Frances Limoncelli News

Lifeline Theatre has revealed its 2024-2025 season featuring a KidSeries world premiere, and more. See full programming and learn how to purchase tickets.

Part of the genius of THE OUTSIDER is it is pure farce. Characters and plots are played larger than life, and doors constantly swing open with new surprises behind them. We’re not in the sturm and drang of THE WEST WING, but rather the territory of a silly sitcom like VEEP. Physical comedy, verbal banter, and just plain stupid stuff happens, and this cast is up to the challenge of delivering all of it. The director has found some of Houston's funniest, most likable actors.

Any production of a show has to do with relationships. These actors are here because they believe in Tracy and Kara. Most of them have worked with me last year, so hopefully they believe in me, too. It is a little bit of sacrifice all the way around, and that's sort of how a lot of theater gets made.

Weston Theater Company announces its 2022 Young Company production: YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN, playing June 22 – July 9 playing at various venues throughout central and southern Vermont. This production is FREE, but ticket reservations must be made in advance. 

Lifeline Theatre has revealed its 2023-24 season of Big Stories, Up Close. It’s an exciting year of unforgettable stories brought to life, from beloved classics to modern titles.

Weston Theater Company announces the cast for YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN, playing June 22 - July 9 at Walker Farm and venues across south/central Vermont).

Lifeline Theatre will welcome Addoris Davis as Production Manager and John Craig as Operations Manager, beginning in May 2023.  Reporting to Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan and working in partnership with the Operations Manager, Davis will be responsible for managing the overall production of all of Lifeline’s programming.  

Over the next five months, Desi Moreno-Penson and Brandon Zang will work in tandem with members of Lifeline Theatre's artistic ensemble along with a small creative team of their choosing to develop their world premiere stage adaptations, culminating in a small-scale public presentation of their works in process in July 2023 (dates forthcoming).

4th Wall Theatre Company continues its streak of Houston premieres with the  penultimate play of its season, SANCTUARY CITY by Martyna Majok opening on March 24, 2023.

Lifeline Theatre welcomes Paige Keedy as Production Manager, Nathan Crawford as Operations Manager/Accessibility Coordinator, and Merissa Stewart as Education Director, beginning in Summer 2022.  Reporting to Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan and working in partnership with the Operations Manager, Keedy will be responsible for managing the overall production of all of Lifeline's programming. 

Lifeline Theatre announced their 2022-23 season of Big Stories, Up Close. It’s a monumental year of unforgettable stories brought to life, from beloved classics to modern titles. The 2022-23 MainStage season features the Midwest premiere sequel Miss Holmes Returns, followed by a retelling of Dr. Endesha Ida Mae Holland’s From the Mississippi Delta.

Dear Readers, I’ve said it before, a good ending of a play can forgive a multitude of sins that came before. But how about a cute beginning of a story that finishes off laying there like a dead fish? Unfortunately, that’s the case with “Mrs. Caliban”, the current offering from Book-It Repertory Theatre. This fishy love story has a good hook but lacked a decent tail to swim it on home.

Lifeline Theatre has selected two incredible playwrights to take part in its inaugural Adapting to Stage Developmental Workshop and Showcase. Over the next 5 months, Sandra Jackson-Opoku and Tanuja Devi Jagernauth will work in tandem members of Lifeline Theatre’s artistic ensemble along with a small creative team of their choosing to develop their world premiere stage adaptations, culminating in a small-scale public presentation of their works in process in July 2022 (dates forthcoming).

Book-It Repertory Theatre will return to in-person, live performance on the Center Theatre stage after postponing their winter show due to the Omicron wave of Covid-19.

​​​​​​​Lifeline Theatre welcomes Amelia Ablan to her new staff position as Production Manager, beginning June 2021. Reporting directly to Artistic Director Ilesa Duncan and Managing Director Allison Cain, Ablan will be responsible for overseeing the production processes for the company, collaborating closely with directors and the Artistic Director to fulfill the production needs for Lifeline's future live and digital programming.  Ablan succeeds Jennifer McClendon, who served as Production Manager since 2016, now heading to Providence, Rhode Island to Trinity Repertory Company as their new Producing Director.

TimeLine Theatre Company has announced that four new playwrights have joined its Playwrights Collective, the company's new play incubator.

To accommodate ticket demand Lifeline Theatre announces ten added performances of its Jeff Recommended and critically-acclaimed production of Dorothy L Sayers' Whose Body?. The Lifeline theatre production is adapted by ensemble member Frances Limoncelli and directed by Jess Hutchinson. When a dead body turns up in a bathtub wearing nothing but a pair of pince-nez, amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey assigns himself to the case. However, when the mystery becomes labyrinthine he enlists the help of close friend Inspector Parker to follow his only lead, a teaching hospital near the scene of the crime. Could it be a harmless prank by a medical student or something more sinister? Follow the clues and uncover the truth in this beloved 1923 whodunit by Dorothy L. Sayers. The production runs approximately two hours with one intermission. The novel is on sale in the lobby.

The first hints of autumn weather have barely touched Chicago, but with its season opener, Lifeline Theatre turns to that coziest of genres: the classic British murder mystery. Jess Hutchinson directs a revival of WHOSE BODY?, adapted by Frances Limoncelli from the 1923 novel by Dorothy Sayers. Though the English author and scholar is not exactly a household name for modern American audiences, Sayers counted C.S. Lewis among her friends and was one of the first women to graduate from Oxford University. WHOSE BODY? marks the debut of her best-known character, Lord Peter Wimsey, a quirky aristocrat with impeccable taste in antique books, classical music, and fine winea?'as well as a penchant for amateur sleuthing.

Lifeline Theatre presents Whose Body?, the first production of the 2019-2020 season, September 6 a?" October 27. Ensemble member Frances Limoncelli, adaptor of 2009's Busman's Honeymoon (Non-Equity Jeff Award: New Adaptation), 2006's Gaudy Night (Non-Equity Jeff Award: New Adaptation), and 2004's Strong Poison (Non-Equity Jeff Awards: New Adaptation), teams up with Jess Hutchinson, director of 2019's The Man Who Was Thursday, to re-explore this beloved and charming whodunit for a new generation.

Lifeline Theatre's KidSeries presents the world premiere of The Time Warp Trio, based on the children's series by Jon Scieszka, Illustrated by Lane Smith, with adaptation by Lifeline Theatre ensemble member Frances Limoncelli, and directed by Lifeline Theatre ensemble member Heather Currie.