Category Archives: All Years

Miracle on 34th Street (November 22 – December 1, 2018)

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Based on the 1947 Oscar-winning film, this heartwarming classic story of Kris Kringle, an old man from a retirement home who gets a job working as Santa Claus for Macy’s, the famous New York department store. Kris unleashes good will to the Macy’s customers by referring them to other department stores, where they can find exactly the toy their child wants for Christmas. Seen as deluded and dangerous by Macy’s, a plot ensues to have Kris sent to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, that results in  a court hearing. At stake is one little girl’s belief in Santa Claus. In a dramatic decision, the court confirms Kris as the true Santa, allowing countless children to experience the joy of childhood fantasy.

 “This is a tale that we want to believe in… that creates a world we seem to desperately desire.”  ~ Santa Cruz Sentinel

Exit Laughing (Sept 27 – Oct 6, 2018)

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The first play of our 42nd season is the hysterically funny Exit Laughing by Paul Elliott. When the highlight of your life for the past 30 years has been a weekly bridge night out with the girls, what do you do when one of your foursome inconveniently dies?  You “borrow” the ashes from the funeral home for one last card game and the wildest, most exciting night of your life.If you like your jokes bold and laugh-out-loud funny, Exit Laughing will be exactly what you’re looking for. You’ll certainly “exit laughing.”

“…uproarious comedy with a message… peels of laughter and a few tears of joy.” ~ Suburban Times, Washington
“This is the funniest play I’ve seen for ages! …witty dialogue, full of innuendos, had the audience rolling in the aisles.” ~ Stage Whispers

See How They Run (May 17-26, 2018)

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The final play of the season will be See How They Run by Philip King, which will run from May 13 to May 26, 2018. This classic English farce was first seen in 1940 and is constantly being revived, both professionally and with community theatre groups. In 2006, the British Theatre Guide wrote that “It remains arguably the funniest farce ever written.” Whilst I wouldn’t go to the stake for that, it is certainly a very funny play, with parts for 6 men and 3 women.

Galloping in and out of the four doors of an English country vicarage during World War II are an American actor and actress (he is now stationed with the air force in England), a cockney maid who has seen too many American movies, an old maid who “touches alcohol for the first time in her life,” four men dressed as clergy, presenting the problem of which is which (one of them is an escaped prisoner) and a sedate bishop aghast at all these goings on and the trumped up stories they tell him. “A period piece that has stood the test of time remarkably well… hilarious comic situations and misunderstandings…” ~ The Independent, 2008

The Chalk Garden (Mar 22-31, 2018)

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The Chalk Garden by Enid Bagnold. It is simplistic to describe it as a Comedy Drama – in reality, it is a beautifully-written and thoughtful drama disguised as a drawing room comedy.

Mrs. St. Maugham lives in her substantial but faded manor house by the sea in Sussex, where the garden is composed of lime and chalk. She is taking care of her teenage grandchild, Laurel, who has been setting fires. Miss Madrigal, an expert gardener, is hired as a governess, despite her lack of references. Also in the household is a valet, Maitland, who has just been released from a five-year sentence in prison. Olivia, Laurel’s mother, who has remarried, arrives for a visit. When the Judge comes to the house for lunch, he reveals that he had sentenced Miss Madrigal to jail for murder… Recently revived to acclaim on the West End in 2008, this psychological chamber piece explores the secret world of childhood through the prism of a dyed-in-the-wool British dowager Mrs. St. Maugham and her precocious and equally eccentric granddaughter Laurel. When the enigmatic Miss Madrigal is hired as household companion and manager, the two finally meet their match. Revived several times on Broadway and in the West End, a film version appeared in 1964, starring Edith Evans, Deborah Kerr, Hayley Mills and John Mills. Angela Lansbury was due to appear in a Broadway revival in June 2017, but has just backed out because (unsurprisingly!) she feels that can’t cope with the prospect of having to play 8 performances a week at the age of 91.

