July 17 to August 9, 2009

Engaged!, W.S. Gilbert’s well-acclaimed comedic play (and the inspiration for Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest), takes the stage in a whirl of petticoats and romantic entanglements. Watch as working-class Belvawney, best friend of wealthy Cheviot Hill, falls in love with the beautiful Belinda, who is engaged to the Major and also ardently pursued by the possibly thrice-engaged Cheviot, who falls in love at first sight… with every woman he meets. Confused? It’s all part of the absurd, earnest, and utterly charming fun of this lighthearted Summer Fling.

September 11 to October 11, 2009

One hotheaded king. One gleefully manipulative queen. Three coddled and cunning princes. Add in the king’s determined lover and her power-hungry brother and it’s the ultimate family reunion, straight from the history books. James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter, winner of three Academy Awards®, including Best Screenplay, sets the stage ablaze with an epic clash between two famous British titans: King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. When love fuels familial battles, all bets are off. And that’s when the dramatic fun truly begins.

October 23 to November 15, 2009

Highlighted by a poignant and perilous setting in WWII Europe, All’s Well That Ends Well explores the thin line between devotion and obsession. Follow the lovely and love-struck Helena as she attempts to attract the attention and affection of Bertram, a fiercely independent soldier. His mother, the Countess, is on Helena’s side with timeless words of wisdom, but will war and Bertram’s ever-wandering ways stop their love before it starts? Their fate is left in the hands of an especially strong and opinionated cast of female characters in one of Shakespeare’s most enthralling tragicomedies.

November 27, 2009 to January 3, 2010

The Baptista sisters have the most star power in Tinseltown: Beautiful Bianca draws in every audience with her radiant sweetness, while behind the scenes, her lovely, hotheaded older sister, Kate, throws infamous tantrums. Bianca yearns to settle down, but there’s a catch: feisty Kate must find a match first. Enter pompous Petruchio, the well-known director ready to match Kate and turn her from a true shrew to a real dame. Shakespeare’s beloved battle of the sexes takes a star turn with a glamorous 1930s old Hollywood setting, the perfect backdrop for wooing, sparring, and maybe even true love.

January 22 to February 14, 2010

Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape and Eugene O’Neill’s Hughie pare the theater experience down to its core essence: telling a story. In Krapp’s Last Tape, watch as obsessive Krapp relives his life in repetition, with new experiences revealed to be eerily similar to those of days gone by. Then join Erie Smith, the invariably tipsy everyman, as he confronts old pains and finds new hopes in Hughie. It’s storytelling at its finest, featuring one of the region’s best actors, Joneal Joplin, in both main roles.

January 23 to February 13, 2010

When blue-blooded Miss Julie steps down to seduce blue-collared Jean, her father’s valet, the two engage in a cat-and-mouse game of lust, ambition, and control. As their affair unfolds, their true motives are revealed, with grave consequences. Will the impassioned pair be able to break the boundaries of status, or will they remain victims to the stronghold of tradition? A clever social critique for the ages, August Strindberg’s Miss Julie, in a new adaptation by David French, serves to reveal the true power and pull of class distinctions.

February 26 to April 3, 2010

At the bleeding heart of Othello is Shakespeare’s ultimate villain, Iago. Smooth and ever-scheming, Iago is a ringmaster of deceit, with an otherworldly ability to bend others’ wills to his own. His biggest target? Othello, the heroic general who is blind to the devious motives of his subordinate. With a few swift, destructive strokes, Iago causes fatal devastation in the previously charmed life of Othello and his wife, Desdemona. Come join us for Shakespeare’s exhilarating tale of love malformed, truth corrupted, and the bonds of vengeance manifested only in life’s darkest hours.

April 16 to May 16, 2010

To aristocrat Sir Robert Chiltern, the past is better kept in the past. But when an old acquaintance threatens to reveal the nefarious nature of his rise to wealth, Sir Robert’s well-kept life is at risk. Will he do whatever it takes to remain the “ideal husband” in the eyes of his adoring wife and fawning friends, or will he accept the truth and confront his undoing? With a lively cast of supporting characters, Oscar Wilde’s popular play An Ideal Husband takes the stage for a truly theatrical experience that’s not to be missed.