The Gingerbread Lady

September 9-11, 16-18, 2011
Comedy by Neil Simon
Directed by Dana O'Neal

Neil Simon's bittersweet comedy centers around Evy Meara, a recovering alcoholic, who is welcomed home from rehab by her loyal friends and teenage daughter. A 43 year old singer / actress, Evy's closest male friend is Jimmy Perry, a forty-year-old actor who is still waiting for his big break. Her best girlfriend is Toby, an aging glamour queen who can't seem to hang onto her husband. And Evy's ex-boyfriend is a thoughtless freeloader who tries to weasel his way back into her affections when he is dumped by his latest 18 year old conquest. The only relatively well-adjusted person in this play is Evy's sweet and loving daughter, Polly.

At Home, At the Zoo

October 21-22, 28-30, November 4-5, 2011
Drama by Edward Albee
Directed by Kate Bunce

Edward Albee delves deeper into his play THE ZOO STORY by adding a first act, HOMELIFE, which precedes Peter's fateful meeting with Jerry on a park bench in Central Park. A man sits peacefully reading in the sunlight in Central Park. There enters a second man. He is a young, unkempt and undisciplined vagrant where the first is neat, ordered, well-to-do and conventional. The vagrant is a soul in torture and rebellion. He longs to communicate so fiercely that he frightens and repels his listener. He is a man drained of all hope who, in his passion for company, seeks to drain his companion. With provocative humor and unrelenting suspense, the young savage slowly, but relentlessly, brings his victim down to his own atavistic level as he relates a story about his visit to the zoo.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

January 13-14, 20-22, 27-28, 2012
Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Music & Lyrics by William Finn
Conceived by Rebecca Feldman
Directed by Dan Checovetes

A junior high school gym is set up to host the county spelling finals. Winners from local elementary and middle schools begin to arrive and check in with the bee's long-time hostess—and Former champion-Rona Lisa Pereti... A glitch: Speller Olive Ostrovsky does not have her entrance Fee; she hopes her father will get there soon to straighten it out. Vice Principal Douglas Panch of Lake Hemingway-Dos Passos Junior High is announced as the day's word pronouncer - he's a last minute substitute for an ailing superintendent. Panch has a dubious track record at the bee but will try to do better this time. The rules are explained. When a speller misses a word a bell will ring - ding - and the speller must immediately leave the stage, escorted, by the bee's comfort-counselor.

Ivanov

March 2-3, 9-11, 16-17, 2012
Drama by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Pawel Moroz

Nikolai Ivanov is a young estate-owner, heavily in debt, especially to Zinaida Lebedev, the wife of the head of the County Council. Ivanov used to be energetic, creative and unconventional, the "star" of the local gentry. He married for love-- a Jewish woman (Sarah, now called Anna) whose parents disowned her when she married a gentile-- and Anna is totally devoted to him. Yet Ivanov is suffering from profound depression.

PVT.Wars

May 4-5, 11-13, 18-19, 2012
Comedy by James Mclure
Directed by Dana O’Neal

Dealing with three veterans who are recuperating in an Army hospital, PVT.WARS combines humor and compassion with uncompromising honesty as it follows the irreverent doings of its exceptionally engaging characters. Comprised of a series of brief blackout scenes, the play blends these into a meaningful mosaic as the three tease, torment, entertain, exasperate and, on occasion, solace each other, maintaining throughout a hilarity which belies their deep concern about the uncertainties of the civilian world to which they will soon be returning.