Producing Artistic Director, Weylin Symes, is pleased to announce the productions that will comprise Stoneham Theatre's tenth anniversary season, September 2009 to June 2010. Stoneham Theatre will present seven Mainstage performances and one Emerging Stages production.
The tenth season is inspired by successful productions from the first nine seasons, and includes beloved classics and exceptional new work. Symes says, "It's been nearly ten years since a group of us took note of a neglected theatre and decided the MetroNorth region needed its own professional theatre. Nine seasons and sixty shows later, we're proud to have shared so many stories, both silly and serious, with the greater Boston community."
Season 10 continues the tradition of diverse programming. The New England premiere of Studs Terkel's The Good War is followed by the East Coast premiere of The Sparrow, a fresh, youthful and exciting modern fable from Chicago's House Theatre.
Symes says, "With the success of the Bruins this year, we're thrilled to present the U.S. Premiere of Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad in January." It's a tender comedy of love, family and Pee Wee hockey. In March, the New England Premiere of Robert and Willie Reale's The Dinosaur Musical is a natural follow-up to this year's successful production of A Year With Frog and Toad- "and a hoot to boot," says Symes.
The Emerging Stages series returns with Daniel MacIvor's remarkable one-man show, Cul-de-sac. Add in the classic titles My Fair Lady, Gaslight and the original version of A Christmas Carol which re-openEd Stoneham Theatre's doors in 2000 and Stoneham Theatre's tenth season is a smorgasbord of delicious theatre for audiences.
Stoneham Theatre's 2009-2010 Season:
September 10-October 4, 2009
Studs Terkel's The Good War: A Musical Collage of World War II
adapted from Studs Terkel
by David H. Bell and Craig Carnelia
New England Premiere
Studs Terkel won the Pulitzer Prize by preserving the individual voices affected in ways big and small by World War II. Combined with nostalgic songs and popular dancing from the era, The Good War becomes an uplifting document of The Greatest Generation during their finest hour.
October 22-November 8, 2009
The Sparrow
conceived and directed by Nathan Allen, of The House Theatre in Chicago
by Nathan Allen, Chris Mathews and Jake Minton
After garnering critical and popular acclaim with The Sparrow's debut in Chicago, writer and original director Nathan Allen will direct the East Coast Premiere of this riveting fable.
Orphaned teenager Emily Book returns to the town she once called home to finish her final year of high school--but this time, she's carrying a secret. An ordinary teenager with extraordinary abilities, Emily must embrace her supernatural powers and confront the truth about her past. An exciting tale of teens and telekinesis.
November 27-December 27, 2009
Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol
adapted by Troy Siebels
Stoneham Theatre re-opened its doors with A Christmas Carol on December 1, 2000. Now the heartwarming classic returns in celebration of the theatre's tenth season. Join Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, and all three ghosts for this tale of redemption and forgiveness that captures the true spirit and magic of the holiday season.
January 14-31, 2010
Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad
by Michael Melski
U.S. Premiere
Love in the bleachers. Blood on the ice. The usual small town affair. Two lonely, single parents meet while watching their kids play Pee Wee hockey. In the bleachers of an old rink, Teddy and Donna discover the best and worst in themselves, as romance and real life collide in this unconventional and tender story.
March 4-21, 2010
The Dinosaur Musical
music by Robert Reale
book & lyrics by Willie Reale
New England Premiere
From the creators of last season's A Year with Frog and Toad comes a family-friendly musical that even fossils will adore. Quincy, a 14-year old Tyrannosaurus, is finding it hard to follow in the shadow of his father, King Marcus. When the dinosaur kingdom comes together to fight its extinction, Quincy forms an unlikely friendship with a 14-year old Parasaurolophus, who teaches him the power of working together.
Emerging Stages Production
March 11-21, 2010
Cul-de-sac
New England Premiere
The quiet of a dead-end street is torn apart by the murder of one of its residents. The victim is Leonard, our narrator. In this one-man tour-de-force, Leonard leads us through the story of his last moments on earth, transforming himself into the characters who inhabit his street as he struggles to understand just how and why he met his demise.
April 8-May 2, 2010
My Fair Lady
book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
music by Frederick Loewe
Based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, this Lerner & Loewe masterpiece is one of the greatest musicals of the century. When self-absorbed professor Henry Higgins wagers that he can make a proper lady out of Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle, Eliza and Henry both begin a transformation that neither of them could anticipate. Come hear all of your favorite songs: "I Could Have Danced All Night," "On the Street Where You Live," and "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face."
May 27-June 13, 2010
Gaslight
by Patrick Hamilton
Bella Manningham worries that her husband may be right when he says she's going mad. But on one eventful night, a mysterious stranger arrives and Bella begins to understand the truth behind the disappearing pictures, mysteriously dimming lights and haunting footsteps from above. Immortalized in a 1944 film treatment starring Ingrid Bergman, Patrick Hamilton's chamber mystery is a twisty and twisted portrait of a late Victorian London marriage.
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