2016 – 2017 Season
Supporting Cast
Written by George Furth
Directed by Susan O’Connell
Auditions July 18 – 19, 2016
Performances Sept. 9, (10th is Private Benefit), 11, 16, 17 & 18, 2016
Ellen, the wife of a successful author, has written a book about friends who are spouses of celebrities and what it is like to be married to Somebody Famous. She has invited them to her house on the beach at Malibu to let them read advance copies and to break the news to them gently that they are depicted warts and all. All nearly have apoplexy when they read the book because it really does tell all. When the news arrives that the book is to be made into a movie, they change their tune and get excited about which star will play them.
A Bench in the Sun
Written by Ron Clark
Directed by Laura Robitaille
(This show is pre-cast)
Performances Nov 11, (12th is Private Benefit), 13, 18, 19 & 20, 2016
Harold and Burt, longtime friends, live in a retirement home and spend their days on a bench in the garden bickering. A once famous actress has just moved in, giving them something new to argue over. When they learn that the home is about to be sold and they will have to find a new residence, the three join forces to prevent this upsetting development.
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Written by Deborah Craig-Claar & Mark Hayes
Directed by Randy Dawkins and Vesta Gleissner
(This show is pre-cast)
Performances Dec 9, 10 & 11, 2016
Set in late 1941, I’ll Be Home for Christmas is the story of the faith of a family, and a nation on the brink of World War II, preparing to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. Most of the action takes place in the main characters’ home, with the choir providing music and drama as it is broadcast over the family radio. The music highlights the sounds of the ’40s, including swing, lush ballads, and big band songs interspersed with reenactments of radio broadcasts during that time.
2016-2017 Schedule
Fridays 7:30 PM, 1st Saturday 7:30 pm, 2nd Saturday 2:30pm, & Sundays 2:30 PM
Divorce Sale
Written by Linda Stockham
Directed by Vesta Gleissner
Auditions Nov 14 – 15, 2016
Performances Jan 6, (7th is Private Benefit), 8, 13, 14 & 15, 2017
As a soon-to-be divorcee holds a garage sale, her neighbors gather to help. In the process, their own marriages get the comic once-over. Bernice’s suspicions about her spouse’s faithfulness are driving him batty; Ozzie and Kay seem to have the perfect union — but their friends have yet to learn the story behind it; and Wilma is convinced her late husband has come back as a plant. Throw in a tell-it-like-it-is medium and a raucous seance, and you have a hilarious and telling look at the flip-side of marital bliss.
Other Desert Cities
Written by Jon Robin Baitz
Directed by C.A. Conn
Auditions Jan 9 – 10, 2017
Performances Mar 3, (4th is Private Benefit), 5, 10, 11 & 12, 2017
Brooke Wyeth returns home to Palm Springs after a six-year absence to celebrate Christmas with her parents, her brother, and her aunt. Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history—a wound they don’t want reopened. In effect, she draws a line in the sand and dares them all to cross it.
Vintage Hitchcock – A Live Radio Play
Written by Joe Landry
Directed by Brad West
Auditions Mar 20 – 21, 2017
Performances May 12, (13th is Private Benefit), 14, 19, 20 & 21, 2017
Spies, murder, love, and other trademarks of Alfred Hitchcock come to life in the style of a 1940s radio broadcast of the master of suspense’s earlier films. With The Lodger, Sabotage and The 39 Steps, Vintage Hitchcock: A Live Radio Play is a triple feature, complete with vintage commercials, that recreates a daring train chase, a serial killer’s ominous presence, and a devastating explosion through the magic of live sound effects and musical underscoring.
2016-2017 Prices
Opening Night $10.00 & Single admission (everyone) $15.00
Virginia of the Valley
Written by Ralph Freud
Directed by Michael Tennant
Auditions May 15 – 16, 2017
Performances Jul 7, (8th is Private Benefit), 9, 14, 15 & 16, 2017
The Widow Stewart and her adopted daughter, Virginia, are trying to save their farm from the villain, Reginald Frothington, in this Melodrama set in the San Jacinto Valley. We have a villainess, the hero, the wealthy, snobbish matron and a French maid along with boos and hisses in this play written specifically for our Players in the 60’s. It is an audience participation production that is fun for all.
The Gin Game
Written by D.L. Coburn
Directed by Peggy McQuown
(This Show is Precast)
Performances Aug 18, 19, & 20, 2017
This winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize, uses a card game as a metaphor for life. Weller Martin is playing solitaire on the porch of a seedy nursing home. Enter Fonsia Dorsey, a prim, self righteous lady. They discover they both dislike the home and enjoy gin rummy, so they begin to play and to reveal intimate details of their lives. Fonsia wins every time and their secrets become weapons used against one another. Weller longs for a victory to counter a lifetime of defeats but it doesn’t happen. He leaves the stage a broken man and Fonsia realizes her self-righteous rigidity has led to an embittered, lonely old age.
