Productions
A Christmas Story
Based on the classic book, “A Christmas Story” by Jean Shepherd – a beloved, bestselling classic of humorous and nostalgic Americana—the book that inspired the equally classic Yuletide film.
The holiday film A Christmas Story , first released in 1983, has become a bona fide Christmas perennial, gaining in stature and fame with each succeeding year. Its affectionate, wacky, and wryly realistic portrayal of an American family’s typical Christmas joys and travails in small-town Depression-era Indiana has entered our imagination and our hearts with a force equal to It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street .
Here is young Ralphie Parker’s shocking discovery that his decoder ring is merely a device to promote Ovaltine; his mother and father’s pitched battle over the fate of a lascivious leg lamp; the unleashed and unnerving savagery of Ralphie’s duel in the show with the odious bullies Scut Farkas and Grover Dill; and, most crucially, Ralphie’s unstoppable campaign to get Santa—or anyone else—to give him a Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle despite the whole adult world telling him, “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid”?
Pollyanna
Susan Pargman’s adaptation of the classic tale of the eternal optimist, based on the novel by Eleanor H. Porter.
Beauty & the Beast
Beauty and the Beast tells the story of Belle, a beautiful and intelligent young woman who feels out of place in her provincial French village. When her father is imprisoned in a mysterious castle, Belle’s attempt to rescue him leads to her capture by the Beast, a grisly and fearsome monster, who was long ago trapped in his gruesome form by an enchantress. The only way for the Beast to become human once again is if he learns to love and be loved in return. There is a time limit, too: once a magical rose loses all of its petals, all hope will be lost and he will stay a Beast forever. The Beast’s enchanted household–populated by such beloved characters as Mrs. Potts, Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Chip–watch anxiously as Belle and the Beast grow to understand and befriend one another. Their feelings grow ever deeper as the clock ticks and petals continue to fall off the enchanted rose–will they confess their love for one another before it is too late?
Jury Room
Twelve jurors gather to decide the innocence or guilt of a young girl. Did she stab her uncle in cold blood? Eleven jurors say yes; one, a student actress, says no. The jurors agree to her request to re-enact the crime right there. Props are brought in – including the actual murder weapon.
Little Women
Adapted for the stage by Thomas Hischak, the play is based on the coming-of-age novel written by Louisa May Alcott. The story follows the lives of the four March sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—and details their passage from childhood to womanhood. Loosely based on the lives of the author and her sisters, it is classified as a semi-autobiographical novel.
Into the Woods, Jr.
A new take on Stephen Sondheim’s and James Lapine’s groundbreaking musical fairytale about wishes and the choices we make. The story follows a Baker and his wife, who wish to have a child; Cinderella, who wishes to attend the King’s Festival; and Jack, who wishes his cow would give milk. When the Baker and his wife learn that they cannot have a child because of a Witch’s curse, the two set off on a journey to break the curse.