Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Rockwall Community Playhouse announces 2008-2009 season

By Shawn Parikh

Rockwall Community Playhouse is about to close out their current season with their teen production of Singin’ in the Rain from August 1 - 10. They have released the info on their 2008-2009 year so here is their lineup:

• My Fair Lady from September 26 - October 12. This show is the standard by which all others are measured. Based on Shaw's play and Pascal's movie "Pygmalion," with book, music and lyrics by Lerner and Loewe, My Fair Lady is triumphant. With Wouldn't It Be Loverly?, With a Little Bit of Luck, The Rain in Spain, I Could Have Danced All Night, On the Street Where You Live, Get Me to the Church on Time and I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face it's no wonder everyone-not just Henry Higgins-falls in love with Eliza Doolittle.
• The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe from November 28 - December 14. New dramatization of C.S. Lewis' classic, set in the land of Narnia, faithfully recreates the magic and mystery of Aslan, the great lion, his struggle with the White Witch, and the adventures of four children who inadvertently wander from an old wardrobe into the exciting, never-to-be-forgotten Narnia. The action features chases, duels and escapes as the witch is determined to keep Narnia in her possession and to end the reign of Aslan. All the memorable episodes from the story are represented in this exciting dramatization: the temptation of Edmund by the witch, the slaying of the evil wolf by Peter, the witnessing of Aslan's resurrection by Susan and Lucy, the crowing of the four new rulers of Narnia, and more. The supporting characters are also here: the unicorn, the centaur and other forest animals, along with Father Christmas, Mr. and Mrs. Beaver and Tumnus the Faun. This story of love, faith, courage and giving, with its triumph of good over evil, is a true celebration of life.
• Barefoot in the Park. After a six day honeymoon a spanking new lawyer, who has just won his first case (6 cents in damages), and his young bride, who is as pretty and addled as they come, move into the new, high rent apartment that she has chosen for them. But the difficulty is, in order to enjoy the charming character of this apartment, one has to climb six wheezing flights. And the apartment is absolutely bare of furniture, the paint job came out all wrong, the skylight leaks snow, there isn't room for a double bed, and an outlandish gourmet who lives in a loft on the roof uses it and the window ledge as the only access to his padlocked premises. The situation is enough to break the heart and burst the lungs of any stylish young lawyer; and indeed it does, on the night he flatly refuses to join his wife in a barefoot walk through the snow in the park. She kicks him out, but he comes back not for reconciliation, but because he figures that since he's paying the rent she should be the one to go!
• Arsenic & Old Lace from March 20 - 29. RCP's Optional Favorite Theater brings the story of the eccentric Brewster family. In addition to the scheming old women who poison their victims with elderberry wine, the family includes Teddy, who suffers delusions that he is Theodore Roosevelt and that the Panama Canal runs through the cellar of his home. The locks he digs become convenient graves for the lonely men who fall victims to Aunt Martha and Aunt Abby’s machinations. When their nephew Mortimer discovers a body under the window seat of his aunts’ home, however, the elderly women ‘fess up’ to their deeds matter-of-factly and the events of the play become more absurd right up to the end.
• Kiss Me, Kate from May 8 - 24. Combine Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew with Porter's music and lyrics to get KISS ME, KATE, an instant success with every cast and audience. This is a play-within-a-play where each cast member's on-stage life is complicated by what is happening offstage. Musical numbers include "Why Can't You Behave", "So In Love Am I", "Wunderbar", "Tom, Dick or Harry", "Were Thine That Special Face", "Too Darn Hot", "Brush Up Your Shakespeare", "I Hate Men", "Always True to You (In My Fashion)" and "Another Op'nin, Another Show".
• Get Smart from July 24 - August 2. RCP Teen Theater sends Maxwell Smart off on a bizarre new case in which he must stop the sinister organization known as KAOS from their most shameful plot. Their plan this time is to prove their power by blowing up a national landmark! This is too much, and Smart springs—perhaps we should say stumbles—into action. Magnificently assisted by beautiful Agent 99, Smart proceeds from one gigantic blunder to another—each, however, somehow turning into a master stroke.

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