The Keegan Theatre unveils new website and announces change to the season lineup
January 6, 2016: The Keegan Theatre is pleased to announce the launch of its redesigned website. Keegan staff have been working for several months with the multimedia marketing firm Chisel + Brand on a complete overhaul of the company’s website, which went live on January 1, 2016.
“Keegan’s website was long overdue for an update,” says Susan Marie Rhea, the company’s associate artistic director, “but we had just been unable to turn our attention to it until recently.”
Gary DuBreuil and Valerie Rigsbee, the owners of Chisel + Brand, were found through a friend and company member. “After the initial meeting, it was obvious that they understood exactly what we were looking to do,” Rhea explains. “It has been an amazing match for Keegan.”
Keegan’s new website boasts streamlined navigation and an emphasis on the company’s stunning production photography. The look and feel of the site was updated to reflect where the company is today, while preserving those things about Keegan that are unique. “They perfectly captured who we are, while simultaneously ushering us into the future,” Rhea continues. “The redesigned site communicates the spirit of Keegan – our history, our accomplishments, and our personality – while improving the experience for our web visitors and audience members. We are all delighted with the final result.”
www.keegantheatre.com
www.chiselandbrand.com
Also this January, Keegan announces a show substitution for the 2016-17 season: This spring’s production of ANNAPURNA, by Sharr White, has been replaced with Wendy Wasserstein’s AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER. Ticketing and performance details are available on the Keegan website.
“There were several compelling reasons to make this change,” explains Mark A. Rhea, Keegan’s producing artistic director. “We had initially planned to produce AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER in the fall/winter of next season. When Keegan learned that the rights were available earlier in the year, we felt it would be ideal to move AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER up to the spring, when surely media frenzy around the presidential election will be running high. We’re hoping DC audiences will find the subject matter in AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER to be of particular interest, and the themes in this terrific script both timely and intriguing.”
AMERICAN DAUGHTER follows the protagonist’s nomination for Surgeon General, the media frenzy and its effect on elections and the voting public, as well as on individuals and relationships. “We think it’s the perfect counterpoint to AMERICAN IDIOT, which investigates very similar themes from a very different perspective – so we’re pleased to be able to present these shows back to back.” The company is happy to build on momentum from the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival and add another female playwright to its 2016-17 season. “To produce Wasserstein in 2016 especially (this year marking the 10th anniversary of her death) is meaningful to Keegan – I’m very pleased to add her name alongside the other wonderful playwrights in our 2016-17 season.”
The company still plans to produce ANNAPURNA. “This decision was driven by current events and is in no way a reflection on our feelings toward ANNAPURNA, which is a brilliant piece that we fully intend to do in our upcoming season,” says Rhea.
About the play: Set in Washington, D.C., AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER focuses on Dr. Lyssa Dent Hughes, a health care expert and forty-something daughter of a long-time Senator. When the President nominates Lyssa to a Cabinet post, an indiscretion from her past is discovered. The media turns it into a scandal that imperils her confirmation and divides her family and friends. Lyssa is forced to make a decision: continue to pursue the post and face an ugly Senate hearing; or decline the nomination, becoming a sacrificial lamb for the President. Partisan politics in our nation’s capital, however, are nothing compared to the personal politics in Lyssa’s living room, where complicated relationships unravel with her father, husband and her best girlfriend—not to mention the awkward encounters she has with an exuberant neo-feminist author and a relentless TV journalist.
Brandon McCoy directs AN AMERICAN DAUGHTER and Susan Marie Rhea will play Lyssa Dent Hughes. The show runs May 7-May 28, 2016.
