A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Book by: Hugh Wheeler
Music by: Stephen Sondheim
Directed By: Ryan McPhee and Abigail Smith
Please join Stage Troupe in celebrating Parents Weekend 2011 with the production of this Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler masterpiece, recently revived on Broadway starring Academy Award winner Catherine Zeta Jones. With a breathtaking score including the staple “Send in the Clowns” and a book full of romance, comedy, and passion, A Little Night Music is sure to captivate an audience of students and parents alike.
It is the turn-of-the-century Scandinavia. Middle-aged Fredrik Egerman brings his young wife Anne to a play starring “the one and only” Desiree Armfeldt. It is soon revealed that Desiree and Frederik are in fact former lovers. The two begin to rekindle their romance, enraging Desiree’s current lover, a pompous Count. In her attempts to win Fredrik back, the actress has her sage mother invite the Egerman family to their county estate. This “Weekend in the Country” brings together Frederik, Anne, Desiree and the Count, as well as Fredrik's son, Desiree's daughter, the Count's scathing wife, and the Egermans' lusty maid. With the beautiful estate as a backdrop, love is discovered and reawakened, and the night smiles upon the young and the old.
BUG
Written By: Tracy Letts
Directed by: Chris Hamilton
Agnes is afraid. Afraid of her recently paroled abusive ex-husband, Jerry, afraid of the breathy, wordless phone calls that keep her up at night, afraid of sleeping alone in the seedy Oklahoma City motel room she's holed herself up in. Along comes Peter, a soft-spoken, thoughtful young man, who gives her the love and companionship she's desperately longed for. Then the bugs appear; tiny, nearly invisible bugs that crawl under your skin and feed on your blood. As Agnes and Peter's paranoia grows, dark character secrets are revealed, giving way to government conspiracies, pure psychological terror, and more bugs. Millions and millions of bugs.
HEDDA GABLER
Written by: Henrik Ibsen
Directed by: Marcus Doyle
Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler has stood as the pinnacle of dark, psychological plays for more than a hundred years. It illustrates the story of a woman whose desires and motives outlay the expectations and restraints imposed on her by society. Her struggle for freedom and control over her life drives her to a desperate and expressive end. This play has been produced thousands of times with hundreds of interpretations, transcending the boundaries of time and culture, finding novel meaning as each generation explores the text and craft of Ibsen's masterpiece.
ALL MY SONS
Written By: Arthur Miller
Directed By: Elise Roth and Mike Halpern
It is August 1947 in the backyard of the Keller residence, located in the outskirts of an American town. Joe Keller, a “man among men,” ran a machine shop during the war that turned out defective airplane parts, causing the death of countless young soldiers. Years later, Joe leads a successful life while his former business partner, Herbert Deever, is locked up behind bars. While Joe carries around this burden of guilt, his wife, Kate, is haunted by nightmares of their missing son Larry. Their other son, Chris, wishes to marry childhood neighbor Ann, his brother Larry’s lover and daughter of Herbert, much to the dismay of Kate. Following the arrival of Ann’s bitter brother George, Joe's terrible secret is unveiled and the Keller household is turned upside down.
Through the brilliant words of legendary playwright Arthur Miller, the problems of a post-war suburban American family are explored and reach an emotional climax that is electrifying in its intensity and powerfully raw in its sincerity.