Celebration of cultures, languages at core of ArtsEmerson’s 2015/16 season

Fourteen productions, a celebration of Latino theatre, the return of South African theater company Isango Ensemble, a greater female presence on stage and unique voices from artists around the globe are just some of the highlights in the 2015/2016 ArtsEmerson season: The World On Stage.

Arts Emerson’s new season which begins September 19 and runs through next May, presents a range of rich programming that includes September’s Mr. Joy, a play from resident artist Daniel Beaty. It’s a reflection on a Harlem community’s transformation following an attack on a Chinese-American resident named Mr. Joy. In October, the theatrical-cabaret show An Audience with Meow Meow debuts, and in November, Isango Ensemble’s production, uCarmen / A Midsummer Night’s Dream, hits the Cutler Majestic Theatre stage.

In a recent phone interview, Polly Carl, creative director for ArtsEmerson, said there are two things about the upcoming season that stood out for her and made her really excited.

“One, is they’re some great, great strong women in the season. It’s really an impressive cast of strong women performers,” she said. “I’m kind of blown away by that. There’s Meow Meow, there’s Tangela Large in Mr. Joy, there’s Evelina Fernandez in Premeditation, there’s Valerie Vigoda in Ernest Shackleton, there’s uCarmen. It’s really an impressive showing for the importance of women in our profession. I feel that’s a struggle often.”

Author: Photo: Mike RitterDavid C. Howse, Associate Vice President at Emerson College and Managing Director of the Office of the Arts and ArtsEmerson; Polly Carl, Creative Director for ArtsEmerson and Director of the Office of the Arts’ other flagship program, HowlRound; and David Dower, Vice President of the Office of the Arts and Artistic Director for ArtsEmerson.

She goes on to add, “The other thing I’m really hyped about is that we have a long-term partnership with the Latino Theatre Commons in this country. It’s a relationship that began in HowlRound which also lives in the Office of the Arts. HowlRound helped facilitate a Latino festival and Latino plays in LA, so two of the shows are direct results of that work and those partnerships. That’s Premeditation and Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary. I’m really happy to see that work come from LA and give Boston audiences a chance to see it.”

“HowlRound is a series of communication platforms that connect theater artists globally,” describes Carl. In the collective there’s a sharing of resources through an online journal, a live streaming television channel, and a new play data map.

“Ideally, it’s a place where the theater comes together on a global level for conversation and knowledge sharing,” she says.

Old and new

Carl, who arrived at Emerson College in 2012 along with David Dower, artistic director for Arts

Emerson, have had a long history in the world of theater, including 13-year collaboration. Prior to Emerson, they both worked at Arena Stage, a not-for-profit regional theater based in Washington, D.C., with Dower as director of artistic programs and Carl the associate artistic director.

Because of their long-standing partnership, collaboration and their work in the theater, they’ve been fortunate to see a lot of shows and to interact with a lot of different artists.

“If you look at the season it’s both a reflection of the travel and scouting that we do for the work, and it’s also a reflection of relationships we have with artists,” notes Carl.

One of those relationships includes a partnership with Company One and Summer Williams. Williams will be directing the Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play titled An Octoroon described as “an exhilarating, booby-trapped slave-era production on race.” This will be ArtsEmerson’s second collaboration with the Boston theater company.

“They’re a great partner for us because they’re really engaged in a similar kind of conversation with their community. The conversations they’re having parallel ours in a way so this is a particularly good fit to do Octoroon with them,” says Carl.

In March, ArtsEmerson will present Three Sisters, a retelling of Chekov’s masterpiece from the Maly Drama Theatre of St. Petersburg, Russia. In April, the Chilean company Teatrocinema presents Historia de Amor, “a twisted and violent tale with the grit and imagery of a graphic novel.” The season ends in May with the production of Premeditation from Los Angeles’ Latino Theater Company.

In short, there’s something for everyone.

“I feel like that is a real strength of our programming. You’re not going to all 14 shows but there’s going to be one, two, three or four things that are really relatable to you,” Carl says.

When asked about his hopes for the coming season, Dower says “We are really pushing the envelope on the international part of our mission, asking people to take a chance with us on different forms and different languages. So we are preparing to make that leap easier for folks, making the texts available, creating book clubs and pre-show conversations, meeting the artists, and then hosting spaces for discussion after these incredible adventures at the theater. We want to inspire a discussion around difference, inclusion, and the power of art to transform us and our city. The shoes are the prompt, the provocation. It’s what surrounds them. That is the point.”