HFAC Announces 2011-2012 Season

Date 2011/4/15 8:50:00 | Topic: Local News

HFAC Announces 2011-2012 Season

April 15, 2011


Houston Family Arts Center (HFAC) Executive Director Bob Clark announced today the organization’s 2011-2012 season, which runs from September 9, 2011 to July 29, 2012. “This year we have chosen a selection of shows that will stimulate, entertain, and inspire,” said Clark. “From one of the most celebrated Broadway musicals to lesser known dramatic gems, our season features dramas, comedies, and musicals that will appeal to audiences of all ages.” The new season marks...


HFAC’s second year in its new home, the Garza Main Stage, at 10760 Grant Road – and its 7th year of producing high quality, family-friendly shows.

“We have selected a varied and exciting season,” said Clark. “We have a total of eight shows, opening with a world premiere comedy/murder mystery, followed by a Shakespearean comedy, a beloved classic family musical, a thought-provoking drama, a frivolously fun family musical, an hysterical comedy, a small musical comedy, and large teen dance musical.”

“The 2011-2012 season showcases the artistic breadth and variety for which HFAC is noted, and the quality and diversity that the HFAC Garza Main Stage helps us achieve.” said Clark. “We’re pleased to welcome back directors Lisa Garza, Ilich Guardiola, Joshua Clark, Tracy Clayton, and Elaine Edstrom – and excited to have Teri Clark, our Artistic Director, direct one of our shows.”

The season opens with the World Premiere of Death by Design, commissioned by HFAC and written by Rob Urbinati, acclaimed New York Playwright and Director of New Play Development and Queens Theatre in the Park. What happens when you mix Noel Coward and Agatha Christie in an English country manor in 1931? A hilarious murder with multiple suspects! Fortunately, housemaid Bridget is more than up to the task of finding out whodunit. Lisa Garza directs.

The season continues with the one of Shakespeare’s more popular comedies, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The three intertwined plots involve fairies, a love potion, a weaver whose head is transformed into a donkey’s, a group wedding, and the first “it was all a dream” ending. Ilich Guardiola directs this Teen Actors Guild production.

HFAC’s Christmas production is the family favorite The Sound of Music. A high-spirited postulate becomes a governess for and then a wife to an Austrian naval Captain. Using her musical knowledge and common sense, she wins over the children and their stern father and bests both an ex-girlfriend and Nazis. Teri Clark directs.

HFAC starts 2012 with the stage adaptation of Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying – winner of the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award. This compelling drama tells the story of an African American teacher in backwoods Louisiana who must learn to stop running away from his own despair before he is able to help a wrongly condemned death row inmate. Lisa Garza directs.

HFAC’s family musical is Seussical the Musical which incorporates multiple Dr. Seuss tales in order to tell the story of Horton the Elephant from the Jungle of Nool who tries to protect the inhabitants of Whoville who live on a speck of dust. The large cast includes many characters from the Dr. Seuss books, including the Cat in the Hat, Horton, Gertrude, Mayzie, The Sour Kangaroo, The Wickersham Brothers, Yertle the Turtle, The Grinch, and of course the Whos down in Whoville. Joshua Clark directs.

Next is the Tony Award Winning Comedy – The 39 Steps. Mix every Hitchcock movie ever made with a dash of Monty Python and you’ll have an idea of the zaniness of The 39 Steps. A cast of four create over 150 characters onstage complete with a chase atop a train, a fall from a Scottish bridge and an onstage plane crash. Must be seen to be believed. Tracy Clayton directs.

HFAC is excited to present The Fantasticks which opened on off-Broadway in 1960 and played consecutively for the next 42 years, earning the reputation of the "World's Longest-Running Musical." Two fathers concoct a feud and a fake abduction in order to give their two children a chance at real love. In the process, the children learn that true love isn’t always as romantic as they would like to believe. Elaine Edstrom directs.

HFAC closes the season with its Teen Actors Guild production of Guys and Dolls, the iconic musical comedy that continues to delight audiences over 50 years after its Broadway premiere. Guys and Dolls is the perfect balance of story, dance, music, and romance. In order to secure stakes for a floating crap game, Nathan Detroit makes a bet that Sky Masterson can’t refuse: convince pious Sarah Brown to have dinner with him -- in Havana! Despite gambling-induced stumbling blocks, both Sky and Nathan wind up in a matrimonial embrace with Sarah and Adelaide.

2011-2012 Mainstage Season:
Death by Design (September 9-25, 2011 on the Garza Main Stage)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oct 21 – Nov 6, 2011, TAG production on the Garza Main Stage)
The Sound of Music (Nov 25 – Dec 18, 2011 on the Garza Main Stage)
A Lesson Before Dying (Jan 20 – Feb 5, 2012 on the Garza Main Stage)
Seussical the Musical (February 24 – March 11, 2012 at the Berry Center)
The 39 Steps (Apr 13 – 29, 2012 on the Garza Main Stage)
The Fantasticks (May 25 – Jun 10, 2012 on the Garza Main Stage
Guys and Dolls (July 13-29, 2012 TAG production at the Berry Center)

Season tickets are now on sale. For the best seating and lowest prices become a season ticket holder. The HFAC season package is arranged so that any six or more shows constitute a package, and patrons get to pick which 6, 7 or 8! Patrons can select their seats online at www.houstonfac.com or call the HFAC box office at 281-685-6374.

Still playing the 2010-2011 Season:

The Trip to Bountiful April 15 – May 8, 2011
Variety.com exclaims “There are few lovelier or more lyrical plays about aging in America than The Trip to Bountiful, Horton Foote's 1953 jewel about a feisty widow hell-bent on a final visit to her Texas hometown.” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Horton Foote’s tender, heartfelt drama focuses on Carrie Watts, who dreams of returning to her childhood home in the small town of Bountiful, Texas, which she left three decades ago. She sets out to fulfill her dream, with results that are both heartbreaking and brilliantly life-affirming. Sedric Willis directs.

The Money in Uncle George’s Suitcase May 26 – Jun 19, 2011
When Uncle George invites his whole family up for a weekend of fun at his rustic cabin, he actually wants them together so he can read his will. But between the bequeathing and his rambling stories, George drops the bomb that somewhere on the property is a suitcase holding four hundred and eighty thousand dollars! What follows is a hilarious farce of pettiness, slander, and greed. Tracy Clayton directs.

Oklahoma! Jul 27 – Aug 6, 2011
HFAC closes its 2010-2011 season with Roger & Hammerstein’s smash hit musical Oklahoma! at the Berry Center. This classic musical is the story of Laurey and the two rivals for her affections: Curly, a cowboy, and Jud, the hired farmhand. The play takes place in 1906 in an Indian territory of the American West during the time when Oklahoma was established as a state. It tackles class issues between the farmers and the cowmen in the still-developing, rugged landscape of a state in its infancy as characters struggle to find hope, love and the fulfillment of "the American Dream."

About Houston Family Arts Center
Houston Family Arts Center (HFAC) Theatre and Actors Academy is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, founded in November 2005 to provide a fun outlet for creative community involvement through the production of high-quality, family-friendly, affordable entertainment. Each year, HFAC produces musicals, comedies, and dramas. The HFAC Actors Academy provides numerous acting, singing and dancing classes and workshops for children, teens, and adults. For more information please visit www.houstonfac.com or call the HFAC Box Office at 281-685-6374 and the HFAC Actors Academy at 281-685-2623.

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