The Bergen County Players Announce Their 2011 -12 Season

Long considered one of America's premier community theater groups, Bergen County Players (BCP) is proud to announce for 2011-12 another ambitious, passionate and playful year of audience-pleasing musicals and innovative plays for its 79th consecutive season. From toe-tapping musicals to hilarious comedies to intense dramas, BCP has garnered a reputation for outstanding quality productions at affordable prices. The new season kicks off with the multiple Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning musical The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, hailed by The Wall Street Journal as ?perfect in every possible way that rarity of rarities, a super-smart musical that is also a bona fide crowd pleaser. This tuneful, offbeat and at times heartwarming show also offers interactive fun, giving audience members the opportunity (strictly voluntary) to become part of the action as on-stage spellers.

Tickets for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the rest of the 2011-12 season are available online at www.bcplayers.org. Phone messages left at 201-261-4200 will be returned on a regular basis until the box office, located at the Little Firehouse Theatre, 298 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell, NJ, opens on Thursday, August 18th for walk up sales. Discounts are available for groups and students throughout the season, with a special Group Sales Hotline at 201-262-0515 monitored on a continual basis.

With something for everyone, BCP is bringing the best of Broadway to their neighborhood by offering the works of critically acclaimed playwrights such as Edward Albee, Neil Simon, and George S. Kaufman. With a ticket prIce That?s about the same as for a movie, popcorn, and a soda, BCP continues to be committed to the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to experience the artistry and excitement of live theater.

ON THE MAINSTAGE

THE 25th ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE

September 10 - October 2, 2011

ADDITIONAL SPECIAL PERFORMANCES:
Sunday 9/25 at 7pm
Friday 9/30 at 11pm (Adults Only Performance!)

Music and Lyrics by William Finn
Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Directed by Larry Landsman

Nominated for six Tony Awards, this unlikely hit musical is about the unlikeliest group of heroes: a quirky yet charming cast of outsiders for whom a spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time. Six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn't everything and that losing doesn't necessarily make you a loser. And at every performance, four audience members will join the Bee on stage for their chance at immortality (just come 30 minutes early to sign up)! Some content is not appropriate for pre-teens.

WHO'S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf?

October 22 - November 12, 2011

By Edward Albee
Directed by Jacqueline McElroy-Poquette

Winner of three Tony Awards (including Best Play of 1963) and later turned into a landmark film with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, playwright Edward Albee's smash drams is set on the campus of a small New England college.

George, an Associate Professor of History and his wife Martha, daughter of the College's president, invite a new professor and his wife home for a nightcap. As the cocktails flow, the young couple find themselves caught in the crossfire of a savage marital war where the combatants attack the self deceptions they forged for their own survival.

WHO AM I THIS TIME?

Second Stage SHOW
November 5 - 6, 2011

Based on a story by Kurt Vonnegut
Adapted by Christopher Sergel
Directed by Dottie Fischer

Our Second Stage season kicks off with a story that centers on Harry Nash, an extremely shy and bland small-town man. However, whenever he takes a part in the local, amateur theater production he becomes his character to an overwhelming extent. Soon Helene Shaw, a recent addition to the town, falls in love with Nash - but only with his character in the play.

And no, this show is in no way based on any members of the Bergen County Players!

SLEEPING BEAUTY

November 26 - December 18, 2011

Book and Lyrics by Jim Eiler
Music by Jim Eiler and Jeanne Bargy
Based on the Fairy Tale by Charles Perrault
Directed by Lynne Lupfer

This Prince Street Players version of the classic fairy tale follows a young princess who is cursed by a wicked fairy to die after pricking her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle. But the curse is partially abated when a Fairy Godmother proclaims the princess will sleep for 100 years until awakened by a prince.

Lively tunes, wonderful choreography and inventive sets and costumes will have children age 3 through 10 mesmerized for a solid hour. And then following the performance you can take them downstairs to our lounge to meet the cast and get autographs!

Please note that while children under age 3 are welcome, EVERYONE must have a ticket to enter the theatre, and we ask that you be sensitive to the needs of your fellow theatergoers.

