Cité des Arts’ 2023 theater season has been set and season tickets for all four shows are now available for purchase.  For the low price of $70 you get tickets to 3 amazing plays, each of which tell the stories of strong female characters, in addition to Cité des Arts’ third annual production of Acadiana’s new holiday tradition AN ACADIANA CHRISTMAS CAROL, adapted from Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” by Alicia Chaisson.  Season tickets also grant you access to the opening night galas for each show.  Gala tickets are typically $30 per ticket, making this season’s package a phenomenal value of $120 in tickets for only $70!

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The first play of the season is DOUBT by John Patrick Shanley, May 19-28, 2023.  Directed by Ryan Kolb, the play features Sandra Broussard as the stern nun, Sister Aloysius Beauvier, who believes that one of the  priests at the St. Nicholas Catholic Church and school has been  molesting a 12-year-old boy named Donald Muller, the school's only African American student. Sister Aloysius recruits a young, naive nun  (Sister James, played by Amanda Caldwell) to assist her in monitoring the suspicious yet  charismatic Father Flynn (Casey Harmon). She also addresses her concerns to Donald's mother (Tina Burkhalter), who, surprisingly, is not horrified or even shocked by the  allegations. (Mrs. Muller is more concerned about her son getting into  high school and avoiding a beating from his dad.) The play concludes  with a one-on-one confrontation between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn as she attempts to get the truth out of the priest.  The remainder of the season is as follows:

 

STOP KISS by Diana Son, July 21 – July 30, 2023

Son's story is deceptively simple: two young women in New York meet, talk about their boyfriends, feel a growing, unspoken attraction for each other, and finally kiss. And that one innocent kiss sets off a savage gay-bashing. But even as Stop Kiss confronts the reality of physical violence, Son's imaginative, moving, and surprising comedy brings audiences -- and her principal characters -- to unexpected places. Callie is holding down a job as a radio traffic reporter when she meets Sara, a mid-westerner who, against her parents' wishes, has moved to the city to teach third-grade students in the Bronx. Both have boyfriends, but as they get to know each other, their shared experiences and sense of humor create a strong bond. The tragic consequences of their kiss -- the center of this powerful drama -- serve as both an indictment of hatred and a moving study of the perils inherent in living life fully.

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INTIMATE APPAREL by Lynn Nottage, October 6 – October 15, 2023

New York circa 1905 is a time and place where rigid social divides along the lines of race, religion, and class exist alongside a burgeoning population of immigrants from abroad and people from all over the U.S., who have moved to the city to seek their fortunes, bringing diversity, excitement, and change. Esther Mills, a skilled African American seamstress, is able to navigate this changing, dangerous world with her needle and thread, as her talents are much in demand: she sews the finest and most decadent intimate apparel for customers who span the spectrum of social class, from refined Fifth Avenue wives to prostitutes in the racy Tenderloin district. A virtuous, hard-working woman, with a dream of saving enough money to open her own beauty parlor, Esther has kept her nose to the grindstone for eighteen years but ends up feeling as if life is passing her by.  Romance beckons in the form of George Armstrong, a stranger who writes to her from his work on the Panama Canal, and Esther finds herself falling for his poetic words, even though her friends warn her against his sweet talk, and even though she herself is unable to read or write and must ask for help to compose her own letters in reply.  After George arrives in New York City, and after they are married, Esther discovers that she is not  the only one who misrepresented herself during their correspondence courtship, and that she is now in danger of heartbreak. Warm, intelligent, and deeply human, Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel explores the desire for both independence and connection, the insidious effects of racism and classism, the social oppression of women, and the bravery, hard work, friendship, and love, of people who have been forgotten by history.  

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AN ACADIANA CHRISTMAS CAROL, adapted by Alicia Chaisson, December 7 – 17, 2023

The story follows the transformation of Scrooge from a disconnected, manipulative profiteer to an empathetic, active participant in the world.  Fueled by the magic of Christmas, Scrooge is visited by ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future who teach the valuable lesson that it is never too late to give and accept love. One way of showing love is to accept responsibility.  This twist on the classic Dickens' tale will appeal to all with its spirit of fun, forgiveness, and generosity.

       Season Tickets are a great gift idea for any  theater lover.