Colonial Players Seeking 65th Season Directors!

Colonial Players’ Theatre-in-the-Round, nestled in the heart of historic, downtown Annapolis, is happy to announce our lineup of shows for 2013/14! Our 65th season is rich in challenge, intrigue, and opportunity for our audiences and for directors, actors, designers and techs. It is a lineup that will take us from the paranormal to the avant-garde; that will warm our hearts and chill our souls. It includes stories we can smile about, and wonderful characters we can both cry for and triumph with. It is a season that will take us all on a singular journey which is sure to inspire creativity, to spark conversation, to entertain, and most of all to offer us an extraordinary experience.

A new season brings a fresh opportunity for anyone interested in directing or working on any of the shows in the season. Colonial Players is an all-volunteer organization, and we welcome new members throughout the season. Auditions are open to actors of all backgrounds and experience, and we offer on-the-job training for all crew and tech jobs. Positions with Colonial Players are not paid, but we offer a fun community service opportunity with a team of dedicated, skilled, and talented individuals. Directors interested in directing next season are invited to visit the website for an application, information on applying, and a more detailed description of the shows. Directing experience is required, and experience directing theatre-in-the-round is preferred. We reserve the right to alter the lineup at any time should it become necessary.

 

Colonial Players 65th Season

Communicating Doors (comedy/thriller) by Alan Ayckbourn
Performance date: September 20 - October 12, 2013
3M/3W Unit Set, multiple settings ; Samuel French (www.samuelfrench.com)

This intricate time-traveling, comic thriller by the British master of farcical comedy delighted London and New York audiences. A London sex specialist from the future stumbles into a murder plot that sends her, compliments of a unique set of hotel doors, traveling back in time. She and two women who were murdered in 1998 and 1978 race back and forth in time trying to rewrite history and prevent their own violent ends. The frantic race begins when Poopay is hired for an evening at the Regal Hotel by an old man who eschews a fling in favor of confessing his role in the demise of his wives. Now a target, Poopay flees into the vestibule and somehow triggers the time machine.

 

Annie (musical comedy/family) Music by Charles Strouse, Lyrics by Martin Charnin, and Book by Thomas Meehan, based on “Little Orphan Annie”
Performance dates: November 8 - December 7, 2013
6 girls (6-12), 3M/3F, Ensemble 7+, Multiple settings; MTI (www.mtishows.com)

With equal measures of pluck and cheerfulness, little orphan Annie charms everyone's hearts from the hobos in Hooverville to the servants in Oliver Warbuck’s mansion. Having been told she was abandoned on the doorstep of a 1930s New York City Orphanage, 10-year-old Annie is determined to find her parents and escape the curmudgeonly Miss Hannigan. When she is chosen by the kind Miss Grace Ferrell to spend the holidays with the rich and powerful Oliver Warbucks, Annie gets a second chance for a family and brings happiness to the lonely tycoon.

 

Coyote on a Fence (drama) by Bruce Graham
Performance dates: January 10 - 25, 2014
3M/2F; Flexible set; Dramatists (www.dramatists.com)

Illiterate and boyish, Bobby Reyburn is a young man who clings to childish absolutes and the bigoted beliefs taught to him by the only person who was ever kind to him. In the cell next to him is John Brennan, an educated and arrogant writer who may be guilty according to the court but not according to his own sense of honor and justice. Sam is a reporter for the New York Times who meets with John to understand why he goes to such great lengths to un-demonize the executed prisoners. And Shawna does her best to make sense of it all so she can sleep at night after being a State’s Witness for the executions. Often cold and bleak, January is the perfect backdrop for Coyote On A Fence by Bruce Graham. This prison drama offers a glimpse into the lives of the two death row inmates, the jail guard, and the reporter who are all processing their experience. As an audience we’re invited not to judge them, capital punishment, or the judicial system, but to experience the process with them.

 

Superior Donuts (comedy-drama) by Kristofer Kauff
Performance dates: February 14 - March 8, 2014
7 M/2W; Flexible Set; Dramatists (www.dramatists.com)

Arthur Przybyszewski owns a decrepit donut shop in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Franco Wicks, a black teenager who is his only employee, wants to change the shop for the better. This comedy-drama by Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tracy Letts explores the challenges of embracing the past and the redemptive power of friendship.

 

Bat Boy (musical comedy/horror) Music & Lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe, Story and Book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming
Performance dates: March 28 - April 19, 2014
6M/4F; Set Int./Ext. Flexible; $75/show; Dramatists (www.dramatists.com)

Based on a story in “The Weekly World News,” Bat Boy, the Musical is a musical comedy/horror show about a half boy/half bat creature who is discovered in a cave near Hope Falls, West Virginia. For lack of a better solution, the local sheriff brings Bat Boy to the home of the town veterinarian, Dr. Parker, where he is eventually accepted as a member of the family and taught to act like a "normal" boy by the veterinarian's wife, Meredith, and teenage daughter, Shelley. Bat Boy is happy with his new life, but when he naively tries to fit in with the narrow-minded people of Hope Falls, they turn on him, prodded by the machinations of Dr. Parker, who secretly despises Bat Boy. Shelley and Bat Boy, who have fallen in love, run away together from the ignorant townsfolk and have a blissful coupling in the woods, but their happiness is shattered when Meredith arrives and reveals a secret. Soon the entire town arrives and hears the shocking story of Bat Boy's unholy origin.

 

These Shining Lives (comedy-drama) by Melanie Marnich
Performance dates: May 9 - 31, 2014
3M/4F; Flexible Set; Dramatists (www.dramatists.com)

These Shining Lives chronicles the strength and determination of women considered expendable in their day, and the exploration of their true story and its continued resonance. Catherine finds friendship and a sense of purpose when she steps into the work world, but as her confidence and skill grows, she realizes the job that brought her so much happiness and independence is killing her and the women she works with. However, theirs is a story of survival in its most transcendent sense, as the women refuse to allow the company that stole their health to kill their spirits — or endanger the lives of those who come after them.

 

Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl
Performance dates: June 13 - 28, 2014
2M/4F; Unit Set/Multiple Settings Samuel French (www.samuelfrench.com)

An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café. A stranger at the next table who has had enough. And a dead man—with a lot of loose ends. So begins Dead Man's Cell Phone, winner of the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play, a wildly imaginative new comedy Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony nominated Sarah Ruhl. Dead Man’s Cell Phone was first presented at Wooly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington D.C. in 2007. "Satire is her oxygen" - The Washington Post