2009-10 Season Preview
This season will feature 4 shows over 15 months!
Of Mice and Men
Spring 2009
April 24,25 & May
1,2 7:30 pm
April 26, May 3 @ 2:30 pm
Set in the
Salinas Valley of central California during the Great Depression,
John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, tells the story of two
men, George and Lennie. During this time period, it was not unusual
for men to travel from job to job as a result of the economic
recession. However, it was unusual for two men to travel together.
Lennie is a large,
strong man with the intellectual capabilities of a small child. He
is often forgetful, but is capable of doing intense physical labor.
Lennie was raised by his Aunt Clara, who looked after Lennie until
her death. At that point, George, a childhood friend, takes
responsibility for Lennie.
George and Lennie
travel and work together for years before the novella begins. Their
last job was in a town called Weed. One day, Lennie sees a girl
wearing a red dress and decides to touch it. Lennie likes to pet
soft things and has a history of killing the small animals he
touches. The girl screams and Lennie freezes, holding her dress
tighter. Eventually, George gets Lennie to let go of the dress.
Lennie does not physically hurt the girl, but she tells the sheriff
she has been raped. George and Lennie flee town.
Besides sharing a
history, George and Lennie also share a dream of owning property and
living off the fat of the land. While on the ranch, they share this
dream with Candy, a swamper with only one hand and an old dog. After
the mercy killing of his dog, Candy realizes that, like his dog, his
usefulness on the ranch is nearing an end. He has some money and
asks if he can join the two men to fulfil their dream.
However, life on the
ranch is not easy. The boss’s son, Curley, takes an instant dislike
to Lennie because of his size. Curley is a small man who likes to
prove his worth by beating up large men, usually men who work for
his father and cannot defend themselves out of fear of losing their
jobs. Curley is unhappily married to a woman with a reputation for
flirting with the ranch hands. After searching for his wife again,
an angry Curley starts hitting Lennie, who does not fight back until
George gives permission. Lennie then grabs Curley’s hand and crushes
it, causing Curley to be rushed to the hospital.
Slim gives Lennie a
puppy from his bitch's litter. However, Lennie kills the puppy, not
realizing his own strength. He is in the barn burying the puppy when
Curley’s wife approaches. She is lonely and desperate for attention.
She allows Lennie to pet her hair, but screams at Lennie to stop
when he begins to handle her too roughly. Lennie panics, shakes the
woman, and snaps her neck.
Lennie flees the
ranch and hides in the brush by the river bank as George instructs
him in the beginning of the novella. Chaos ensues at the ranch when
the body is found. Curley wants to lynch Lennie and make him suffer.
George knows Lennie will suffer, no matter who finds him, and must
make an agonizing decision. What would be best and most merciful for
Lennie? .
THE SOUND OF MUSIC
Summer 2009
Book by
Howard Lindsay,
Russel Crouse
Lyrics by Oscar
Hammerstein II,
Music by Richard Rodgers
Suggested by "The
Story of the Trapp Family Singers"
"Let's start at the very beginning... a
very good place to start." This final collaboration between
Rodgers & Hammerstein was destined to become the world's most
beloved musical. When a postulant proves too high-spirited for
religious life, she is sent to serve as governess for the 7
children of a widowed naval Captain. Her growing love and
rapport with the youngsters, coupled with her generosity of
spirit, gradually captures the heart of the stern Captain, and
they marry. Upon returning from their honeymoon they discover
that Austria has been invaded by the Nazis, who demand the
Captain's immediate service in their navy. The family's narrow
escape over the mountains to Switzerland on the eve of World War
II provides one of the most thrilling and inspirational finales
ever presented in the theatre. Based on a true story, it has
become a favored stage musical and remains the most popular
movie musical of all time!
 Sweeney
Todd
Fall 2009
The rare
instance of a musical thriller, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s
chilling, suspenseful, heart-pounding masterpiece of murderous
barber-ism and culinary crime tells the infamous tale of the
unjustly exiled barber who returns to 19th century London seeking
revenge against the lecherous judge who framed him and ravaged his
young wife. His thirst for
blood soon e xpands to include his
unfortunate customers, and the
resourceful
proprietress of the pie
shop downstairs soon has the people of London lining up in droves
with her mysterious new meat pie recipe!
A
Christmas Story
December 2009
Friday, Dec 11
Satu rday
Dec 12
Jean Shepherd's joyous
celebration of childhood adapted for radio.
(This live radio performance is NOT included with the season
pass)
Comedy. By Philip Grecian. Based on the motion
picture A Christmas Story, © 1983 Turner Entertainment
Co., distributed by Warner Bros., written by Jean Shepherd,
Leigh Brown and Bob Clark; and on the book In God We Trust,
All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd.
Humorist Jean Shepherd's memoir of growing up in the midwest in
the 1940s follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get
a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas. Ralphie
pleads his case before his mother, his teacher and even Santa
Claus himself, at Goldblatt's Department Store. The consistent
response: "You'll shoot your eye out." All the elements from the
beloved motion picture are here, including the family's
temperamental exploding furnace; Scut Farkas, the school bully;
the boys' experiment with a wet tongue on a cold lamppost; the
Little Orphan Annie decoder pin; Ralphie's father winning a lamp
shaped like a woman's leg in a net stocking; Ralphie's fantasy
scenarios and more. A Christmas Story
is destined to become a theatrical holiday perennial.
STEEL MAGNOLIAS
Robert Harling
February 2010
Fri. Feb 26th at 7:30 pm
Sat. Feb 27th at 7:30 pm
Sun. Feb 28th at 2:30 pm
Fri. Mar 5th at 7:30 pm
Sat. Mar 6th at 7:30 pm
Sun. Mar 7th at 2:30 pm
The action is set in Truvy's beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana,
where all the ladies who are "anybody" come to have their hair done.
Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether
or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy
dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon,
Ouiser, ("I'm not crazy, I've just been in a bad mood for forty
years"); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging
sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M'Lynn, whose daughter,
Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a "good ole
boy." Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but
humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward
tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a
diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden
realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on
the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its
characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny
and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.
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