West End Players Guild Announces Upcoming Shows for Their 101st Season

Classics, a world premiere and a cabaret show will highlight the West End Players Guild's 2011-2012 season, its 101st season of "big theatre in a small space."

On November 11, 2011 - 100 years to the day after the first performance of The Players at the St. Louis Artists Guild - WEPG will open its season with Charles Marowitz's Murdering Marlowe, directed by Robert A. Mitchell. William Shakespeare is an aspiring playwright desperate to make his mark in London. The greatest obstacle to his success is the prominence of Christopher Marlowe, the "superstar" of the Elizabethan theatre. This intriguing thriller explores the high price of envy, love and blind ambition, all played out among the familiar names of Shakespeare's day. Murdering Marlowe runs through November 20.

The Seafarer by Conor McPherson, directed by Steve Callahan, opens January 6, 2012, for a two-week run. In this dark and enthralling Christmas fable of love and redemption, Sharky has returned to Dublin to look after his irascible brother who recently has gone blind. Old drinking buddies Ivan and Nicky are holed up in the house for a game of cards. With the arrival of a stranger from the distant past, the stakes are raised even higher and Sharky may be playing for his very soul.

WEPG presents the world premiere of Wake Up, Cameron Dobbs February 24-March 4, 2012. St. Louis playwright and actor Stephen Peirick wrote this charming comedy and Robert Ashton will direct the play. It's Cameron Dobbs's birthday. He's having dinner at this brother and sister-in-law's apartment, he's allergic to the food, his mother is coming over, his sister-in-law is introducing him to a wonderful girl she knows and he's managed to fall flat on his face in the gutter on the way to the apartment. He just can't tell any of these people to let him live his own life - or can he?

Eugene Ionesco's Exit the King, directed by Renee Sevier-Monsey, will close the 101st season April 13-22, 2012. Recently revived on Broadway (2009) this absurdist exploration of ego and mortality is set in the crumbling throne-room of a palace in an unnamed country where King Berenger the First has only the duration of the play to live. Once he ruled an immense empire, but now his kingdom has shrunk to the confines of his garden wall. His present and former Queens must help him face the final, inevitable truth of life: Death.

In addition to these four plays to be performed at the theatre in the Union Avenue Christian Church, WEPG has been selected to produce a show for the Missouri History Museum's theatre series. Just a Song at Twilight: the Golden Age of Vaudeville is a cabaret show written and performed by WEPG's Chuck Lavazzi and directed by Tim Schall with musical arrangement and direction by NeAl Richardson. Join Chuck as the travels back to an era that's not as bygone as you might think, when Americans put away the cares of the world by reveling in the often-bawdy comedy, incredible variety and unforgettable songs of the vaudeville stage. Just a Song at Twilight: the Golden Age of Vaudeville will be presented at the History Museum's Lee Auditorium October 6-16, 2011. This show is not part of the WEPG season ticket package; tickets will be available through the Missouri History Museum only.

More information on season ticket plans and the 101st season will be available at www.westendplayers.org. Actors please note that auditions for the first two plays of the season - Murdering Marlowe and The Seafarer - will be held on Saturday, July 23, at noon at the Union Avenue Christian Church. More information, including a complete list of roles to be cast, will be posted on www.westendplayers.org in June.

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