I’m incredibly excited about next season at the Williamston Theatre, and I’m in love with the logos for the upcoming shows! So, I thought I’d share them. I’ve added a blurb for each show, too, just for fun!
boom by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Something is about to explode. A grad student’s online personal ad lures a mysterious journalism student to his subterranean research lab for a “casual encounter”, but there’s nothing casual about this particular evening! She discovers that he actually fears the end of the world is at hand… and from there things get weird! Will they survive? Will their casual encounter lead to another big bang? What’s going on in the fishbowl? What’s our place in the universe? And who is that woman playing the timpani!? This epic and intimate comedy spans billions of years and will keep you laughing ‘til the unexpected end!
Ebenezer by Joseph Zettelmaier *World Premiere*
It’s a cold Christmas Eve in London, and Ebenezer Scrooge sits in a hospital room. 15 years have passed since his miraculous transformation by the Ghosts of Christmas. Now renowned for his generosity and selflessness, his spirit still yearns to bring cheer to the world, but his flesh is weak. Such a little thing isn’t likely to stop the old man, though, for he has a plan up his sleeve that he hasn’t shared with his two troubled companions – Miss Poole, the nurse assigned to his care, and Tim Cratchit, recently returned from war in America. Over the course of the evening, these two lost souls bear witness to events they do not fully understand as the spirit of Christmas descends on Ebenezer once again.
End Days by Deborah Zoe Laufer
It’s 2003, and sixteen-year-old Rachel Stein is having a bad year. Her father hasn’t changed out of his pajamas since 9/11. Her mother has begun a close, personal relationship with Jesus. Her new neighbor, a sixteen-year-old Elvis impersonator, has fallen for her hard. And the Apocalypse is coming Wednesday. Her only hope is that Stephen Hawking will save them all. Hilariously funny and achingly poignant, End Days takes us on a wonderful journey exploring love, loss and the healing power of family.
Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
What can you do when you realize that you’ve hit middle age, and your life has been shaped by choices made by everyone except you? The heroine in this actor’s tour-de-force is an ordinary middle class English housewife. As she prepares chips and egg for dinner, she ruminates on her life and tells the wall about her husband, her children, her past, and an invitation from a girlfriend to join her on holiday in Greece to search for romance and adventure. Ultimately, Shirley begins the process of shaping her life into something wonderful. This one-woman play became an instant classic the minute it premiered!
10:53 by Annie Martin *World Premiere*
The worst part of a hospital waiting room is normally the waiting but, in the midst of a prolonged family medical crisis, Kathryn Fuller regards the waiting room as a welcome refuge from her increasingly chaotic life. However, the real world quickly invades her new home away from home, and she’s surrounded with her over-the-top family life, rebellious, love-struck daughter and a mysterious stranger who, oddly, shows up at the same time every night. What happens when the universe decides our lives need a shaking up, whether we like it or not? Will Kathryn get drawn into the ridiculous comedy, drama, and potential romance swirling around her beloved waiting room, or will she burrow deeper into her seclusion from the world?
Tuna Does Vegas
by Joe Sears, Jaston Williams and Ed Howard.
Aral Gribble and Wayne David Parker reunite for the finale of our “Tuna Trilogy” as the lovable and eccentric characters from the ‘third smallest town in Texas’ as they take a rambling romp in Sin City. The hilarity begins when oddball-conservative radio host Arles Struvie announces on air that he and his wife Bertha Bumiller are heading to Vegas to renew their wedding vows…but everyone in Tuna, Texas goes along for the ride! is both an affectionate comment on small-town life as well as a hilarious satire of the same. The eclectic band of citizens that make up this town are portrayed by only two actors, making this send-up on life in rural America even more delightful as they depict all of the inhabitants of Tuna — men, women, Vegas showgirls, Elvis impersonators and more!
Tony Caselli 