2009 MAINSTAGE SEASON
ICE GLEN by
Joan Ackermann
May 7-9, 14-17, 21-23
We always like to launch our season with
a play that is sure to surprise and even charm our audiences.
This heart-melting literary romance will do
just that. Set in 1919 on a great estate in the Berkshires, the story
revolves around the estate's quirky gardener/poet and a magazine
editor's steadfast pursuit to publish her poetry. Along the way, the
widowed proprietress of the mansion falls in love with the magazine
editor who has, in turn, fallen in love with the reclusive poet. An
unintentional love triangle—a delightful introduction to our 61st
season.
THE LOMAN FAMILY PICNIC
by Donald Margulies May 28-30,
June 4-7, 11- 13
Prior to his plays Dinner With Friends,
Brooklyn Boy, Collected Stories and
Sight Unseen, Donald Margulies wrote this deeply-felt dramatic
comedy about a husband and wife who, at a time when their marriage is
rocky, are approaching the celebration of their young son's Bar
Mitzvah. The title of the play, The Loman Family Picnic,
comes from the fact that the son is reading Death of a Salesman
in school, and believes if only the Lomans had hosted a big,
family barbeque and picnic, everything would have worked out for all of
them.
LAUGHTER ON THE 23rd
FLOOR by Neil Simon June
18-20, 25-28, July 1-3
America’s favorite playwright, Neil
Simon, began his comedy writing career in televison, working for The
Phil Silvers Show and Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows. This
comedy, with “unbridled hilarity, fast and furious,” recreates
the mayhem, neuroses, one-upmanship and heart of a team of brilliant and
funny comedy sketch writers on The Max Prince Show. Set
in 1953 under the rising pressures of the McCarthy era, the network
executives battle with Max, a comic genius, to cut back his show so they
can chase after the Leave It To Beaver and Father Knows Best
audiences. This play contains adult language. Please note: An
added Wednesday performance replaces the July 4th
performance.
OFF THE MAP
by Joan Ackermann
July 9-11, 16-19, 23-25
“The summer my father was depressed,
the face of our Lord Jesus Christ appeared on a tortilla at the Morning
Glory café.” And so opens this bountiful, compelling comedy/drama
in which Bo Groden looks back at her family’s life during the summer of
her 11th year. Fondly reminiscent of the recent movie
Little Miss Sunshine—at the heart of this play is a family who loves
and supports one another in spite of (and because of) all their
endearing eccentricities. And, by the way, how do a hapless IRS agent
and a 15 foot West Wight Potter sailboat figure into this story?
HARVEY by Mary Chase
July
30-August 1, 6-9, 13-15
Elwood P. Dowd—it is hard to mention his
name without smiling. If you have never had the pleasure of meeting
this gentleman and his imaginary (?) companion, a six foot rabbit named
Harvey, you are indeed in for a treat. It has been 11 years since this
beloved American classic comedy has been on our season schedule—it’s not
a minute too soon to bring the rabbit back for his 9th visit
to our stage.
BEYOND THERAPY
by Christopher Durang
August 20-22, 27-30, September 3-5Bruce and Prudence meet on a blind date.
The blind date does not go well. Bruce and Prudence end up throwing
water in each others’ faces. Bruce and Prudence talk with their
therapists about the date. Their therapists are nuts. Will Bruce and
Prudence see each other again, and maybe start to like each other?
Crazier things have happened. One critic wrote, “Christopher Durang
is a serious young writer who can’t help thinking comically. Beyond
Therapy is zany in a particularly intelligent way…wickedly funny,
terribly slanted and essentially true.” Contains satire for
grown-ups and a few dirty words.
OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH
THE WOODS by Joe DiPietro September 10-12, 17-19,
24-26
Funny. Charming. Funny. Familiar.
Funny. Nick eats every Sunday dinner with both sets of his Italian
grandparents. When he proudly announces that he has received a job
promotion and will be moving across the country from them, Frank, Aida,
Nunzio and Emma devise a match-making scheme with Miss Caitlin O’Hare to
keep him right where he is.
WAIT UNTIL DARK
by Frederick Knott
October 1-3, 8-10, 15-17
Still a first-rate chiller with one of
the most suspenseful final scenes ever written for the stage. A
particularly sinister con man, Harry Roat, Jr. (originally played on the
Broadway stage by Robert Duvall) and two ex-convicts cleverly trap a
young blind woman in her Greenwich Village apartment and manipulate her
into believing that her new photographer-husband has been involved in a
heinous drug-related murder.
THEY HAVE OAK TREES IN NORTH CAROLINA
by Sarah Wooley
October 22-24, 29, 30, November 5-7
We are proud to announce that Little Lake Theatre will host the
United States premiere of this powerful, engaging drama by British
playwright, Sarah Wooley. It is the story of a British couple whose
son, as a toddler, was abducted while the family was on vacation in
Disney World. The play opens with a 27-year-old American, on the
doorstep of the couple's home in a sleepy English village, claiming to
be their son. Is he or isn't he? And what buried secrets will be
revealed to prove his true identity? Adult language advisory.
THE FOURSOME
by Norm Foster
November
12-14, 19-21, 27, 28
Yes, the golf play returns! Twice before
we have presented this comedy about four chums who get together for a
round of golf at their college reunion, and both times we have played to
packed houses. Friends want to bring friends to this one because it
resonates with everyone who has ever played the game. One critic wrote,
“The laughter was immediate, uncontrollable, constant and helpless.”
CHRISTMAS BELLES
by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, Jamie Wooten December
3-5, 10-12, 17-19
The Christmas Eve program at the
Tabernacle of the Lamb is hilariously spiraling into chaos, and it
doesn’t help that the Futrelle sisters aren’t exactly in a festive mood.
Frankie is weeks overdue with her second pair of twins. Twink
has been jilted. Santa has a kidney stone. The sheep are vengeful.
There’s an Elvis impersonator in the manger. And Joseph just fell victim
to food poisoning from the Band Boosters’ Pancake Supper. This holiday
journey through Fayro, Texas is guaranteed to bring howls of laughter
and joy to your world!
