CATCO theater company announces name change, eclectic new season
Bolstering its focus on new and contemporary works for its 39th season, CATCO will rename itself The Contemporary Theatre of Ohio.
“We’re at a moment when we want people to know who we are and what we stand for, but lots of people don’t know what the old acronym means, so the fact we are a theater was not clear in our name,” artistic director Leda Hoffmann said.
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The name change (and a new website name to match) returns the professional Equity theater company to its roots: Founded in 1985, CATCO’s unabbreviated original name was Contemporary American Theatre Company.
“Contemporary means we’re rooted in now, creating art for this very current moment, and about things people want to talk about right now,” Hoffmann said.
Adding an explicit reference to place also was a goal for the name change.
“Many regional theaters have a location in their name, very useful for people to know nationally. We’re proud of being a theater in Ohio, and of making plays by and for Ohio,” Hoffmann said.
The 2023-2024 season will offer five productions, including a Theatre for Young Audiences play.
“Our season ranges from farcical comedy to realism, dealing with everyday lives and asking what kinds of people we want to be,” Hoffmann said.
All performances will take place in the Riffe Center’s Studio One or Two theatres, 77 S. High St.
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? “POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumb*** are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive” (Sept. 21 to Oct. 8, Studio One): The Midwest premiere of the satirical two-act Broadway comedy, by playwright Selina Fillinger, revolves around seven brilliant but beleaguered women (including the chief of staff, press secretary, sister and first lady) struggling to keep the president out of trouble when he unwittingly spins a PR nightmare into a global crisis.
“It’s been a long time since I read a script and laughed out loud repeatedly. Ridiculous in the ways things just keep going wrong, but rooted in reality, the core of the play is the heart of these women who really care about the country,” Hoffmann said.
? “Good Grief” (Nov. 2-19, Studio Two Theatre): The 90-minute off-Broadway drama, by Ngozi Anyanwu, is a tender memory piece about a first-generation Nigerian-American woman navigating loves, parents and trauma over a friend’s death.
“So many people have recommended this play, a semiautobiographical and very theatrical piece about working through grief,” Hoffmann said.
? “The Worries of Wesley (Or: How I Learned to Stop Having Anxiety, or Not Really, But I Am Trying)” (Jan. 25 to Feb. 4, 2024 Studio Two): A Theatre for Young Audiences world premiere, Toronto writer Jessica Moss’ puppet-enhanced one-act revolves around a child coping with anxiety. The comic drama received a staged reading last year in CATCO’s New Works Festival for Young Audiences.
“The audience response was astonishing,” Hoffmann said.
“The puppets dramatize Wesley’s heart, lungs and brain. You see how our bodies are talking to us when we feel anxiety, and how Wesley’s parents and friends also deal with anxious moments,” she said.
? “Skeleton Crew” (Feb. 29 to March 17, 2024 Studio Two): The two-act drama, a 2022 Tony nominee for best play, focuses on the close relationships of four workers navigating a crumbling industry at a Detroit auto factory on the verge of closing during the 2008 recession.
The play is the second work to reach Broadway by African American playwright Dominique Morisseau, book writer of the musical “Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of the Temptations,” which recently toured Columbus.
“She’s such a gifted writer. Morisseau sculpted four very real characters. The framework of the play doesn’t let you forget about the social, economic and political dynamics of recent changes for industrial and factory workers,” Hoffmann said.
? “Ride the Cyclone” (April 18 to May 5, Studio One): The off-Broadway musical centers on six high-school choir students, in carnival-style limbo just after dying in a rollercoaster malfunction, who must decide which one of them will survive the accident.
“It's a bizarre musical, very dark but also at times very funny, about legacy, how we process the lives we’ve led and the lives we hope to lead in the future,” said Hoffmann, who saw the play in 2015 in Chicago.
The musical, by Canadians Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell, has developed a huge following among young people, Hoffmann said.
“Post-pandemic and after so many school shootings, I think we’re all processing lives that are cut too short,” she said.
At a glance
Subscriptions, on sale now, cost $172 for the four main productions; and $22 more ($12 for children under 16) for the youth production. Six-ticket Flex packages, on sale June 15, cost $270. (614-469-0939, TheContemporaryOhio.org)
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: CATCO theater company changes name, announces 2023-2024 lineup
