Summer is on the horizon, and Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum is ready to announce a mix of classical theater, new work, and music set to take place at its spectacular, one-of-a-kind outdoor amphitheater in Topanga. Individual tickets and season subscriptions are now on sale at theatricum.com for the “Ties That Bind” 2022 Summer Repertory Season, sponsored by the S. Mark Taper Foundation.
“Our 49th season will shine light on the complicated weave of relationships that tie and bind us to each other as we struggle to find freedom and balance within ourselves, our families and our community,” says Theatricum artistic director Ellen Geer.
Best known for presenting lively and engaging renditions of the works of William Shakespeare, Theatricum will open the season with two of the Bard’s buoyant comedies. The Merry Wives of Windsor, re-set to 1950s small-town America during the nascent period of second-wave feminism, opening June 11, and the company’s annual, signature production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, opening June 12.
Forty-one years after its premiere at the Ahmanson Theatre, The West Side Waltz, by Academy Award-winning writer, Ernest Thompson, will be joining the repertoire on June 25, with a newly revised script by Thompson himself. In the world premiere of Thompson’s edited,heart-filled dramedy, set in the tumultuous ’80s, Theatricum artistic director Ellen Geer; her sister, Melora Marshall; and daughter Willow Geer take on the roles of an aging concert pianist, her violin-playing spinster neighbor, and a would-be actress on New York’s Upper West Side.
Finally, the world premiere of Trouble the Water opens on July 9. Inspired by the real-life story of Robert Smalls, who escaped slavery to become an American hero, Trouble the Water navigates the rich tributaries of courage, betrayal and redemption in a script freely adapted by Ellen Geer from the 2019 award-winning historical novel by Rebecca Dwight Bruff.
In addition to theater, Theatricum will present an array of special events, including Momentum Place, Theatricum’s annual offering of modern dance, aerial acts, juggling and performance art curated by Lexi Pearl, on Mother’s Day, comedy improv with Theatricum’s resident troupe, Off the Grid, beginning Friday, June 24, and a “sneak peak” of a new work-in-progress, Birth Control: A Musical, with music and lyrics by Inara George and book by Rina Mimoun, on Saturday, Oct. 8 and 9.
Check out Theatricum’s website for many more special events and tantalizing upcoming experiences.
For a full schedule of theater, music and family entertainment, and to learn about up-to-date Covid-19 safety protocols as each performance approaches, call (310) 455–3723, or go to theatricum.com.