“Enid Bagnold’s The Chalk Garden opened in London in 1956, just a few weeks before John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger… More than half a century on, it now seems the greater play. Indeed… this half-forgotten, dust-encrusted drama looks like a true 20th-century masterpiece.” ~ Charles Spencer, The Daily Telegraph, 2008

“A tantalizing, fascinating and stimulating piece of theatre.” ~ New York Daily News

“This endearing play never seems to age, perhaps because its characters are written with such wit and brittle cleverness…It is a fragile, gossamer-winged play…”~ Rex Reed, Chicago Tribune, 1971

“…Enid Bagnold’s splendidly crafted well made play (and this term is used with no pejorative intent) is delightful to the ear. Gems of lines emerge on balance from almost every character at regular intervals, and each scene has its own, delightful, curtain line. This is a thinking man and woman’s drawing room comedy with explorations of mother daughter relations, class distinctions, and marvelous reflections on the law.” ~ ChicagoCritic

“A very fresh and personal kind of play with wit, literacy, and an almost unearthly integrity.” – New York Herald Tribune

“Bagnold’s most audacious trick was to disguise her coruscating study of mother/daughter relationships, lovelessness and the collapse of upper-class control as a laugh-aloud comedy. Her dialogue has a glistening comic surface that Oscar Wilde would have envied.” ~ Variety

“… the late Bagnold (who also penned the better-known National Velvet) is one of the most underestimated of the post-war British playwrights, probably because she was a woman writing mainly about, and for, other women.” ~ Chicago Tribune, 2006

Trap For A Lonely Man (Jan 25 – Feb 3, 2018)

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Summed up as “a psychological thriller shrouded in mystery, a tortuous plot and a killer twist at the end!” Trap For A Lonely Man (original French title Piege pour un homme seul) by Robert Thomas translated by Lucienne Hill and John Sutro will play from January 21 to February 3, 2018. It would undoubtedly be more famous had Alfred Hitchcock lived longer – it was in the pipeline to be filmed by him for Twentieth Century-Fox, with a cast of international stars.

After having reported his wife’s disappearance to the police, Daniel Corban is visited by a young priest who claims he has found Madam Corban alive and well. When Daniel meets the woman claiming to be his wife, he is outraged to discover that he has never seen her before. It becomes increasingly apparent to Daniel that he is facing some sort of conspiracy, as various witnesses declare that she is indeed the Madam Corban they have seen happily ensconced in the chalet with Daniel before her disappearance occurred. When the police fail to believe his story, he can only conclude that they are trying to drive him mad — or worse still, drive him to his death. Just who is telling the truth and to what lengths can a person go to distort the facts?

The play was seen in London and on Broadway, but has enjoyed success over the years with community theatre productions. The Camden News described it as “A rollercoaster of intrigue and suspense.” I hope SCP audiences will feel the same way. ~ Camden News.

Born Yesterday (Nov 23 – Dec 2, 2017)

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The second play, running between November 17 and December 2, 2017, will be the glorious classic of the American stage which enjoyed one of the longest runs in history, Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin. It has roles for 12 men and 5 women.

A Broadway triumph-turned-1950 Academy Award-nominated film, Born Yesterday is a deliciously witty screwball comedy about a corrupt businessman trying to get ahead. Harry Brock, a vulgar, egotistical junk-dealer millionaire on the rise, hunkers down in a lavishly decorated hotel room in Washington with his brassy chorus girl girlfriend Billie Dawn in tow. Hoping to influence a senator in some personal business dealings, he soon gets advice suggesting that the seemingly dim-witted blonde will need a little polish to get ahead in D.C. society. Brock hires a newspaperman for the task but gets more than he bargained for when, in a deliriously funny and romantic turn of events, he discovers a little bit of learning can be a dangerous thing. “Total comic bliss” said theNew York Times.

Born Yesterday premiered on Broadway in 1946, and seventy years later it still entertains and gently enlightens. Regardless of the time period, the play is far more relevant than you might think. It is about wealth, political corruption, education and opportunity. As the current political situation in the United States demonstrates, there is still plenty to say on these topics, and evidently Kanin felt the same way back in the forties. It has been revived successfully on Broadway several times.

The Deep Blue Sea (Sept 28 – Oct 7, 2017)

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The season will open with the British Drama, The Deep Blue Sea by Sir Terence Rattigan.

The Deep Blue Sea offers a portrait of a woman caught between forbidden love and the fear of loneliness, or the devil and the deep blue sea. It is now considered one of Rattigan’s greatest triumphs. It was first produced at the Duchess Theatre, London, on 6 March 1952.

