Edgy Boston Company Announces Summer '06 & Season '06-‘07

“Risky and relevant;” that's how Company One Artistic Director Shawn LaCount describes his company's upcoming season.  “We're bringing New York hits to Boston and, at the same time,” says LaCount, “continuing our fierce dedication to cultivating young, diverse local talent.”

Since its inception in 1999, Company One has exploded on the scene, quickly finding its way to the top of Boston's fringe theatre circuit.  Now in its third season of residency at the Boston Center for the Arts, the company is known as the go-to company in Boston for edgy, envelope-pushing theatre.  Company One's string of powerful programming continues for the summer hit, THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, and through the company's eighth season, which will feature three Boston premieres.

Company One is currently gearing up for Stephen Adly Guirgis' latest, THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, running at the Boston Center for the Arts July 14 – August 5.  The show received its premiere at New York's Public Theatre in March of 2005.  Fortified with a star-studded cast – including John Ortiz as Jesus and Eric Bogosian as Satan – the New York production was mounted by Guirgis' LAByrinth Theatre Company and directed by the now-ubiquitous Philip Seymour Hoffman.  As with Guirgis' other plays, JUDAS enjoyed popular support and played for an extended run.  Company One's production is the Boston premiere and already has a buzz going for it, thanks in part to the flurry of hype surrounding National Geographic's April 2006 release of The Gospel of Judas.

After JUDAS, Company One fires up its eighth season with the highly acclaimed AFTER ASHLEY, by Gino Gionfriddo.  Blisteringly funny and deeply poignant, AFTER ASHLEY is a story about a teenage boy's odyssey navigating the joys and terrors of life, after a family tragedy makes him a national figure.  Heartbreaking and hilarious, AFTER ASHLEY was acclaimed by audiences and critics at its regional debut at the 2004 Humana Festival of New Plays and during its off-Broadway run in the spring of 2005.  Company One's production will run from October 27 – November 18 at the Boston Center for the Arts.

Following AFTER ASHLEY will be the world premiere of SIX ROUNDS / SIX LESSONS, by John ADEkoje.  Author of LOVE JONES – the one-act play that has enjoyed smashing success at festival circuits and as its incarnation as a short film – ADEkoje is a Boston-based playwright who will be in residence with Company One this season.  “We're really glad to have John on board,” touts LaCount, “He's a great guy and one of the surest playwriting talents in the city.  I'm sure he's headed for big success and we're really excited to be working with him at this point in his career.”  SIX ROUNDS / SIX LESSONS, a “Tragic-comic Hip Hop Concerto”, journeys into the complex psychological depths of Ace, a boxer whose life as a Black man in today's society is way more punishing than what he endures in the ring.  Featuring a live onstage DJ and bending the barriers between audience and performers, SIX ROUNDS / SIX LESSONS, in performance March 9 - 31, will explode traditional notions of live theatre.

The third show in Company One's season is still undecided.  “This,” explains LaCount, “is the unique situation we find ourselves in: wanting to plan ahead, but holding out for the newest and best shows which we may not have access to right now, or maybe shows which haven't even been written yet.”  The yet-to-be-decided show will also run at the Boston Center for the Arts, from July 13 – August 11, 2007.

Even with one play still in the planning phase, Company One is set to roll out its new subscription program.  Dubbed the Company One “Company Card,” this flexible season-ticket will allow patrons to subscribe in advance to their choice of 2, 3 or 4 shows – all at generously discounted prices.  This, along with the company's jump to using the larger Plaza Theatre for all three shows of the season, represents significant strides for the company.  LaCount, also one of the company's founding members, ponders, “We saw a niche that was open in the Boston theatre community and slowly, over these past seven years, we've come to fill it.”

For more information on Company One's upcoming season, please call Mason Sand, Company One Director of Public Relations, at 617.230.6753, email at msand@CompanyOne.org, or visit www.CompanyOne.org. 

posted July 6, 2006

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