Buffalo Theatre Ensemble announces 2024-2025 season
A political satire, a Jane Austen-inspired holiday show and a comedy rooted in the American dream are on tap for Buffalo Theatre Ensemble’s 2024-2025 season announced Thursday by the Glen Ellyn theater company.
The season begins Sept. 5 with Paul Slade Smith’s “The Outsider” about gubernatorial candidate New Newly, whose tanking poll numbers and fear of public speaking seem to make him ill-suited to run for office to everyone except his campaign consultant. Ensemble member Kurt Naebig directs.
That’s followed by a revival of “The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley,” the second in Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon’s Austen-inspired trilogy imagining what happens to “Pride and Prejudice’s” Bennet sisters when Lizzie marries Mr. Darcy.
In this version (which comes one year after BTE’s 2023 production of Gunderson and Melcon’s “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley”), Lydia Wickham’s incorrigible husband George shows up unannounced at the Darcy estate threatening to upend everyone’s holiday. The production, directed by outgoing managing artistic director Connie Canaday Howard, runs Nov. 14 to Dec. 15.
The season concludes with Karen Zacarias’ “Native Gardens” (Jan. 30-March 3, 2025) about a high-powered lawyer and his pregnant, doctoral candidate wife who get into a disagreement with their neighbors over a long-standing fence line. Steve Scott, former Goodman Theatre associate producer and director helms the revival.
Performances take place at the McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd., Glen Ellyn. Theatergoers who subscribe by June 5 receive 25% off the single show ticket price. Those who subscribe after that date receive 20% off the show price. A season flex-plass is also available for the 2024-2025 season.
Single tickets go on sale July 24. See atthemac.org/buffalo-theatre-ensemble for more information.