The play’s action takes place in the sitting-room of a furnished flat in a block in the north-west of London, over the course of a single day. It begins with the discovery of a body lying in front of a gas fire. Hester Collyer has left her husband, Sir William Collyer, a high court judge, to live with Freddie Page, an alcoholic fighter pilot from the last war. Injured beyond endurance by his continual failure to return her passion, she has tried to commit suicide, and has only failed because the gas meter ran out before she could complete the act. She is discovered by four other residents of the tenement block: a married couple, Philip and Ann Welch, the landlady, Mrs. Elton, and a mysterious ex-doctor, Mr. Miller. The play follows Hester through the rest of the day as the consequences of her attempt induce Freddie to leave her, and threaten to push her towards a second suicide attempt.

The Deep Blue Sea is a study of forbidden love, suppressed desire, and the fear of loneliness – but is at heart a deeply moving love story, a portrait of need, loneliness and long-repressed passion. “…a play that cuts at the heart… a masterpiece.” ~ Daily Telegraph, 2011

One of the greatest plays of the 20th century… an emotionally devastating study of the inequality of love. It has been filmed twice, first with Vivien Leigh and then with Rachel Weiss, and was recently revived to great acclaim at the British National Theatre.

Anything to Declare? (May 18-27, 2017)

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STAGE CENTRE PRODUCTIONS

proudly present the fifth and final play of their milestone 40th season

  

Anything to Declare? 

A chaotic and wacky farce by Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber

Translated and adapted by Greg Leaming

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“Side-splittingly funny… The utterly ridiculous is also utterly hilarious. From start to finish Anything to Declare? had me giggling.” ~ The Mancunian, 2014

*8are c y, a boulevard comedy that is This is a funny,

Directed by Tony Rein 

Producer: Michael James Burgess

Stage Manager: Lorraine Kimsa

Set Design: J. B. Pierre Rajotte

Lighting by Clay Warner

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With Tommy Boston, Katherine Cappellacci, Michael Chodos, Kate Coursey, Robert Glen, Jennie Garde,

Jen Hashimoto, Catherine Linehan, Kalen Malan, James Marshall, Pierre Rivard, Lindsay Woodford and Michael Yaneff

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“Panic is the chief ingredient…. as the emergencies mount for a bashful bridegroom, his hypocritical father-in-law, a frustrated former suitor and a de-pantsed camel dealer.” ~ San Francisco Chronicle

The Dupont family is thrilled that their naïve young daughter has married Count Robert de Trivelin. However, upon returning from their honeymoon, it is made clear that the young bridegroom has yet to consummate the marriage, and indeed seems to be suffering from a psychological block brought on by a border crossing guard yelling out “Have you anything to declare?” at a particularly inopportune moment. The hapless count’s in-laws give him a three-day deadline by which to do his duty. If he fails, his bride will be handed over to a rival suitor!

With such a short time left to meet his mother-in-law’s demands for a grandson, or at least the promise of one, the count seeks the assistance of Zeze, a courtesan who is passing herself off to her clientele as a prominent artist and nicknames her clients after famous painters.  The entire Dupont family manages to parade through Zeze’s salon and back to the Dupont home, along with a sobbing ex-suitor of the bride, a camel dealer of unknown origin, and a maid desperate to break ties with Zeze and start a career of her own. As the clock continues to tick away, a chaotic race to consummate the marriage results in everyone learning just a little bit more than they might have wanted to!

Yes, the play is all about sex — but sex in a world of old-fashioned innocence where young women remain chaste until their wedding night and husbands would do anything — including a visit to a ‘working girl’ — to prove how much they love their wives. But it’s a French farce, of course, which means that innocence is wrapped in a wacky story of misplaced pants, mistaken identities, and a whirlwind of zany characters running in and out of lots of doors.

Anything to Declare?, with its bawdy innuendo, utterly absurd situations, and sparkling characterizations, will have Stage Centre audiences laughing until the final curtain!

“Improbable situations, mistaken identity, stylized performances and verbal dexterity on themes of various levels of sophistication.” ~ Stage Magazine, 2012

 May 18 – 20 & May 24 – 27, 2017: 8:00 p.m.

May 21 & 27, 2017:  2:00 pm Matinee

 “Great fun!” ~ Michael Billington, The Guardian, 2007

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For further information please contact 416-299-5557