AVENUE Q, LEADING LADIES & More Set for Novato Theater's 2014-15 Season; New Board Announced

The Novato Theater Company has announced the six plays to be staged in its 2014-2015 Season, beginning with Ken Ludwig's Leading Ladies, opening on August 21, 2014, and closing with Paul Slade Smith's rollicking Unnecessary Farce, May 21-June 14, 2015.

To some, the two musicals may seem poles apart - the beloved Fiddler on the Roof and the edgy, often very blue, actors-with-puppets eyebrow-raiser, Avenue Q. Ludwig's Leading Ladies is a boisterous farce, featuring two bumbling con men in drag. Unnecessary Farce is (well, duh!) a farce, as well, about a police stake-out gone very, very wrong.

Daniel Sullivan's Inspecting Carol is a backstage comedy, loosely based on Gogol's The Inspector General. Mary Roberts Rinehart's classic mystery novel, The Bat, is the source of the stage version, featuring a costumed super-criminal, considered to be the inspiration for the character, "Batman."

The 94-year-old Novato Theater Company, the oldest in Marin County, is housed in its one-year-old theater at 5420 Nave Drive in Novato. www.novatotheatercompany.org.

The 2014-2015 Season includes the following:

August 21 - September 14, 2014
Leading Ladies
by Ken Ludwig, Directed by Chris Neely

October 9 - November 9, 2014
Avenue Q
Music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, Book by Jeff Whitty, Directed by Carl Jordan

Nov 29 - Dec 20, 2014
Inspecting Carol
by Daniel Sullivan

January 29 - February 22, 2015
The Bat
by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood

March 26 - April 26, 2015

Fiddler on the Roof
Music by Jerry Bock, Book by Joseph Stein Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick

May 21 - June 14, 2015

Unnecessary Farce
by Paul Slade Smith.

Novato Theatre Company installed its new Board of Directors on May 10 at a dinner meeting at Ghiringelli's Restaurant in Novato.

New Board members include:

President, Mark Clark; Vice President, Alison Peltz; Secretary, Tracy Bell Redig; Treasurer, John Clancy (interim); Directors at Large, Dale Camden and Jerrie Patterson. One director's position remains open.

Outgoing Board Members were recognized for their contributions over the past year. They are Michele Cronin, Kris Neely, Karen Thouvenin, John Clancy, Janelle Ponte, Gary Gonser, and Frank Sarubbi.

Janelle Ponte spoke on behalf of the outgoing board and welcomed the new one. Incoming president Mark Clark emphasized that the board "is here to support the theater, not to run it."

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