Capital Stage 2016-2017 season preview

Capital Stage 12th season, dubbed “Love +War” kicked off last month with How to Use a Knife. Written by Will Snider and directed by Michael Stevenson, it runs through October 2. The play centers on a Wall Street kitchen and its myriad, colorful characters.

Michael Stevenson, the theater’s producing artistic director, promises that the entirety of the theater’s 2016-17 run will feature “beautifully crafted stories that will excite and challenge, and ultimately take your breath away.”

It’s got thought-provoking topics, intense dramas and hilarious comedies, too.

On October 15, Tracy Lett’s August: Osage County opens. Letts won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama for this complex and layered play about a troubled Oklahoma family.

To close the year, Capital Stage’s brings back a holiday favorite, The Santaland Diaries. It’s based on the true story of writer David Sedaris’ brief stint as an elf at Macy’s during the holiday season. It opens December 7.

2017 launches with promising start on January 25 with Betrayal, directed by actress-director Janis Stevens. The Harold Pinter play documents the affair of Emma and Jerry and the little lies which contributed to its ending.

In March, Capital Stage co-founder Jonathan Williams will direct Guards at the Taj, a play set at the newly completed Taj Mahal opens March 15. On May 3, the theater will stage Aaron Posner’s Stupid F*cking Bird, an irreverent, funny remix of Chekhov’s The Seagull.

Finally, the season ends June 21 with Bad Jews, a family drama by Joshua Harmon.