The Hilberry Theatre is pleased to announce its 2004-2005 season, celebrating great playwrights! Created at Wayne State University in 1963, the Hilberry Theatre is known for its dedication to producing professional quality classic theatre. Voted Best Detroit Theatre by Between the Lines (October 2003) and Real Detroit (March 2004), the Hilberry continues to produce great theatre in the heart of Detroit.

The dead won't go away in the 42nd season opener, Noël Coward's farce Blithe Spirit, where if one wife is too many... how about two? Novelist Charles Condomine's neatly arranged life is turned into a hilarious battle for his affections when his first wife returns from the dead for a duel of wits with his new wife. Noël Coward claimed to have written this play in five days during 1941, one of the darkest years of World War II. Blithe Spirit was a smashing success on London and Broadway stages throughout the 1940's - and remains an audience favorite today. Blithe Spirit plays in rotating repertory October 8 - December 11.

Next is the first of two selections from Shakespeare's canon, The Merry Wives of Windsor. A merry romp about a big man whose big schemes land him in big trouble! Falstaff and his rowdy tavern companions scheme to woo the wealthy (and married) Mistresses Page and Ford for their money. Having discovered the plot, the crafty and fun-loving ladies turn Windsor upside-down when they set out to turn the tables on the unscrupulous Falstaff in this bawdy comedy. Shakespeare's most farcical comedy, Merry Wives makes full use of physical gags and verbal sparring in a witty view of life in a provincial 1590's English town. The Merry Wives of Windsor plays in rotating repertory October 22 - December 18.

Bertolt Brecht pits human virtue against the business of war in his epic masterpiece Mother Courage. Itinerant peddler Anna Fierling, known as Mother Courage, hopes to prosper from the war. Instead, she loses everything, including her children. This drama from one of Germany's best known playwrights is a moving anti-war statement, which, according to Brecht, "in wartime big business is not conducted by small people. ...war is a continuation of business by other means, making the human virtues fatal even to those who exercise them. That no sacrifice is too great for the struggle against war." (Couragemodell 1949) Mother Courage plays in rotating repertory November 19 - January 29.

The Hilberry begins 2005 with Arthur Miller's Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning drama about the downward spiral of a simple, flawed man whose time has come and gone. In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman lives somewhere between the American dream and the American nightmare on the fine line between success and failure, while he spends an entire lifetime trying to become the man he sees reflected in his loved ones' eyes. Miller's career as a playwright began in the 1940's, while he was a student at the University of Michigan. Today, Arthur Miller is regarded as one of America's greatest literary figures, and Willy Loman is seen as one of American theatres most tragic characters. Death of a Salesman plays in rotating reparatory January 7 - March 24.

Paul Rudnick lampoons the Bard in I Hate Hamlet. Out-of-work TV heartthrob Andrew Rally has just six weeks to win the heart of his true love, get his career back on track, and master the role of Hamlet. Too bad Andrew hates Shakespeare - especially Hamlet! Enter John Barrymore's ghost, intoxicated and in full Shakespearean regalia, determined to turn Andrew into the best Hamlet of his time. An unapologetically silly comedy where the tights make the man! I Hate Hamlet plays in rotating repertory February 4 - March 31.

Set amid political instability and violent rebellion, Henry IV, Part I confronts the notions of honor and nobility through the coming of age of young Prince Hal. Having embraced the life of the common man, passing his youth as a companion of criminals and low-lifes in the taverns, he must exceed the expectations of his father the King and prove himself a hero for the ages. Henry IV, Part I is the first play of Shakespeare's Henry trilogy. Henry IV, Part I plays in rotating repertory March 4 - May 5.

Adventure literally drops out of the sky in George Bernard Shaw's Misalliance, a witty collision of parents vs. children and convention vs. innovation - all while a gun toting socialist and an adventurous female acrobat are loose at the home of underwear tycoon John Tarleton. Teaming with sexual energy and ideas, Misalliance is a giddy clash of generations and gender roles from George Bernard Shaw, playwright, critic, Nobel Prize-winner and one of the greatest wits of the 20th century. Misalliance plays in rotating repertory April 8 - May 14.

The 2004-2005 season runs from October 2004 through May 2005, and subscription tickets are on sale now. With a season subscription to the Hilberry Theatre you can see all seven shows for as low as $77. Individual tickets range from $15 - $22, with student rush tickets available the day of each performance for $10. Group discounts are also available. Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m., with 2 p.m. matinees on select Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Hilberry also provides morning matinee opportunities for school groups. The Hilberry Theatre is located on the corner of Cass and Hancock in Detroit. The box office is open October through May, Tuesday through Saturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the Wayne State University theatre box office at (313) 577-2960.