Geva Theatre Center announces 50th Anniversary Season

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Geva Theatre Center Wednesday announced its lineup for its 50th Anniversary Season.

Not only is it a milestone season for Geva, but the center is welcoming its new artistic director, Elizabeth Williamson.

The main season will kick off with Williamson’s adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë classic "Jane Eyre", in which a poor orphan who is hired as a governess ends up falling in love with her employer, who turns out to have a dark past. It will run on the Wilson Stage from Sept. 6 through Oct. 2.

Then, from Oct. 18 through Nov. 13, Tony Award-winning playwright Matthew López’s "Somewhere" will run on the Wilson Stage. The musical, set in 1959, tells the story of a Puerto Rican family in Manhattan’s San Juan Hill whose opportunity to audition for roles in "West Side Story" looks to be uprooted by a neighborhood-wide eviction.

Theatergoers can celebrate jazz pioneer Fats Waller’s extraordinary career by seeing "Ain’t Misbehavin’: The Fats Waller Musical Show", a co-production with Barrington Stage. It will run from Jan. 17 through Feb. 12.

Then, from Feb. 28 through March 26, Geva’s Wilson Stage will host the world premiere of "Russian Troll Farm: A Workplace Comedy".

The tone turns serious from April 4 through April 23 with a dramatic memoir called "And So We Walked: An Artist’s Journey Along the Trail of Tears" in which writer and performer DeLanna Studi details her experience of going on the 900-mile journey along the Trail of
Tears with her father.

The Tony Award-winning musical from the creators of "South Pacific" and "The Sound of Music", "Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella" takes Wilson Stage next from May 9 through June 4.

Geva will also host "we are continuous", though its dates are to be determined.

Special productions include a variety of Rochester Fringe Festival performances at the Geva Theatre Center’s Fielding Stage from Sept. 13 through Sept. 24 and, of course, "A Christmas Carol" directed by Mark Cuddy will make its yearly run again, from Nov. 29 through Dec. 30.

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