Actors Ensemble of Berkeley

OUR 2011 SEASON

Our 2011 season consists of four productions. See Below:

Season ticket holders enjoy a discount off single ticket prices and get greater flexibility. (Season ticket holders simply call our reservation hot line to reserve seats for the performances of their choice, instead of having to commit to specific dates and times at the time tickets are purchased.)

A season ticket for all four 2011 productions costs just $45.00.

SEASON TICKETS ONLINE:
Purchase your season tickets with a credit card or PayPal.

Individual tickets for single performances may be purchased online by clicking the "tickets" link on the left side of this page. Tickets may also be purchased at the box office. Please note that at the box office we can only accept cash and checks—no credit cards.

SEASON TICKETS BY MAIL:
Season tickets can be obtained by mail by sending a check or money order to our PO Box for the amount of $45.00 made out to Actors Ensemble of Berkeley, with a note requesting season tickets. Please make sure to include your name and return address.

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley
P.O. Box 663
Berkeley, California 94701

HEARTBREAK HOUSE
By George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Robert Estes
January 21 to February 19, 2011

Heartbreak House explores those feelings which simmer just below the surface, but act as the lens through which we view our lives. Heartbreak is set in a Checkhovian country house just before WWI, the locus of a large dinner party thrown by a vainglorious host, and features a large cast of characters, each of them trying their level best to avoid the numerous elephants in the room – it’s only a matter of time before collisionus pachydermus ensues – to comic, and tragic, effect. Leading the way through the sighing stairways and hilarious hallways is Robert Estes, who recently explored with us the goings on in a much different kind of house in Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class. Join us as we explore the tragicomic inner workings of Shaw’s eternal classic, Heartbreak House.

PASSION PLAY
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by TBA
April 22 to May 21, 2011

This is the West Coast Premier of Passion Play.

Hailed by The New Yorker as “extraordinary,” “bold,” and “inventive,” Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play takes us behind the scenes of three communities attempting to stage the death and resurrection of Christ. From Queen Elizabeth’s England to Hitler’s Germany to Reagan’s America, Ruhl’s exploration of devotion takes us on a humorous yet unsettling journey filled with lust, whimsy, and a lot of fish.

COMMUNICATING DOORS
By Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Suzanne Loraine
July 22 to August 20, 2011

Poopay Dayseer, a twenty-first century Specialist Sexual Consultant, whilst peddling her 'services' to an elderly hotel room client unexpectedly finds herself running for her life. Her flight through a communicating door brings her face-to-face with her own past and Ruella--who apparently died under suspicious circumstances twenty years earlier. Does Poopay's chance meeting and gradual friendship with the remarkable Ruella change the future for both of them--and maybe others? . . . Suzan Lorraine is well known for her work with the Masquers in Point Richmond and the Orinda Starlight Players, and returns to Actors Ensemble (she directed Holiday) to lead us through a time-travel romp of the finest order, framed by Ayckbourn’s witty reversal of the rules of time travel – and the battle of the sexes.

DOUBT
By John Patrick Shanley
Directed by Donna Davis
October 21 to November 19, 2011

“Doubt takes the stuff of headlines and turns it into deeply moving drama.” This was Howard Kissel’s comment in The Daily News about this play that was the hit of New York’s 2005 season. The search for truth exacts a cost from those who pursue it. Father Flynn’s sermon about doubt begets a question in the mind of Sister Aloysius, who then becomes consumed with the need for an answer. Her quest shakes the innocence of Sister James, and threatens the happiness and security of others in her school. John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: a Parable won a Pulitzer Prize and later earned Oscar nominations for Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis, who played the four leads. Directed by Donna Davis, returning to Actors Ensemble after a long absence, Doubt is a sophisticated examination of faith, trust, and the ambiguities of truth.