2022-2023 Season, StageCenter Community Theatre, Bryan

 

Published in the Bryan Eagle, May 7, 2022:

 

StageCenter, the area’s oldest continually operating community theater, is planning a big season for 2022-2023.

The season, announced Saturday night, will include one of William Shakespeare’s most difficult plays as well as a popular mystery full of twists and surprises, plus its much-anticipated biennial summer melodrama.

StageCenter board president Cindy Roberts said, “Every year we have the task to pick great plays and this season was especially hard. We had a record number of plays submitted, which is a great thing, just hard on the board to choose.”

The new season will include:

 

“Over the River and through the Woods” by Joe Pietro, directed by Robin Sutton, Sept. 29 through Oct. 15. This is the story of carefree bachelor Nick, who dines every weekend with his two sets of grandparents. When he says he will be transferred across the country, the grandparents, in a desperate attempt to keep him, introduce him to a young Irish woman, Caitlin. He moves across the country but comes to realize how much he gave up at home.

 

“A Christmas Story,” adapted by Philip Grecian, directed by Keith Marrocco, Dec. 1 through Dec. 17. You loved the book and the movie and will love this adaptation of the film about Ralphie who pines for a Red Ryder B.B. gun. It’s all there, the flag pole and the “leg” lamp. This will be a perfect way to enjoy the Christmas season.

 

“Love Letters” by A.R. Gurney, a StageCenter fundraiser directed by Chaz Pitman, Feb. 14. A finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, “Love Letters” is the story of two people who, over a period of 50 years, tell each other their hopes and dreams in a series of letters. Sounds like the perfect Valentine’s Day event.

 

“Sleuth” by Anthony Shaffer, directed by J. Paul Teel, Feb. 9-25. An extreme game player invites his wife’s lover to his home, setting up a battle of wits with potentially deadly results.

 

“King Lear” by William Shakespeare, directed by Katy Sutton, April 13-29. Based on English mythology, “King Lear” is the story of an aging king who plans to divide his kingdom among his three daughters. After testing their love, Lear gives the kingdom to his two oldest daughters, who betray him.

 

“Last Round-up of the Guacamole Queens” by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, directed by Katie Irwin, June 8-24, 2023. “Guacamole Queens” is set in fictional Sweetgum, Texas, where three cousins plan the ultimate high school reunion before the school is torn down. Peaches is the top mortuary cosmetologist in the community, Gaynelle wants to be the final Guacamole Queen of the school and Jimmie Wyvette owns Wide Bride, a bridal shop for larger women. Needless to say, if it can go wrong, it comically does so.

Jones, Hope and Wooten have written a number of plays popular with community theaters, as well as movie scripts and teleplays for “The Golden Girls.”

 

“The Curse of the Aching Heart” by Herbert W. Swayne, directed by the queen of melodramas, Jennifer Hargis, Aug. 10-26, 2023. Not to be confused with the song of the same name by Frank Sinatra and many others, this “Aching Heart” is the story of ... well that doesn’t matter. It has the requisite damsel in destress, the good guy in the white hat and the horrible bad guy. Get ready to throw your popcorn and boo to your heart’s content.

 

Roberts said, “We are so excited for this new season. We have two not new to StageCenter but new to directing at StageCenter. They are bringing fresh new plays.

“We have a wonderful line up.”

For more information and to purchase season tickets, visit stagecenter.net.