls of several complicated characters. Sitting on the roof, overlooking the beauty of the city, Carol Mulroney contemplates a tempestuous past with her father and an uncertain future with her husband. Belber is the author of the 2004 Broadway play Match (starring Frank Langella and directed by Nicholas Martin), the Off Broadway plays Tape and McReele, and is a co-writer of the acclaimed play, The Laramie Project.

The Sisters Rosensweig
by Wendy Wasserstein
Directed by Nicholas Martin
Nov. 4 - Dec. 4, 2005 at the Boston University Theatre
The Sisters Rosensweig is Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winner Wendy Wasserstein.s warm and funny play about one evening in the lives of three Brooklyn-born, Jewish-American sisters. Sara, living in London, prepares to celebrate her 54th birthday with sisters Gorgeous, a Newton, Mass. talk show host, and Pfeni, a travel writer. As the party evolves, they push through personal boundaries, share family secrets, and decipher the men who fall in and out of their lives in this humorous and insightful drama. Huntington audience favorite Andrea Martin stars.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses
by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Daniel Goldstein
January 6-February 5, 2006 at the Boston University Theatre
Desire and deceit have powerful consequences in this seductive and fiercely witty look at games of love and lust in 18th century France. Seeking revenge on a former lover, the beautiful and cunning La Marquise de Merteuil enlists her partner-in-crime Valmont to seduce the lover.s young bride in this thrilling adaptation of the classic novel by Chodleros de Laclos. Television and stage star Michael T. Weiss, who appeared in the Huntington.s production of Burn This last fall, will star.

The Hopper Collection
By Mat Smart
Directed by Daniel Aukin
March 3-April 2, 2006
Marjorie and Daniel have serious marital problems. He.s a wealthy art collector stubbornly besotted with her. She.s a pill-popping eccentric who wants him dead. Their damaged lives revolve around her obsession with Edward Hopper and a brief encounter they had. The arrival of a young couple hoping to view Marjorie.s Hopper painting forces her to choose between living in the past or dropping the fantasy in favor of something real. This alternatively savage and poignant drama recently was featured in the Huntington.s Breaking Ground Festival of new plays. This production marks the new play.s East Coast premiere.

The Road Home: Re-Membering America
Written and performed by Marc Wolf (World Premiere in association with Geva Theatre Center)
Directed by David Schweizer
March 24 - April 30, 2006 at the Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion
As he drove home cross-country to New York City after 9/11, playwright and actor Marc Wolf interviewed his fellow Americans to create The Road Home: Re-Membering America. Profoundly moving and highly entertaining, this world premiere production (in association with the Geva Theatre Centre in Rochester, NY) is a provocative portrait of the complexity and resilience of our nation. Wolf, who will star in this production, is best known for his play Another American: Asking and Telling, about the U.S. military.s .don.t ask, don.t tell. policy. He has performed Another American throughout the U.S. and received OBIE, Helen Hayes, and Independent Reviewers of New England Awards for Best Solo Performance.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Book by Burt Shevelove & Larry Gelbart
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Nicholas Martin
May 12 - June 11, 2006 at the Boston University Theatre
Mayhem falls on ancient Rome in this six-time Tony Award-winning musical comedy about the hilarious and preposterous adventures of Pseudolus, a Roman slave who will do anything for his freedom, and his master, Hero, who is in love with the courtesan next door. Sondheim's long list of celebrated credits includes Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, Company, and Into the Woods. Forum, which debuted on Broadway in May 1962, is the first show for which he wrote both music and lyrics. Shevelove collaborated with Sondheim on The Frogs, and Gelbart is best known for creating TV.s .M*A*S*H. and Broadway.s City of Angels. Broadway veteran Brooks Ashmanskas will star.