TheatreWorks set to stage new works by familiar faces, local playwrights

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley on Monday announced a new season that features Sondheim, August Wilson and a San Jose playwright.

“It’s a season of turning points,” artistic director Tim Bond said in announcing the company’s 2023-24 season. “The characters in this season’s works are facing watershed moments in their lives, deciding what kind of people they want to become – something we can all identify with.

“This season also celebrates some of the world’s greatest authors and composers and welcomes home some of TheatreWorks’ favorite artists and dearest friends.”

Bond, who directed Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” for TheatreWorks in spring 2022, will helm the playwright’s “How I Learned What I Learned” Jan. 17- Feb. 11. Steven Anthony Jones, who starred in the at Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s production under Bond’s direction, will reprise his role in the one-man theatrical memoir following Wilson’s journey from struggling young writer to Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.

Bond’s predecessor, TheatreWorks’ founding artistic director Robert Kelley, is collaborating with resident musical director William Liberatore on “Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration,” a world premiere musical tribute honoring Stephen Sondheim. TheatreWorks has presented 20 productions of Sondheim’s work in its previous 52 seasons, making him the company’s most produced composer. “Celebration” is set to run June 5-30, 2024.