MODERN ORTHODOX

January 14 - February 4, 2012

Written by Daniel Goldfarb
Directed by Steve Bell

Hilarious and often poignant, Modern Orthodox is about a young Jewish couple living on the Upper West Side who are provoked to question not only their commitment to each other but also the depth of their religious feeling when a stranger from another sect arrives at their door with a most unusual marital problem.

Some content is not appropriate for pre-teens.

LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS

February 18 - March 10, 2012

Written by Neil Simon
Directed by Jerry Pettinati

Wanting to spice up his staid life by sharing in the sexual freedom of the '60s, yet hoping for something memorable and romantic, Barney Cashman, a happily married fish restaurateur, decides he'd like to try some of the other fish in the sea after being married to his high school sweetheart for almost 30 years.

Enjoy one of Neil Simon's funniest plays, which was nominated for four Tony Awards, including Best Play of 1970.

(Longtime wives are urged to bring their longtime husbands, who may well see how smart they've been to not humiliate themselves like Barney!)

THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER

March 24 - April 21, 2012

Written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
Directed by Bunny Mateosian

Sherman Whiteside, a witty but acerbic theater critic and host of a national radio program, visits small-town Ohio and after breaking his leg is forced to encamp at the residence of a rich factory owner. This high-maintenance "diva" proceeds to wreak havoc throughout the house in George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 1939 classic (revived on Broadway in both 1980 and 2000).

IS THERE LIFE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL?

May 5 - June 3, 2012

Music and Lyrics by Craig Carnelia
Book by Jeffrey Kindley
Directed by Carol Fisher

Is There Life After High School? If there is, what are its lingering effects on our lives? Join this group of "alumni" as they explore this theme through music, dance and monologues when they look back on their high school years with a mixture of nostalgia, horror, humor and emotions.

Both hilariously awkward and heartbreakingly painful, this tuneful pastiche reflects upon the momentously traumatic high school moments that last a lifetime. Remember your first kiss? That time you took first place? How about the kids who were your best friends...and the ones who weren't?

Reserve your spot early as this "class" will fill up quickly!

THE LARMIE PROJECT

Second Stage SHOW
May 19 -20, 2012

Written by Moisés Kaufman
Directed by Alyson Cohn

An intense one-act drama described by Time Magazine as "a pioneering and powerful stage event" about the gay-bashing murder of Matthew Shepard on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming.

An award-winning play that was turned into both a powerful film and TV movie, this dramatic 90 minute production draws on the hundreds of interviews conducted by the Tectonic Theater Project following this highly-publicized 1998 hate crime. Please be prepared for mature content and language.

Please consider making tax-deductible contribution to BCP -
$35 - $74 - Have your name listed in our programs

$75 or more -Become a BCP Preferred Patron:
(name in program AND $3 per ticket discount)

TICKET AND SCHEDULE INFORMATION

All performances take place at The Little Firehouse Theatre at 298 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell, home to the Bergen County Players since 1949. All tickets for the musicals, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Is There Life After High School?, are $21. All tickets for the December holiday show, Sleeping Beauty, are $13. All other tickets are $19 on Friday and Saturdays and $16 on Sundays. Second Stage tickets are $10.

As it has for the past few seasons, The Players will continue to offer a Q & A (Questions & Artists) discussion following select performances. These popular talk-backs will take place on the first Friday evening of each Mainstage show. Admission is included in the cost of the ticket.

Those interested in schedules, discount offers and making reservations for the 2011-12 season, can log onto BCP?s website at: www.bcplayers.org, visit the box office at 298 Kinderkamack Road in Oradell or call (201) 261-4200. Visa, Master Card, and American Express accepted.

Those interested in Group Sales or benefit theater parties can call (201) 262-0515.

Student Rush tickets are available for $5 for students age 25 and under with valid ID, 30 minutes prior to curtain. One ticket per ID. Cash only. Students can also guarantee their seats in advance through the box office for the special student price of just $14.00. Student Rush tickets are not available for the December holiday show.

Parking is free for our patrons at the Park Avenue municipal lot, across the street, one-half block north of the theater.

See our website for more detail at www.bcplayers.org

 

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