Events

Past Events

Performance: Theophilus North

September 6, 2013 until September 22, 2013, Cinnabar Theater, Petaluma, CA

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by Matthew Burnett
based on the novel by Thornton Wilder
Nathan Cummings, Director

From Off-Broadway comes this astonishing charmer of a play, based upon the semi-autobiographical final work of three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning icon of American letters, Thornton Wilder. Set in the tony resort town of Newport, RI, during the height of the Jazz Age in summer, 1926, Theophilus North fol­lows the exploits of the title character as he searches for adventure and his place in the world. Quitting his teaching position in New Jersey, and stranded in Newport after his jalopy breaks down, thirty-year-old Theophilus takes odd jobs (tennis instructor, French tutor, private reader…) in houses of the wealthy, infiltrating himself into the lives and troubles of Newport’s residents, both upstairs and downstairs. But the greatest adventure in store is not at all what he has imagined…

For more information, please visit the Cinnabar Theater’s 41st Season page on their website.

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Performance: The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden

August 23, 2013 until August 25, 2013, North Hall, Huntington, MA

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“Wilder/Williams”—two one-act plays

by Thornton Wilder and Tennessee Williams

Four fully staged AEA performances of Thornton Wilder’s The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden (1931) directed by Mitch Giannunzio and Tennessee Williams’ Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen (1953) directed by Kenneth Tigar.

*Friday, August 23 at 8:00 p.m
*Saturday, August 24 at 2:00 p.m.(afternoon) and 8:00 p.m.(evening)
*Sunday, August 25 at 2:00 p.m. (afternoon)

$15 at the door; Students free; open seating; wheelchair/elevator accessible

About the Historic North Hall Arts Festival
The 2013 Festival will open with the popular Opera and Song Showcase with three opera singers and piano accompanist who have performed internationally. The showcase is followed by a season rich with music, theater, dance, spoken word and visual art. Instrumental and choral music includes sacred, folk, jazz, blues, swing, rock, country, bluegrass and open mic music jams in July and August. This year we are presenting a fully staged production of two one-act plays by noted American playwrights Thornton Wilder and Tennessee Williams as well as a program featuring men’s and women’s fashion in Jane Austen’s literature and era.

The season’s programs have been made possible by the support of our sponsors: The Westfield News, The Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Arts Councils of Chesterfield, Huntington, Montgomery and Worthington.

Visit the North Hall website for more information.

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Performance: Our Town

August 23, 2013 until August 30, 2013, Theatre in The Park, Lincolns New Salem State Park, Il-123, Petersburg, IL

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Our Town, written by American playwright Thornton Wilder, is a Pulitzer Prize winning play. It is a character story about an average town’s citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives. Using metatheatrical devices, Wilder sets the play in a 1930s theater. He uses the actions of the Stage Manager to create the town of Grover’s Corners for the audience. Scenes from its history between the years of 1901 and 1913 play out.

About the Director

Kelly Bassett – Over the last 25 years Kelly has been involved in all facets of the local Bassetttheatre community. She last appeared on stage for the Springfield Theatre Centre’s production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. She spends most of her time these days behind the scenes directing. This year alone, she directed STC’s production of M*A*S*H and Winnie the Pooh. For Theatre Park, you have seen her direction in Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. Kelly is currently serving on the STC board of directors, as Vice President. She is looking forward to returning to TIP and the atmosphere of the park!

Cast

Stage Manager — Phil Funkenbusch
Emily Webb — Elizabeth Moody
George Gibbs — Forrest Sterling
Mrs Gibbs — Lora Beavers
Dr. Gibbs — Bob Fees
Mr. Webb — Dale Spoon
Mrs. Webb — Deborah Kerley
Rebecca Gibbs — Grace Thompson
Mrs. Soames — Mary Disseler
Wally Webb — Carter Sterling
Simon Stimson — Randy Robbins
Jo Crowell/Townsperson — Mackenzie Smith

Townspeople (Smaller parts will be cast from the following people)
— Kynzie Ashbaugh
— Phoebe Betters
— Abigail Cline
— John Kerley
— Ellen Mannion
— Shay McGhiey
— Beau Moody
— Melissa Sterling
— Sara Thompson

Visit the Theatre in the Park website for more details.

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Performance: Hello, Dolly!

