{productions}
Current Productions
Dog Sees God (March 5-28 2010)
By Bert V. Royal
Directed By: Frannie Shepherd-Bates
This play examines the plight of today's teenagers through the lens of characters very familiar to us: the Peanuts gang. Royal and the teenage Peanuts show us with dark, critical humor just how harrowing life can be for adolescents isolated from parents and ostracized by peers.
Upcoming Productions
2nd Annual Staged Reading festival
Info Coming Soon...
Past Productions
The Last Five Years (Jan 1-23 2010)
By Jason Robert Brown
Directed By: Frannie Shepherd-Bates
A gorgeous musical about life, love and the demise of a relationship, follows Jan. 1-23, 2010. Directed by Frannie Shepherd-Bates and with musical direction by Michael Fiedler, the show takes an in-depth look at two lovers who, while not necessarily star-crossed, never quite get it together to make their relationship work after five years of trying. The unusual narrative structure allows us to look at this couple's journey from a fresh perspective, focusing a bright light on all of our relationships.
Dutchman
By Amiri Baraka
Directed By: LoriGoe Nowak
Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman premiered in 1964 in Greenwich Village, winning an Obie Award. It was the last play that Baraka would stage under the name LeRoi Jones and coincided with the playwright’s increasing involvement in Black Nationalism. Through characters mired in racism and guilt, the play forces us to take a hard look at our own prejudices and assumptions. Controversial from the beginning, Dutchman has no less serious an impact today than it did at the time of its first production.
Sitting aboard a subway train, Clay, a young black man, is approached by Lula, a young white woman. Their ensuing banter ranges from playful to deadly serious and even incendiary, until the play reaches its shocking and violent climax. Audiences will be struck by the evident racism seething in both characters, by their frankness, and by the end result of the conversation. Never one to tiptoe around controversial matters, Baraka has given us a play that will provoke no less heated discussion today than it did 45 years ago.
No Exit
By Jean-Paul Sartre
Directed By: Frannie Shepherd-Bates
No Exit was chosen as our first production because it addresses the first issue in our mission statement, "acts to eliminate apathy." Sartre illustrates that we are each defined by the choices we make and every individual action we take. Each of those choices and actions has an effect that reaches further than we could possibly imagine. As individuals and as a society, we need to care - care about our neighbors, care about ourselves, care about the choices we make and be aware of the affects that those choices have on others. No Exit is a powerful demonstration of the results of apathy and we hope our production will help people to realize that we do have a way out and that way is simply by caring.
As a nonprofit corporation, we keep the betterment of the community we serve at the forefront of our mission. In the future, all of our play choices will be related to our mission statement; from edgy new works to Shakespeare, we want to show that theatre does have the capacity to address the issues facing our society.
Theatre is expression; theatre is living; theatre is healing…