Dobama Kicks Off Its 2012-2013 Season Tonight

When asked why chose to kick off its 2012-2013 season with the play The Motherf**ker With The Hat, managing director Charlotta Enflo said it was simple.

“It’s a great title,” she said.  

But of course much more goes into planning a theater season schedule, which started in February, Enflo said.

“The idea is to bring the freshest and the best,” Enflo said. “I think it is good to have a variety of (shows) because we are exposing the Cleveland audience to a variety of new scripts.”

And the Cleveland audience seems to be excited about the show — presales are on track with God of Carnage, .

She said other theater houses might have hesitated to run a show with such strong language —which is not exclusive to the title — but not Dobama.

“I think that is something that other theater camps do think about. But our mission is to premier the best new plays by emerging and established playwrights. We want to be edgy, too."

The first show, which runs Sept. 14 through Oct. 7, was nominated for six Tony Awards, including best play. The 90-minute play, by Stephen Adly Guirgis, opened on Broadway in 2011 and included Chris Rock, Bobby Cannavale and Annabella Sciorra in the cast.

The play is about a drug dealer, recently released from prison, who is trying to clean up his act. But, as Dobama wrote in its synopsis, "He’s also still in love with his coke-addicted, childhood sweetheart Veronica ... Theirs is a crazy love, but it suits their style and everything is fine – until Jackie looks around the crummy room he and Veronica share in a Times Square hotel and spots a hat that doesn’t belong to him.”

The 53rd season of the Cleveland Heights theater is not quite finished — Dobama still needs to confirm its final, fifth show.

Next in line is A Bright New Boise, which received the 2011 OBIE Award for Playwriting.

"I’m actually really excited about the ending because when I read it, I could really visualize it, and I was really excited to see it live," Enflo said.

And the show 4,000 Miles will include a household name in Cleveland theater.

"That play has gotten so much good press, and the fact we have Dorothy Silver, who’s a Cleveland theater legend. She’s in her 80's, but anyone who’s not even in theater in Cleveland who I talk to knows her," Enflo said.

To find out more about the 2012-2013 season, visit Dobama's website.

The Motherf**ker With The Hat, Sept. 14 through Oct. 7. Tickets $10-$26. Dobama Theatre, 2340 Lee Road, 216-932-3396. Click here for performance times.