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KNOXVILLE

Book by Frank Galati
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Based on the novel
…A Death in the Family
…by James Agee
Based, in part, on the play
…All the Way Home
…by Tad Mosel

SEPTEMBER 4-22
Clarence Brown Theatre Mainstage

The production of Knoxville is made possible by a generous grant from The Roy Cockrum Foundation.

Based on James Agee’s autobiographical, Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece A Death in the Family, this moving and innovative new musical reunites the dynamic Tony Award®-winning creative team behind Ragtime. The story begins as an adult Agee struggles to write his greatest work about the event that touched his young life and the effect it had on his family and his future. An evocative depiction of loss and grief and the forces that shape who we are, Knoxville is a universal coming-of-age story about family, faith, and love—and about the boy who will grow up to write it. With a sweeping musical score and brilliant cast, this is a must-see event.

INHERIT THE WIND

By Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee

FEBRUARY 12 – MARCH 2
Clarence Brown Theatre Mainstage

Feel the heat of the courtroom in the sizzling American classic Inherit the Wind, an explosive drama inspired by the most important trial of the 20th Century, the Scopes Monkey Trial, on its 100th anniversary. As a media circus descends on a small Tennessee town, two of the nation’s most powerful lawyers go head-to-head in the ultimate battle of wits, wills, and the political and religious divide that could be ripped directly from today’s headlines. In a fresh production boldly re-imagined for today, the fast-paced drama explores religion, intellectual freedom and the relationship between social norms and law.

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG

By Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, and Henry Lewis

APRIL 16 – MAY 4
Clarence Brown Theatre Mainstage

Welcome to the opening night of The Murder at Haversham Manor, where things go from not very good to an utter disaster. The Play That Goes Wrong is an ill-fated play-within-a-play, set on the opening night of the Cornley Drama Society’s newest production. The troupe’s ambitious whodunit has everything you never want in a show: falling props, collapsing scenery, an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything…including their lines. Come see why this show has been called “the funniest play Broadway has ever seen!”

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

By Charles Dickens
Adapted by Edward Morgan and Joseph Hanreddy;
Music by John Tanner

November 20 – December 21
Clarence Brown Theatre Mainstage

For more than three decades, Knoxvillians have returned year-after-year to experience this timeless story of hope and redemption. This season, make A Christmas Carol part of your holiday tradition. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll create a wonderful memory… and you will leave the theater with a warm heart and renewed spirit!

CRY IT OUT

By Molly Smith Metzler

SEPTEMBER 18 – OCTOBER 5
The Lab Theatre

Acclaimed writer Molly Smith Metzler (Shameless, Orange is the New Black, and Maid) brings us a new comedy about the challenges of parenthood. This heart-warming comedy is a story about divergent young mothers who strike up a friendship during precious naptime. The comedy takes a sharp and honest look at the power of female friendship, the paradox of working motherhood, and the effects that economic and social class has on parenthood in America. Cry it Out captures the audience with laughs, a little rage, and the bonds of early parenthood.

HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF

By Liliana Padilla

OCTOBER 23 – NOVEMBER 10
The Lab Theatre

College students come together for a DIY self-defense workshop after their sorority sister is assaulted. How to Defend Yourself is a sharp, witty, funny, and ferocious play that explores how “not to be a victim,” and how to use your body as a weapon. The self-defense classes become a channel for rage, trauma, confusion, anxiety, and desire. The play explores the way sexual assault steals your sense of belonging, and how these women might get that back.

FAILURE: A LOVE STORY

By Philip Dawkins

MARCH 12 – APRIL 6
The Lab Theatre

A magical fable with music. This exciting new play tells the story of the Fail family and their seemingly difficult challenge to just stay alive around blunt objects, disappearances and the odd case of consumption. Sometimes you just never see death coming. In this upbeat, tuneful, magical fable you can either worry about the ever-impending death or you can live, love, and sing some songs along the way.