PCPA Announces 56th Season

Play readings, musicals, comedies, and dramas are set to delight and stir the senses for PCPA's 2019 - 2020 season - presented in three venues on the California Central Coast.

InterPlay returns this season! It will feature three contemporary play readings in rotating repertory in the Severson Theatre September 19 - 21, 2019. Titles TBA.

A spectacular holiday production of Disney's The Little Mermaid will amaze families from November 7 through December 22 in the Marian Theatre. PCPA will collaborate with director Melissa Rain Anderson (Always...Patsy Cline) and New York City's 2 Ring Circus to bring breathtaking aerial feats and imaginative theatrical magic to tell the story of Ariel, the beautiful young mermaid who longs to leave her ocean home to live in the world above. Based on Hans Christian Andersen's beloved story and the Disney animated film, The Little Mermaid tells the tale of longing, love, and sacrifice as princess Ariel risks everything to join her prince on land. Meet the majestic King Triton, and the mischievous Sea Witch Ursula, as a host of Ariel's undersea friends and enemies battle to rule the future in this magical musical that will capture your heart with irresistible songs, including: "Under the Sea," "Kiss the Girl," and "Part of Your World."

The heart-warming and witty memoir from Neil Simon, Brighton Beach Memoirs is the first of Simon's autobiographical trilogy of plays (with Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound). Eugene is dreaming of baseball and girls while coping with life in Depression-era Brooklyn with a formidable mother, an overworked father, and a worldly older brother. Throw into the mix his widowed Aunt Blanche, her two young (but rapidly aging) daughters, and you have the perfect recipe for teenage struggle and family hilarity. Brighton Beach Memoirs, directed by Associate Artistic Director Roger DeLaurier, plays February 13 - March 1 in the Marian Theatre.

Friendship, loyalty, and betrayal amidst political upheaval are the timeless concepts probed in William Shakespeare's tragedy, Julius Caesar. Filled with searing rhetoric and thrilling intrigue, the story exposes the inner regions and outer manifestations of the places where personal ambition and the ideals of noble citizenry diverge, as Brutus and Marc Antony make their stands. A masterpiece on persuasive speech, Artistic Director Mark Booher will lead a language driven, physically kinetic, dynamic audience experience of Julius Caesar to play in the intimate Severson Theatre March 5 -22.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's most glorious score sings its way onto the stage in The Sound of Music. Maria is a high-spirited postulant nun struggling to fit into convent life, and who seeks solace for her lonely heart in the foothills of the Austrian Alps. She is dispatched to serve as governess for the seven precious and precocious children of the widowed, broken, and stoic, Captain von Trapp. Inspired by the true story of the von Trapp family and their escape from the 1938 Nazi invasion of Austria, The Sound of Music features beloved and memorable songs, including: "Maria," "My Favorite Things," "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," "Edelweiss," and, one of the most thrilling and inspiration finales ever presented in the theatre. Directed by Resident Artist Kitty Balay, The Sound of Music will play the Marian Theatre April 23 - May 10, then under the stars in the Solvang Festival Theater June 11 - July 5.

Riding on the rhythm of the 1960s R&B, Rock, and Doo-Wop, the hilarious Little Shop of Horrors, a musical hit sci-fi homage to B-movies, has devoured the hearts of theatre goers for over 30 years. Mushnik's flower shop on Skid Row is about to go under until meek assistant Seymour happens upon a new breed of plant with an unusual appetite for blood. The plant, whose magical and musical strengths are as powerful as its appetite, promises Seymour unending fame and fortune and the love of his co-worker, Audrey. Eventually, Seymour discovers the out-of-this-world origins of the plant and its intent towards global domination leading to a terrible showdown of ridiculous proportions. From creators Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Disney's The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) and directed by Mark Booher, Little Shop of Horrors plays June 25 - July 3, Marian Theatre and July 10 - August 2, Solvang Festival Theater.

Broadway's hilarious hit - Something Rotten! - is "The funniest musical comedy in at least 400 years." -Time Out New York. In 1590s London, brothers Nick and Nigel Bottom are desperate to write a hit play, but are stuck in the shadow of that Renaissance rock star know as "The Bard." When a local soothsayer foretells that the future of theatre involves singing, dancing, and acting, at the same time, Nick and Nigel set out to write the world's very first MUSICAL! A deliciously loopy celebration of the greatest English playwright and the greatest American art form. Something Rotten!, co-directed by Roger DeLaurier and Katie Fuchs-Wackowski, plays July 23 - August 1, Marian Theatre, and August 7 - September 6, Solvang Festival Theater.

At the climax of Henrick Ibsen's 1879 groundbreaking masterwork, A Doll's House, Nora Helmer makes the shocking decision to leave her husband, children, and community, and begin a new life on her own. Nora's famous door slam ushered in the modern age of world drama. In his award-winning Broadway debut, A Doll's House, Part 2, playwright Lucas Hnath writes a play for our time, picking up the story 15 years after Nora's exit. Now, there's a knock on that same door. Nora has returned. But why? And what will it mean for those she left behind? Brimming with contemporary wit, intellectual complexity, and emotional authenticity, this play will be adored by those familiar with Ibsen's original and loved by everyone else. A Doll's House, Part 2, directed by Karin Hendricks (PCPA's 2019, The Wolves), plays in the Severson Theatre August 20 - September 6.

Tickets for Season 56 will go on sale this October.

Plan to subscribe to the season - selecting as few as 4 plays - enjoy the greatest savings and special privileges: free ticket exchange, deferred payment, additional tickets at your subscriber rate, and guaranteed lowest ticket prices all season long. Subscription plans will be available this fall.

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