August 5, 2013 until August 17, 2013, Cape Playhouse, Dennis Village, MA

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One of the greatest musicals ever written, Hello, Dolly! brings to life the tale of matchmaker Dolly Levi and celebrates the search for love. Playing matchmaker for herself this time, Dolly woos the resistant Mr. Horace Vandergelder, while also finding mates for two bumbling shopkeepers and persuading Horace to approve his niece’s marriage – all in a day’s work! Hello, Dolly! is a delectable treat for the whole family. Cape Playhouse favorite Mark Martino directs this classic American musical featuring the hit songs “Put On Your Sunday Clothes,” “Elegance,” “Before the Parade Passes By” and, of course, “Hello, Dolly!.” This lush production promises to delight!

Hello, Dolly! is a musical based on Thornton Wilder’s 1955 farce, The Matchmaker.

For more information, please visit the Hello, Dolly! page on the Cape Playhouse website.

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Performance: The Beaux Stratagem

August 1, 2013 until September 1, 2013, Schiller Park, Columbus, OH

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A comedy by George Farquhar, adapted by Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig.

In the summer of 2004, the Estate of Thornton Wilder asked Ken Ludwig to complete a play that Wilder had begun in 1939 and never finished. It was an adaptation of The Beaux’ Stratagem, a classic piece of late Restoration comedy written in 1707 by the British playwright George Farquhar (author of The Recruiting Officer). Wilder had made a brilliant start – he’d finished about half of it – and Ludwig was delighted to be asked to complete the rest.

The resulting play received its world premiere production at The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, D.C. from November 7 to December 31, 2006, directed by Michael Kahn. The adaptation
will be published in book form by the Theatre Communications Group.

The play, set in 1707 in Lichfield, England, tells the story of two young bucks who, having spent all their money by living too well, leave London and roam from town to town in search of love and fortune. In order to find a wealthy heiress for at least one of them, they pose as master and servant – exchanging roles from one town to the next. In Lichfield, Aimwell is the master and Archer the servant, and there they meet the lovely, wealthy Dorinda and her equally desirable sister-in-law, Mrs. Kate Sullen. They set their caps for these women, but problems abound. Kate is married to a drunken sot who despises her; the innkeeper’s saucy daughter, Cherry, has set her cap for Archer; Dorinda’s mother, Lady Bountiful, mistakenly believes herself to be a great healer of the sick, and she guards her daughter like a dragoness; and a band of brigands plans to rob the house of Lady Bountiful that very night, putting all schemes in jeopardy.

This is a play in the great tradition of Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer and Sheridan’s The Rivals and The School for Scandal. It is classic, formal, robust and hilarious.

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Performance: Our Town

July 19, 2013 until August 17, 2013, Theater at Monmouth, Monmouth, ME

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Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Our Town, presents a timeless tale of the universal experience of being human. Teenagers George and Emily meet, fall in love, and marry; enduring both the joys and sorrows of everyday life. Wilder transforms their ordinary story into a poignant and captivating exploration of mortality and the wonder of living. Mark S. Cartier plays the Stage Manager who invites us to the mythical Grover’s Corners in celebration of the play’s 75th anniversary.

For more information, please visit the 2013 schedule on the Theater at Monmouth website.

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Performance: The Matchmaker

July 12, 2013 until July 28, 2013, Indiana Festival Theatre, Bloomington, IN

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Wilder’s uproarious farce about love and money stars the irrepressible busybody, Dolly Gallagher Levi. Through Dolly’s subtle machinations, several unlikely couples come together to find happiness in 19th-century New York.

The Indiana Festival Theatre is the professional summer theatre of Indiana University’s Department of Theatre and Drama in Bloomington, Indiana. This summer the IFT will present Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker on the following dates: July 12, 13, 14(matinee), 17, 19, 20(matinee), 21, 23, 25, 27, 28. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m., and matinees begin at 2:00 p.m.

Visit the Theatre and Drama area of Indiana University’s website for forthcoming details.

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Performance: Our Town Opera

July 6, 2013 until July 28, 2013, Central City Opera, Central City, CO

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Thornton Wilder’s classic American play has been transformed into an opera and tells the story of the ordinary and extraordinary events in the lives of those in Grover’s Corners, a small New Hampshire town in 1901. The story delves into three critical components of the human experience – daily life, love/marriage and death/loss.

For further details, please visit the Our Town Opera page on the Central City Opera website.

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