Next season, for the first time ever at Actors Guild of Lexington: William Shakespeare and August Wilson.
Yes, Shakespeare is widely revered as the greatest playwright ever, and many would call Wilson one of the greatest — if not the greatest — 
American playwright. Or, that could be David Mamet, who is also on what Actors Guild artistic director Richard St. Peter calls the theater’s most “sprawling, ambitious season.”
But for most of its history, Actors Guild was exclusively a contemporary theater, at one time even having a rule that it wouldn’t produce any plays older than 5 years.
That sort of left Shakespeare out.
But with its move to Main Street’s Downtown Arts Center and its status as Lexington’s leading theater for general audiences, St. Peter says the theater needs to present a broader look at the theatrical canon — like Shakespeare. The season will also include David Mamet’s recent hit Boston Marriage, plus a collaboration with Paragon Music Theatre and an on-stage reunion of old friends.
Here’s the lineup:
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by August Wilson (photo, left). Sept. 12-Oct. 7. Sidney Shaw will direct Wilson’s first major success, the story of an ill-fated recording session involving Ma Rainey and her blues band in 1927.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Oct. 17-Nov. 11. Lexington actor Adam Luckey will star in a “Hamlet for the 21st century,” which St. Peter will direct in collaboration with Cyburbia Productions of Fairfax, Va., which specializes in multimedia stage shows.
She Loves Me, book by Joe Masteroff and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. Nov. 28-Dec. 23. This will be Actors Guild’s second collaboration with Paragon Music Theatre, after this summer’s production of Kiss Me Kate, July 19-Aug. 12. The musical is about two feuding perfume clerks who, unbeknownst to them, are sending each other love letters.
Boston Marriage by David Mamet. Jan. 30-Feb. 24. Mamet’s comedy of manners, in the style of Oscar Wilde, focuses on a 19th-century lesbian couple at a humorous and serious crossroads in their relationship.
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. March 12-April 6, 2008. Lexington director Ave Lawyer has long wanted to bring Stoppard’s play, set in 1809 and the present day, to the stage. Now, she will. It is an amusing and touching mystery that hits on subjects such as chaos theory and the second law of thermodynamics.
Moonlight and Magnolias by Rob Hutchinson. April 16-May 11, 2008. Charles Edward Pogue, Roger Lee Leasor and Eric Johnson reteam for the story of the five days when producer David O. Selznick locked himself, screenwriter Ben Hecht and director Victor Fleming in his office to craft the screenplay for Gone With the Wind.
The 2007-08 season also will feature a reduced season ticket price: $125 for the top subscription plan, down from $135. Single adult tickets will rise $1 next season, to $25. Season tickets are available at the LexArts box office, (859) 225-0370.
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