PlayMakers announces a new season with few surprises

The striped construction tape surrounding the stage of the Paul Green Theatre on Thursday night wasn’t just a warning about incomplete sets.

It also said volumes about the upcoming PlayMakers Repertory Company theatrical season, announced for the first time Thursday.

Like the set for next month’s production of “Big River,” the planning for the 2011-12 season isn’t quite finished yet.

In a cheerful and lively talk to subscribers, company members and regular patrons, PlayMakers’ managing artistic director Joseph Haj announced the eight productions slated to fill next year’s season, with two large holes near the end of the 2011 calendar year.

Haj promised that the gaps in the schedule — due to ongoing discussions with playwrights — will eventually be finalized.

The recent string of challenging, blockbuster seasons at PlayMakers is largely due to Haj, whose vision and drive have helped elevate an already talented company to stunning new heights.

With difficult productions like this season’s “Angels in America” and the remarkably successful two-part rotating production of “Nicholas Nickleby” last winter, Haj and company seemed to moving forward in a powerful way.

It seemed like a positive momentum was building toward something bigger and more exciting — indeed, Haj told his audience Thursday that this season was unlike any other in his six-year tenure.

I’m still waiting for that exciting difference.

The company’s choices for the coming year lack the power of previous seasons. It’s surprising that Haj didn’t work off the obvious popularity of his previous unusual choices to present at least one piece meant to startle or provoke significant discussion.

The first main stage production — Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)” — will draw audiences for its slightly off-color topic of feminine sexuality and self-gratification, but it isn’t a shocker.

And a late April production of the popular British farce, “Noises Off” will be a welcome reminder of the talent and wit that forms the company’s backbone.

But the bits in the middle of the season leave me worried.

Some of William Shakespeare’s best-loved royal histories will be fused together early in 2012 to create what the company is calling “The Making of a King.”

In one colossal package of English history, “Henry IV” parts one and two and “Henry V” will be shown in rotating repertory from late January to early March.

While the company regularly performs Shakespeare of an excellent quality, this rotating repertory selection falls short when compared to the last two two-part ventures.

And an October premiere of local playwright Mike Wiley’s “The Parchman Hour” — the student version of which The Daily Tar Heel gave a sub-par review last fall — will take a lot of work.

But like most productions at PlayMakers, I’m open to going where the adventurous company wants to take me.

I’m anxious to see the finished product on the other side of the construction tape.

Contact the Arts Editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.