Hawke will be making his CSC debut in IVANOV in October, as the theatre continues its immensely successful Chekhov Cycle. As Chekhov’s first great dramatic anti-hero, Hawke will be playing a role considered by many to be “the Russian Hamlet.” Returning to CSC, Pendleton has directed the highly-acclaimed productions of Chekhov’s Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya for the company.  Joining Hawke in the cast of IVANOV are Roberta Maxwell, George Morfogen, Juliet Rylance and Louis Zorich, all of whom have been featured in previous Chekhov Cycle offerings.    

Following IVANOV, CSC’s season continues in February with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Tony Award-winning Best Musical PASSION, featuring beloved musical theatre stars Judy Kuhn and Melissa

Errico, and directed by Tony Award winner John Doyle, who has won acclaim for his revelatory reinterpretations of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and Company.   Additional casting will be announced in the coming months. (Doyle’s directorial concept for PASSION will not include musical instruments played by actors.)

CSC’s Mainstage season wraps up in April with Bertolt Brecht’s THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE featuring a new score by acclaimed Tony Award-winning singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening). Directed by Brian Kulick (who this past season directed the sold-out production of Brecht’s Galileo starring F. Murray Abraham at CSC), Brecht’s playful parable calls into question our basic assumptions of right in a world that has gone wrong.   

The 2012/2013 season will also reunite CSC with the Graduate Acting Program of the Columbia University School of the Arts for the eighth year of The Young Company, CSC’S unique Education and Outreach initiative that has greatly impacted the lives of thousands of New York City public schoolchildren throughout the five boroughs. This season The Young Company will feature Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Additionally, CSC will bring back its popular Open Rehearsal Series, featuring a company of seasoned actors and directors exploring a classic text over the course of three Monday evenings. This coming season will focus on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet.

And finally, the company will bring back its popular Books On Stage series, highlighting the work of Dostoevsky this season.  On three successive Monday nights, CSC will present staged readings of The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment and The Idiot. 

Subscriptions for the 2012/2013 Season will go on sale to the general public on June 11. Patrons who join the Friends of CSC donors circle with a minimum tax-deductible donation of $145 in support of the 45th Anniversary Season will receive early access to subscriptions starting June 4. Visit classicstage.org for details.

Now in its 45th year, Classic Stage Company is the award-winning theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. This season CSC presented the critically-acclaimed productions of The Cherry Orchard with John Turturro and Dianne Wiest, which received the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival; Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham in Bertolt Brecht’s Galileo, directed by Brian Kulick; and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci, directed by Tony Speciale.  Past seasons have included critically-acclaimed productions of Chekhov's Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton (Obie Award); David Ives’ The School for Lies with Hamish Linklater (Obie Award), directed by Walter Bobbie; Unnatural Acts, conceived and directed by Tony Speciale; Ostrovsky's The Forest with Dianne Wiest and John Douglas Thompson, directed by Brian Kulick; David Ives’ Venus In Fur with Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley, directed by Walter Bobbie; Shakespeare's The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, directed by Brian Kulick;  Chekhov's Uncle Vanya with Denis O'Hare, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton; Anne Carson's An Oresteia (International PENN Award for Poetry); Chekhov's The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming;  David Ives’ New Jerusalem with Richard Easton, directed by Walter Bobbie;  Hamlet, Richard II, Richard III with Michael Cumpsty (Obie Award as Hamlet), directed by Brian Kulick; and Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play with Zoe Caldwell, directed by John Turturro.

CSC presents plays from the past that speak directly to the issues of today. As we return to works of the past, we endeavor to keep a clear eye on the future, particularly in terms of the next generation of artists and audiences.  Founded in 1967, CSC has received wide recognition for its significant contributions to theatre as an art form through productions of classic plays, translations and adaptations and a long-standing commitment to the identification and nurturing of leading and emerging artists. CSC's artists are the finest established and emerging theatre practitioners working in this country. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theatre, CSC has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.