A poster for Disney’s “Newsies” is shown. (Contributed by Jeremy Campbell)A Tony Award-winning Disney musical telling the buoyant story of teenage newsboys at the turn of the previous century will open the Chattanooga Theatre Centre season in September, and a man-eating plant in a sci-fi smash-hit musical will close it the following July.
Theater officials announced the 2018-19 season at a volunteer event Monday night.
Musical crowd-pleasers will be complemented with stirring dramas, cutting-edge works and charming youth productions as the community theater, founded in 1923, enters its 95th season.
Notable this season is the first in a decade of plays by August Wilson, an award-winning American playwright “who captured the African-American experience in moving and authentic ways,” says marketing director Julie Van Valkenburg.
“Every arts organization wants to promote diversity, but we made a sincere commitment last year to make measurable progress toward that objective,” she explains. “We intend to promote equity and inclusion among our staff, our board leadership, the actors on our stage, the works we present and the patrons in our audiences.”