Coming Soon
2010
A Life in the Theatre
by David Mamet
August 13th - September 5th, 2010
THE ADOBE THEATER TO PRESENT A GLIMPSE OF BACKSTAGE LIFE
Describing life in the footlights from an actor's point of view, David Mamet says, A LIFE IN THE THEATRE focuses on the relationship between two actors: Robert, an older, experienced performer; and John, a relative newcomer."
Though Robert's guidance is welcomed by John (played by Paul Hunton) at first, as the play progresses Robert (played by Peter Kierst) falters as an actor and mentor, and John emerges as a mature actor. But that's the bare bones of it.
Mamet was inspired to write A LIFE IN THE THEATRE by what he had observed backstage, as well as by his own experiences in his early career as an actor. A LIFE IN THE THEATRE is a kind of love letter to everything Mamet holds dear about the stage and its performers.
The play was first performed at Chicago's Goodman Theatre in 1977 and reflected the contempory theatre of the times. Director Jim Cady has chosen to stage the play in the early 1960's, when he was a young actor like John and had the privledge of listening to the stories of older actors like Robert.
He says: "I trusted them to teach me the ropes. They gave me all they had left in them. But I have come to love and respect these old storytellers who wore theatrical romance on their sleeves and slept in their makeup. I love everything about a person who shouts at the top of his lungs: ‘I have been in the theatre for forty years---Ah, the theatre, yes. She is a mean mistress, she will take everything you've got and give you nothing in return.' That is the theatre of my youth. Mr. Mamet has given me the opportunity to relive it and I thank him for it."
Directed by Jim Cady
Candida
by George Bernard Shaw
September 17th - October 10th, 2010
A highly provocative playwright of ideas by George Bernard Shaw. The high-minded and articulate Rev. James Morrell (40'ish) is the toast of London, speaking every night on Fabian Socialism and self-improvement. He is married to the ravishing Candida who makes the perfect help-mate. They have some children who never appear, I think. Suddenly, into their lives pops Eugene Marchbanks, a suitably miserable young Romantic poet who has been sleeping in a nearby park. Eugene is pitiful in every way. Which makes him look even more hopeless when he announces that he is in love with Candida and demands that she choose between him and Morrell. Eugene denounces Morrell as a hopeless fraud. Also, on the scene are Burgess, Candida's rapscallion father; Prossy, Morrell's spinster secretary who is, we suspect, in love with her employer; and Lexy the gawky assistant minister.
The dramatic question is raised when Candida says that she will go "with the man who needs her most." Start the discussion --- of the roles of women, of the role of men, of "Morality" vs. "Art," of the role of the artist.
Directed by Brian Hansen
A Thousand Clowns
by Herb Gardner
October 22nd - November 14th, 2010
This benchmark of Broadway comedy produced one of the theatre's most beloved roles: unconventional Murray, uncle to precocious nephew, Nick. Tired of writing cheap comedy gags for "Chipper the Chipmunk", a children's television star, Murray finds himself unemployed with plenty of free time with which to pursue his...pursuits. Lectured by his conventional brother Arnold and hounded by "the system", Murray is paid a visit by bickering, uptight social workers, Sandra and Albert, and finds himself solving their problems as well as most of his own.
"Would be a standout comedy in any season. Filled with laughter and warmth and sweetness and inspired daffiness. One of the quintessential New York comedies."-NewYork Daily News
Directed by JoRae Taylor
You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
Music and Lyrics by Clark Gesner. Based on characters created by Charles M. Schulz
December 3rd - December 19th, 2010
A program note says that the time of the action is "an average day in the life of Charlie Brown." It really is just that, a day made up of little moments picked from all the days of Charlie Brown, from Valentine's Day to the baseball season, from wild optimism to utter despair, all mixed in with the lives of his friends (both human and non-human) and strung together on the string of a single day, from bright uncertain morning to hopeful starlit evening.
None of the cast is actually six years old. And they don't really look like Charles Schulz' "Peanuts" cartoon characters. But this doesn't seem to make that much difference once we are into the play, because what they are saying to each other is with the openness of that early childhood time, and the obvious fact is that they are all really quite fond of each other.
Directed by Daryl Streeter