‘Anna in the Tropics’ to open playhouse season

Pasadena Playhouse’s 2005 season will include the Los Angeles County premiere of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Anna in the Tropics” and a co-production of a new play, “Open Window,” with Deaf West Theatre.

“Anna in the Tropics,” opening the season Jan. 14-Feb. 13, will also be a co-production -- with two other companies, Dallas Theater Center and Arizona Theatre Company, which will present Richard Hamburger’s staging before it arrives in Pasadena. Nilo Cruz’s play tells the story of a man who reads “Anna Karenina” to the employees of a Florida cigar factory in 1929, with far-reaching results.

Next up is the West Coast premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” (March 11-April 10), about a priest who is suspected of abuse at the Bronx school where he teaches in 1964. The play will premiere in the fall, off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club.

Revivals of Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” (May 6-June 5) and the musical comedy “Purlie” (July 1-July 31) follow. The playhouse’s artistic director, Sheldon Epps, will direct “Purlie,” which has seldom been seen since its run of 686 performances on Broadway in 1970-71. Based on Ossie Davis’ 1961 play “Purlie Victorious,” it depicts a preacher who returns to his home in southern Georgia in the 1920s with a few tricks up his sleeve. The lighthearted score is by Gary Geld and Peter Udell.

“Open Window” (Aug. 26-Sept. 25, 2005) is by Stephen Sachs, the artistic director of the Fountain Theatre in Hollywood. Its leading character, Caliban, named after the wild child in Shakespeare’s “Tempest,” has been locked in a closet for much of his life and emerges without a voice or a language. A judge hires two deaf women to teach him how to communicate.

Shirley Jo Finney will stage “Open Window” with Deaf West’s customary style, using both signed and voiced dialogue and a cast of deaf and hearing actors. Deaf West is best known for its revival of “Big River,” which played the Mark Taper Forum and Broadway and is on tour.

A sixth production, still to be picked, will end the regular playhouse season in fall of 2005.