CAMBRIDGE - In the first season she has programmed as artistic director for the American Repertory Theatre, Diane Paulus is trying something dramatically different: She's turning Zero Arrow Theatre into a dance club, she's planning a show that involves audiences walking in masks and capes through an abandoned building, she's featuring a production that's 7 1/2 hours long, and she's offering a world premiere about the Boston Red Sox.
"It was really important to me to think about theater in a whole new way," Paulus says, sitting in her office at the ART. "I want to make everything in the theater feel like a must-see cultural event."
Paulus has divided the 2009-10 season into three festivals: "Shakespeare Exploded!," consisting of three shows inspired by Shakespeare; "America: Boom, Bust, and Baseball," exploring the 1920s, the Great Depression, and the Red Sox; and the "Emerging America Festival," showcasing new playwrights.
She's kicking the season off with her signature piece "The Donkey Show," opening Aug. 21 at Zero Arrow. Co-created with her husband, Randy Weiner, "The Donkey Show" is a disco version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"; it had a six-year run in New York before touring internationally to such cities as London, Madrid, and Seoul.
In the show, Shakespeare's enchanted woods become a Studio 54-era nightclub - a place of dreams and fantasy, bowls of drugs, platters of alcohol, and such '70s classics as "I Love the Nightlife," "Don't Leave Me This Way," and "Car Wash." Zero Arrow will keep its club bar open throughout, and audiences will be encouraged to drink, dance, and talk on their cellphones while enjoying the show, which will run at both 8 and 10:30 p.m.
In "Sleep No More," opening Oct. 8, "Macbeth" is transformed into a series of Alfred Hitchcock thriller-style scenes by the British theater company Punchdrunk, which specializes in taking over abandoned buildings to stage installations. Audience members will be free to wander through the building (location to be announced) and experience the play in their own time.
"Every member of the audience will get a mask and cape," says Paulus, who explains that she was excited by Punchdrunk's "adventure theater" when she was in London. "It's a whole new form of theater I am hoping to introduce to Boston."
"Best of Both Worlds," an R&B and gospel adaptation of "A Winter's Tale" co-written and directed by Paulus, with book and lyrics by Weiner and music by Diedre Murray, opens Nov. 21 at the Loeb Stage. "We are partnering with area choruses in Boston and Cambridge, and they will rotate singing the end of the show," Paulus says.
By the middle of November through January, all three shows will be playing simultaneously on weekends, so visitors to the Boston area will have a chance to see more than one of them in a short span, Paulus notes.
"America: Boom, Bust, and Baseball" starts with "Gatz: Parts 1 & 2" by the New York company Elevator Repair Service, opening Jan. 8 at the Loeb. The company turns F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel "The Great Gatsby" into a performance that begins with an office worker discovering the book.
"They theatricalize it, the entire novel, from the first word to the last word," explains Paulus. Previously seen in Europe and several US cities, the 7 1/2-hour show was not allowed to be produced in New York by the Fitzgerald estate for years because the estate hoped for a Broadway show based on the book. The ART was able to secure permission.
The show can be seen in two parts, or a marathon run on weekends. The ART is working with area restaurants so that on those weekends, people can take an hour break and dine out. The theater will also offer boxed dinners.
Clifford Odets's "Paradise Lost," opening Feb. 27 at the Loeb, tells the story of a family that loses everything in the Great Depression. Noting the way the current economic crisis has affected so many people, Paulus says, "this play felt like an amazing fit for our time." Director Daniel Fish makes his ART debut with "Paradise Lost."
Paulus will direct the world premiere of the musical "Red Sox Nation," starting May 8 at the Loeb. With a book by Richard Dresser, music by Robert Reale, and lyrics by Willie Reale, the show looks at the history of the Red Sox, including its mythical Curse, and the integration of African-Americans in baseball.
The "Emerging America Festival" (May 14-16) is a partnership among the ART, the Huntington Theatre Company, and the Institute of Contemporary Art - a weekend celebration of emerging American theater with readings, productions, and symposia.
"I want Boston to be considered a great, great theater town," says Paulus. "The idea is that it will be known nationally as the go-to festival to see the best new American work."
A press conference at the Loeb Stage at 2 p.m. today, open to the public, will feature performances from some of the shows and special guests.
