Area theater groups prepare for upcoming season

Bootleg Shakespeare. A true story about a radium-poisoning scandal. A black comedy whose characters include a talking apartment and a ghostly Justin Timberlake. Those are some of the enticements that Richmond-area theaters will present in the 2009-10 season.

Firehouse Theatre Project artistic director Carol Piersol might have been speaking for many company leaders when she said of her play-selection process, "I make a pile of plays that hit me in the gut - and then I try to get variety."

Certainly, a spectrum of dramatic genres, styles and topics will be on offer, and many of the shows are classics or new works acclaimed for their wallop-in-the-solar-plexus power.

African American Repertory Theatre can boast of shows with name recognition and proven track records. Artistic director Derome Scott Smith says the company's first year at the new Richmond CenterStage will include Tom Stolz's tribute to Mahalia Jackson ("Mahalia: A Gospel Musical") as well as Donald Margulies's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Dinner with Friends." Two of AART's shows - the musical "Crowns" and Langston Hughes's "Black Nativity" - will be co-produced by the Barksdale Theatre.

For details and ticket information, visit http://www.livingwordstage.com or call (804) 355-2187.

The Carpenter Science Theatre Company has innovation up its sleeve. Artistic director Larry Gard says his organization will stage just one traditional show in the 2009-10 season: Jon Lipsky's Underground Railroad-themed "North Star Light: Pathways to Freedom," which will be part of the 2010 Acts of Faith festival. The rest of the year, company actors will perform short skits and storytelling sessions in the museum galleries.

"The whole purpose is to provide an additional experience for visitors that they just don't expect," Gard says.

For details and ticket information, visit http://www.smv.org or call (804) 864-1400.

A number of theaters will recognize "Minds Wide Open," Virginia's statewide celebration of women in the arts, running March through June 2010 (visit http://www.vamindswideopen.org for more information). In honor of that event, Chamberlayne Actors Theatre has cooked up a menu rich in female playwrights, characters and directors. After the season opener - Herb Gardner's "I'm Not Rappaport," which ran for more than two years on Broadway in the 1980s - Chamberlayne Actors Theatre presents Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning "Crimes of the Heart;" D.W. Gregory's "Radium Girls," about a real historical radium-poisoning tragedy; and Caroline Smith's "The Kitchen Witches," which the group's president, Mike Randell, describes as "a cross between 'Jerry Springer' and a cooking show."

For details or ticket information, go to http://www.cattheatre.com or call (804) 262-9760.

Firehouse Theatre Project has women in its sights, too, but the season kicks off with Howard Korder's play "Boys' Life." The follow-ups will be "This Is How It Goes," by the edgy contemporary playwright Neil LaBute (writer and director of the film "In the Company of Men"); "Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake)," by the buzzed-about young dramatist Sheila Callaghan; and "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll," by Eric Bogosian ("Talk Radio").

For details or ticket information, go to http://www.firehousetheatre.org or call (804) 355-2001.

A new artistic director, James Ricks, takes the helm of the Henley Street Theatre Company as the 2009-10 season begins. In his first year, expect three full productions: Irish writer Conor McPherson's spooky ghost story "Shining City;" Ricks's adaptation of "Servant of Two Masters," the 18th-century classic by Italy's Carlo Goldoni; and, in recognition of "Minds Wide Open," Henrik Ibsen's proto-feminist "A Doll's House." As for Shakespeare, whose street-of-birth gave the company its name, he'll surface on Nov. 12 in "Bootleg Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet," an unrehearsed one-night-only staging of the star-crossed love story.

Visit http://www.henleystreettheatre.org or call (804) 340-0115.

For Richmond Triangle Players, 2009-10 represents a milestone: the first season in the troupe's new 4,000-square-foot home at 1300 Altamont Ave. At that location, the company (which specializes in works relevant to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities) will serve up five pieces: Paul Rudnick's comedy "The New Century;" "Scrooge in Rouge [an English Music Hall 'Christmas Carol']"; Carol Lynn Pearson's "Facing East," a play about a Mormon couple that will be an Acts of Faith festival entry; Jane Chambers's "Last Summer at Bluefish Cove," part of Virginia's "Minds Wide Open" celebration; and Richard Greenberg's Tony Award-winning baseball drama "Take Me Out."

For details or ticket information, go to http://www.rtriangle.org or call (804) 346-8113.

In its second year, Stage 1 Theatre Company in Mechanicsville will tackle not only the contemporary American musicals that align with its mandate, but also its first nonmusical.

"It's important to me to open up the scope," says artistic director Chase Kniffen. The season sets sail with a Sept. 15 benefit concert of the musical "Titanic," with a planned cast of more than 50 and a full-sized orchestra.

Jonathan Larson's Pulitzerand Tony Award-winning rock musical "Rent" will be the year's first fully staged offering. Also on the agenda: "Kathy Halenda In The Brassy Broads of Broadway," starring Kathy Halenda; the musical "Little Women;" Peter Morgan's play "Frost/Nixon" (turned into a film after successful London and Broadway runs); a recent musical (further details to be announced in the fall) by the acclaimed writer-composer Jason Robert Brown; and "The Light in the Piazza," the romantic tale that boasts a score by musical-theater hotshot Adam Guettel (who happens to be Richard Rodgers' grandson).

For details or ticket information, go to http://www.stage1va.org or call (804) 427-7548.

Swift Creek Mill Theatre audiences can expect a gothic farce (complete with a werewolf), a classic parable about authoritarianism and, of course, a lot of comedy and music. Charles Ludlam's werewolf-inflected "The Mystery of Irma Vep" launches the 2009-10 agenda in September. Also on the lineup: Tom Dudzick's "Greetings!"; James Hindman's tuneful "Pete'N Keely;" a Rodgers and Hammerstein revue titled "A Grand Night for Singing;" an adaptation of George Orwell's "Animal Farm;" and Ken Ludwig's comedy "Moon Over Buffalo."

For details or ticket information, go to http://www.swiftcreekmill.com or call (804) 748-5203.

Sycamore Rouge, in Petersburg, will get the season rolling in October with a world premiere: "40 Acres and a P.O.W." by Woody Eney. At holiday time, the company will mount David Sedaris' "Santaland Diaries & Season's Greetings," and 2010 will bring Cheryl L. West's "Jar the Floor," about four generations of African-American women at a birthday party; Arthur Miller's "The Crucible;" and Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

For details or ticket information, go to http://www.sycamorerouge.org or call (804) 957-5707.

Richmond Shakespeare - currently forging through its summer repertoire at Agecroft Hall - has yet to announce its 2009-10 indoor roster, to be performed at the new Richmond CenterStage. Stay tuned.

Celia Wren is a former managing editor of American Theatre magazine. Contact her at .