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Collaborative Theatre Project’s 2019 season will feature new musicals, classics, contemporary works, women’s plays and holiday specials. In the lineup for the theater company’s third season are two classic dramas, “The Glass Menagerie” and “The Importance of Being Earnest,” two new musicals, “The Bridges of Madison County” and “Death Takes a Holiday,” Lauren Gunderson’s “Silent Sky,” and “Dancing at Lughnasa.” CTP founding member Susan Aversa-Orrego says she will bring in some of the Rogue Valley’s top directors for the 2019 season. Rick Robinson, managing director at Oregon Cabaret Theatre, will direct “Dancing at Lughnasa,” and Todd Nielsen, who directed “Million Dollar Quartet” at OCT in 2018, will direct “The Haunting of Hill House” and lead the children’s theater program. Russell Lloyd, who’s acted at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and directed for Rogue Music Theatre, will direct “The Glass Menagerie,” and Daniel Sessions Stephens, who directed “Himself and Nora” for CTP, will direct “The Bridges of Madison County.” “Directors give a show shape and focus, determine what thematic elements need to be pulled out to tell the story, shape the work of the designers,” Aversa-Orrego says. “Directors make sure that all the elements are compatible and work together so there’s a unity of vision. A perfect production is a blend of the actor and director and designer all coming together and presenting a unified performance. “Some of the shows we chose for 2019 are oriented toward the woman’s point of view,” says Aversa–Orrego. “It’s so nice to see really strong women’s voices in the theater in a realm that for so long and until recently has been dominated by men.” “We’re doing a supplemental reading program called ‘Women’s Voices,’ and when we looked at the shows, ‘Silent Sky’ is about the first women astronomers, and ‘Bridges of Madison County’ is Francesca’s story of falling in love. ‘Glass Menagerie’ is about the role of women and what they dreamed of at the turn of the last century.” Also in the 2019 CTP season is “Silent Sky” by Loren Gunderson, whose play, “The Book of Will,” was produced in 2018 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Aversa-Orrego, who will direct the CTP production, calls “Silent Sky” astounding. “The first women astronomers were brilliant mathematicians who charted the stars in the sky but were never allowed to use the telescope,” Aversa-Orrego says. “They worked in back rooms with numbers and mathematical formulas, but they were forbidden to look through a telescope. It’s a wonderful, wonderful piece.” Expect lots of Halloween shenanigans at the theater in October 2019 and plenty of costumes at the opening gala. “The Haunting of Hill House” is a 1959 Gothic horror novel by Shirley Jackson, adapted for the stage by F. Andrew Leslie and full of psychological terrors. Opposite the main stage during the ghostly season is a Radio Days’ broadcast of “The War of the Worlds,” complete with a Foley table for live sound effects and actors at the mic. To celebrate the holiday season, “The Snow Queen,” Hans Christian Andersen’s timeless children’s story of Kai and Gerta, directed by John Taylor, will be back again. Two new initiatives are in the wings at CTP in 2019: “Women’s Voices,” a first-quarter series that showcases the work of 15 women playwrights and directors, and children’s theater with adult actors is a second initiative led by Todd Nielsen. “We took a look at the shows we all had on our wish list and said, ‘Well, what if we do ‘Women’s Voices’ as a series of readings so people can hear them,’” Aversa-Orrego notes. “It gives us a chance to hear those voices that might be more controversial.” The children’s series will be produced on Saturdays, giving kids a chance to see low-cost professional theater, learn about live productions and talk with the actors after the shows. Also new for 2019 is a new website at www.CTPMedford.org. On the management front, Obed Medina has left the team, and founding partners Susan Aversa-Orrego and Pam Ward will continue to lead the board of five, which includes Mike Kunkel, Dinah Greenfield, Kevin Bendaw, Thom Hepford and Kathleen Holtschneider. “We’ve chosen shows that will be challenging for the actors, and the actors we’re looking for enjoy that challenge,” Aversa-Orrego says, adding that CTP will open auditions for the 2019 season in mid-October. CTP is located at 555 Medford Center. For tickets and more information, see www.CTPMedford.org or call the box office at 541-779-1055. Reach Ashland freelance writer Maureen Flanagan Battistella at [email protected].