Totem Pole Playhouse's 60th Anniversary Season Announced

Totem Pole Playhouse will celebrate 60 years of live professional theatre in 2010 with its boldest season in many years. Keeping with Artistic Director, Ray Ficca's, focus on newer works, The Playhouse will present six plays never before seen on stage in Caledonia. An Andrew Sisters musical, a world premiere and plenty of comedy are all in store for The Playhouse's milestone season-which gives an inescapable nod to the glory of the theatre and the history of our great nation.

"I remember as a kid the bicentennial celebrations in 1976," says Ficca, it was a great party with a wonderful spirit, despite difficult times. Recapturing those feelings of patriotism and celebration was certainly on his mind when putting together Totem Pole 2010 programming.

The season kicks off with the musical SISTERS OF SWING: THE STORY OF THE ANDREWS SISTERS! This regional theatre hit tells the tale of those famous sisters- who regaled our troops in WWII with their swinging tight harmonies, and who sold more than 90 million records!

The second offering of the celebratory season comes from the pen of a popular Broadway legend. Neil Simon's FORTY FIVE SECONDS FROM BROADWAY, with its large cast of 12 characters, is a valentine to the Great White Way, the people in theatre, and also to people who love theatre.

To coincide with our nation's birthday in the early July season slot, The Playhouse will present THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AMERICA (ABRIDGED). This vaudevillian comic tornado, featuring Ficca, rips through everything you thought you knew about this country and sets it down again in a different, new, and hilarious order.

Totem Pole Playhouse has had its share of area premieres, of imports from Broadway and off-Broadway and regional theatres. But never in the sixty year history of this storied playhouse has it ever presented a new and original play about the area of South Central, PA. Nationally acclaimed playwright Keith Bridges has written a new comedy, THE COWARD AND THE GLORY, about a man who travels back in time to Chambersburg, July 1864, perhaps altering history irrevocably! F & M Trust is the guest sponsor of this show.

Every celebration requires a good bit of laughter. UNNECESSARY FARCE is the fifth entry in the line-up, and the fast pace, the mistaken identities, the romance, and just the sheer silliness of two cops staking out a possibly corrupt mayor promises to tie Playhouse audiences up in fits and roll them right down the aisles. Ficca calls the play "absolutely hilarious," as well as "the best farce written since Lend Me A Tenor."

RUTHLESS! THE MUSICAL could not be a more timely spoof of all those wanna-be pop princesses clamoring for a spot on the Disney Channel as the next teen sensation. Except this story starts at the grass roots - a third grade musical, and the machinations of one pint sized diva who wants to be a star, no matter what it takes! Patriot Federal Credit Union is the guest sponsor.

The spirit of celebration is certainly in the air in that quiet corner of Caledonia. With the promises of new, bigger, and better-Totem Pole will certainly be the buzz of Summer 2010. A party not to be missed. For more information on the 2010 season or ordering tickets call 888-805-7056. www.TotemPolePlayhouse.org.

 

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