Theater notes: Outfit announces 2015-16 lineup; honorees picked for Alliance Lab project

Tom Key's two decades of steering Theatrical Outfit will be celebrated during the just-announced 2015-16 season. CONTRIBUTED BY THEATRICAL OUTFIT

Credit: hpousner

Credit: hpousner

Tom Key's two decades of steering Theatrical Outfit will be celebrated during the just-announced 2015-16 season. CONTRIBUTED BY THEATRICAL OUTFIT

Outfit announces 2015-16 lineup

Theatrical Outfit has announced its 2015-16 lineup, billing it as its “Season of Courage.”

Outfit artistic director Tom Key explained that the five varied plays speak to the “adventure of the human experience” and that the long-time troupe seeks “not only entertain and engage, but to inspire and transform.”

Brian Kurlander and Lane Carlock, creators of the play "Moxie," which will be given its world premiere by Theatrical Outfit from Jan. 28-Feb. 21, 2016. CONTRIBUTED BY THEATRICAL OUTFIT

Credit: hpousner

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Credit: hpousner

The schedule:

  • Sept. 10-20: "Memphis," a co-production with Aurora Theatre to be presented at the Rialto Center for the Arts. The Tony Award-winning, 1950s-set musical from Joe DiPietro and David Bryan follows a white DJ who falls for R&B music and a magnetic black singer who's chasing stardom.

  • Oct. 1-25: "R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe," D.W. Jacobs' one-man show blending multimedia, poetry and humanist humor. Key will star as Fuller, the engineer, environmentalist, futurist, poet, philosopher and geodesic dome inventor.
  • Dec. 3-27: "A Little Princess," the family musical by Brian Crawley and Andrew Lippa.
  • Jan. 28-Feb. 21, 2016: "Moxie," world premiere of a globetrotting adventure by Lane Carlock and Brian Kurlander. The play, aided in development by the Alliance Theatre's Reiser Atlanta Artist Lab, follows the life-impacting journey of a handmade book made by a Marine as a gift for his son.
  • April 14-May 15, 2016: "The Light in the Piazza," the Tuscany-set musical from Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel about a family secret that may stand in the way of a blooming romance. It will be directed by former Georgia Shakespeare leader Richard Garner.

The Outfit also will orchestrate “Tom Key and Friends,” a one-night celebration (with scenes, music and remembrances) of Key’s 20th anniversary with the theater, 4:30 and 8 p.m. Jan. 9, 2016 (with reception in between). Tickets, $100 per person, limited to full-season subscribers until July 1 (when they become available to the public).

Subscription packages ($65-$195) on sale now. Single tickets ($20-$50) on sale July 1. All shows except "Memphis" will be performed at the Balzer Theater at Herren's, 84 Luckie St. N.W., Atlanta. 678-528-1500, www.theatricaloutfit.org.

Alliance announces second lab project winners

The Alliance Theatre has announced three projects chosen for development as part of its second annual Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab, launched in 2013 to provide opportunities for artists seeking a producing home for undeveloped work.

The selected works are from creative teams led by Nichole Palmietto (an untitled story weaving three interconnected pieces of writing about a trio of characters’ journeys of self-discovery after loss), Mark Kendall (“Morgan Freeman Presents the Magic Negro and Other Blackness,” a one-man sketch show about depictions about black men in the media) and Haddon Kime (“The Untitled Red Book Project,” the story of a student who meets Carl Jung in an alternate universe).

Each project will receive $10,000 toward additional exploration and development, as well as access to the Alliance’s artistic, educational and production staffs and its rehearsal spaces. Free performances will follow in spring 2016.