The Vagabond Players Open A DOLL'S HOUSE, 9/3

The Vagabond Players, America's Oldest Little Theatre, announced the lineup for its 95th season. The shows are certainly not to miss and the theatre is one rich with history. Some of the shows include Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Death of a Salesman, and Six Degrees of Separation.

2010-11 Season

September 3-26
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen; translated from the Norwegian by Paul Walsh. Directed by Sherrionne Brown.

The door slammed and the world shivered. Things would be different. Ibsen's work about a woman's newfound clarity about the contradiction hidden in her perfect home would rattle the tenets of playwriting and the role of women in an increasingly modern world--as well as the scenery. Join us as we open our season with Nora's story retold in an acclaimed new translation. Buckle your seat belts--it's going to be a bumpy ride!

October 8-November 7
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler. Directed by Eric Potter.

This time the oven door slams. The demon Revenge has taken up residence on Fleet Street and all is not clear. Sondheim's musical, like Ibsen's play, was--and is--sensational. With words and music that plunge us into horror and lift us to the lyrical, we experience the frightening story of love and innocence at the mercy of souls and society gone demonically awry. Tradegy and Comedy combine in a theatrical evening full of contradiction where the purity of a love song can offer at least a glimmer of redemption.

 

January 7-February 6
Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri. Directed by Roy Hammond.

Recently widowed Lily open her door so that Michael, a rather sharp-toungued dance instructor, can give her ballroom lessons in the privacy of her St. Petersburg condo. The battle of wits that ensues is not unlike the tension of a Tango itself--a dance that relies on a physical and emotional contradiction to create a beautiful blend of motion. The aging former teacher and wife of a Southern Baptist minister and the disappointed and bitter former chorus boy share more than meets the eye as they cha-cha, swing, and waltz their way through their sessions.

February 25-March 27
Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller. Directed by Michael B. Zemarel

Seeing clearly comes not without pain and confusion, and Miller's groundbreaking drama still resonates in the aftermath of economic sleight-of-hand and inflated mortgage markets that plague today. The questions with which Miller and Willy grappled some sixty years ago in relation to the American Dream seem just as relevant in today's USA. In this classic study of misreading the message, we step with the protagonist across the threshold where the Lomans are forced to face the truth when dream turns to nightmare, when "playing by the rules" and not recognizing the contradictions can lead to tragedy.

April 15-May 15
Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare. Directed by Steve Goldklang.

Guare's 1990 play, based on a real-life incident, involves a young man pretending to be the friend of a Manhattan couple's college-age children. While this guise--and the fact that he has been mugged--gets him through the door, his revelation that he is Sydney Poiter's son gets him "in." The wealthy art dealer and his wife actually enjoy being with this charmer (there own children are rather distant). But just what is the connection here and how will it play out? Hard to tell what is true and what is not in this critical look at a society overpowered by fame and fortune, a culture that worships at the shrine of celebrity.

June 3-26
Abducting Diana (Il Ratto della Francesca) by Dario Fo. Directed by Michael Spellman.

The door bursts open and just who kidnapped whom proves to be a real dilemma in this farcical play by Italy's Dario Fo, the controversial 1997 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature. It's never quite clear who's getting the upper hand as broadly drawn characters compete for control in this riotous romp that skewers all in its path. A media tycoon, her boyfried and her Mother, three fireman, a priest... Not unlike the camp in the work of Benny Hill or Monty Python, Fo's comedy may be ribald and risque but it nevertheless hits its mark.

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