The Collective Face will begin its second full season as a repertory company in September, and artistic director David I.L. Poole has announced the group's four upcoming shows.
The 2012-2013 season featured several box office favorites, including Pride and Prejudice, What the Butler Saw and Shadowlands.
Poole's mission: Top that.
The Collective Face has grown exponentially since it began in 2011.
"I think the advantage of having a repertory company is that you have a family bond," Poole says. "Traditionally, you cast actors show for show. With a rep company, you know beforehand who is going to playing the parts in a season. You form that family, and it becomes closer, tight knit. And you know how people are working with each other.
"And you make a finer piece of theater, more constructed, better in the sense of relationships. Because most plays are about relationships. So if you know those relationships, we all grow as a company, together."
(Full disclosure: This reporter is a charter member of the company.)
All Collective Face shows are at Muse Arts Warehouse. For details, including info on season subscriptions, see www.collectiveface.org.
The new season:
Equus by Peter Shaffer. Sept. 20-Oct. 6. A psychiatrist struggles to get inside the mind of a young stable boy who blinded six horses in a violent fit of religious passion. Anthony Hopkins created the role of Dr. Martin Dysart on Broadway; Richard Burton played the character in the 1977 film version.
Bell, Book and Candle by John van Druten. Dec. 6-22. Originally cast on the London stage with Rex Harrison and Lili Palmer, and in the movies by James Stewart and Kim Novak. This romantic comedy is about a witch named Gillian, who falls in love with a mortal man. And before you can say "Darrin and Samantha," all sorts of supernatural things conspire to keep them apart.
Fool For Love by Sam Shepard. March 7-23. May and Eddie are battling, bored lovers stuck in a motel in the Mohave Desert. As they quarrel and reconcile, and probe and ponder their lives, they come to understand more about each other than they ever thought possible.
The Memory of Water by Shelagh Stephenson. May 9-25. A tragicomedy about three sisters dealing in different ways with the death of their mother from Alzheimer's. The acclaimed British play became a 2002 film titled Before You Go.
