Current Season

2009 - 2010 THEATRE SCHEDULE
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GOODNIGHT DESDEMONA (GOOD MORNING JULIET)
By Ann-Marie MacDonald
Directed by Mark Pickell

September 30-October 4, 2009
7pm | Wednesday & Thursday
8pm | Friday & Saturday
3pm | Sunday 

Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones Theater

What would happen if Juliet's and Desdemona's death sentences were reprieved?   Constance Ledbelly, a dusty and plucky academic, deciphers a cryptic manuscript she believes to be the original source for Romeo and Juliet and Othello, and is magically transported into the plays themselves. She visits Juliet and Desdemona, has a hand in saving them from death and finds out what they are all about, all the while engaging in a personal voyage of self.  Imagine collaboration between Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll and Woody Allen, and you have the essence of Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), a wild and fantastical farce that includes cross-dressing, swordplay, mistaken identities, and playful tomfoolery.
 
"Stratford-upon-Acid: that's where MacDonald's dizzying Goodnight. Desdemona lives . . . MacDonald traipses through the canon with glee . . . Lots of clever fun. "    - The Village Voice

"Delightful, often hilarious . . . MacDonald doesn't miss a trick, scattering satirical observations on love and sex, scholarship and the Bard like birdseed, while taking full advantage of the slapstick possibilities in Shakespearean cross-dressing."    - The Washington Post.

Ann-Marie MacDonald is a Canadian writer and actress. Her international best-selling novel, Fall On Your Knees, has been translated into seventeen languages and received the Commonwealth Prize, the Canadian Author's Association Award and two Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Awards, and is on The Oprah Booklist.  Goodnight Desdemona has been honored with  the Governor General's Award, The Chalmers Award and the Canadian Author's Association Award.  

 

Blackbox Theatre
Heather McGaughey Memorial Hall                

THE FIFTH SUN
by Kinsey Keck & Becca Plunkett
Directed by Becca Plunkett              

October 23 - 25, 2009
8pm  |  Friday & Saturday
3pm  |  Sunday 

The spark for The Fifth Sun comes from the Aztec "Legend of the Five Suns". The legend states that each sun is a period of time wherein there is peace and life on earth. When a sun dies, the world is absorbed in chaos as the gods destroy the world in order to renew it. The Aztecs believed there are only five suns and that we live the era of the last sun.           

What if the Aztecs were right? What if we are in the era of the last sun, and a new sun will not take its place? What if this chaos is not followed by renewed stability. The Fifth Sun presents four characters facing a world plagued with death and destruction, four characters that always hope for something better and wait for a new beginning.

 

PINOCCHIO   -   Theatre For Young Audiences

Original Story by Carlo Collodi
Adapted by Leon Katz
Directed by Molly Rice

Public Performances:
November 20-22, 2009
7pm | Friday
3pm | Saturday & Sunday

School-Day Performances: SOLD OUT
November 17-20, 2009
11am | Tuesday–Friday,

The story of Pinocchio, written by Carlo Collodi, is about a puppet and his quest to become a real boy. Geppetto, a woodcutter, has longed for a son.  One day he is given a magical piece of wood and is inspired to carve a life-size puppet. He names the puppet Pinocchio and hopes that someday he will earn the gift of life by being good and honest. However, Pinocchio runs away from home and finds himself in situations where he is tempted to disobey. Unfortunately, he makes a series of bad choices and his troubles increase. Each time he tells a lie, his nose grows and eventually he turns into a donkey. Luckily, a kind Fairy guides him to learn the things he needs to know, such as patience and honesty, and he becomes a real boy.  Pinocchio’s universal appeal lies on many levels: He stands between the free-spirited, self-centered world of childhood and the adult world of responsibility and community; He is a puppet without strings yet he is pulled by his own uncontrollable urges; He dreams of becoming a real boy, but his rebellious impulses keep getting in the way; He is naughty and exasperating, yet good hearted and brave. His journey toward becoming fully human is a journey we all share. 

 

SPRING 2010

URINETOWN, The Musical

Book by Greg Kotis * Music by Mark Hollman * Lyrics by Mark Hollman & Greg Kotis
Directed by Rick Roemer

March 3 – 7, 2010
7pm | Wednesday & Thursday
8pm | Friday & Saturday
3pm | Sunday

Think times are tough now with soaring gas prices and foreclosures, imagine a time in the near future when a 20-year drought leads to a government-enforced ban of private toilets!  One of the most uproariously funny musicals in recent years, Tony Award winning Urinetown, The Musical is a hilarious tale of greed, corruption, love, and revolution in a time when water is worth its weight in gold. Due to the  water shortage citizens of a Gotham-like city must use public amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity's most basic needs. Amid the people, a hero decides he's had enough, and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom! Inspired by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, Urinetown, The Musical is an irreverently humorous satire in which no one is safe from scrutiny. Praised for reinvigorating the very notion of what a musical could be, Urinetown, The Musical catapults the comedic romp into high gear with its outrageous perspective, wickedly modern wit, and sustained ability to produce gales of unbridled laughter. 

"This adventurous and ground-breaking musical can provoke us, engage us in fresh ways, push the boundaries of the form, and make a real emotional connection with the people on stage."-  Time Magazine

"There is no show I've ever seen that gives off such a sense that the creators and performers know what it takes to make the world a better place." – New York Times 

 

DANCE REPERTORY THEATRE April 6 -7, 2010
Director – Judy Thompson-Price
Alma Thomas Theater

7pm  |  Tuesday & Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

ESCAPE FROM HAPPINESS

By George F. Walker
Directed by Jared J. Stein

April 21-25, 2010
7pm | Wednesday & Thursday
8pm | Friday & Saturday
3pm | Sunday 

Jesse H. and Mary Gibbs Jones Theater

Escape from Happiness is a ferociously dark and wildly comic vision of the struggles of one very idiosyncratic family to achieve wholeness, peace, and stability in the face of a complex and adversarial world. Walker's viciously funny satire cuts straight to the heart of urban anxiety.  Three adult sisters join forces with their mother to solve a crime. With criminals and cops closing in on their home, and a father they do not trust, time is running out for this family. Ten unforgettable characters pit love against violence in a high-stakes gamble for happiness.  Playwright Walker turns the pandemonium to his advantage, finding belly laughs and bona fide compassion in the midst of the mayhem. One critic has called the resulting chaos half Sam Shepard and half George S. Kaufman. Canadian playwright George F. Walker would probably tell you that the social fabric in today's urban centers is in serious disrepair. But his telling wouldn't be one-100th as hilarious -- or one-10th as disturbing -- as what he shows us in Escape From Happiness.