Five of the seven plays selected for the 2016-2017 Colonial Players season (see lineup below) are now open to director applications!

To learn more about the season and help you determine if you wish to submit an application to direct, the Colonial Players invites you to attend the Season 68 Executive Production Meeting on Saturday, January 16, 2016 Saturday, January 30, 2016 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Colonial Players Annex (2132 Renard Court, Annapolis) to discuss the challenges presented by the slate. You are also encouraged to attend the Season 68 Sneak Peek on Saturday, February 27, 2016, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Theater (108 East Street, Annapolis) for a roughly 10-minute rehearsed-reading preview of each show. Attendance at these events is not required as a prerequisite for submitting an application to direct.

Directors are invited to apply by submitting an email, with “16-17 Director Application” in the subject line, to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. no later than March 3, 2016, with the following information:

 

• Your name and complete contact information
• Title of the show(s) you wish to be considered for
• One or two paragraphs describing your vision for the show(s)
• List of challenges you envision and a description of how you intend to solve them
• List of dates in March 2016 on which you are NOT available
• Your resume

After submitting your proposal you will be contacted by the Artistic Director (Mickey Lund) to schedule a March meeting with the director selection committee, where you will be given the opportunity to expand on your vision for the show(s) you want to direct.

If you have questions or would like to request a copy of a script, email Mickey at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Also, please RSVP by email to Mickey if you plan to attend Executive Production Meeting in January and/or the Sneak Peek in Februrary, whether or not you have submitted your application.

Please note that director positions at The Colonial Players, Inc. are unpaid.

Please also note that all selected directors are required to attend a preliminary production meeting for the season as a whole, to be held at the Colonial Players Annex on Saturday, April 16, 2016 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Colonial Players 68th Season
2016-2017

The Cripple of Inishmaan

By Martin McDonagh
Performance dates: September 9 - October 1, 2016

Set in 1934 on the Aran Islands at the mouth of Galway Bay in western Ireland, this play focuses on inhabitants of the island of Inishmaan, who are excited to learn of a Hollywood film crew's arrival on neighboring Inishmore to make a documentary about life on the islands. "Cripple" Billy Claven, eager to escape the gossip, poverty and boredom of Inishmaan, vies for a part in the film, and to everyone's surprise, the orphan and outcast gets his chance . . . or so some believe.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

By Edward Albee
Performance dates: October 21 - November 12, 2016

George, a professor at a small college, and his wife Martha have just returned home, drunk from a Saturday night party. Martha announces with liberal profanity that she has invited a young couple—an opportunistic new professor at the college and his shatteringly naïve new bride—to stop by for a nightcap. When the couple arrives the charade begins. The drinks flow and inhibitions melt. It becomes clear that Martha is determined to seduce the young professor, and George couldn't care less. But underneath the edgy banter lurks an undercurrent of tragedy and despair provoked by a secret that has seemingly been the foundation for their relationship. In the end, the secret is exposed revealing the degrading mess they have made of their lives.

A Christmas Carol

By Rick Wade and Dick Gessner
Directed by Rick Wade
Performance dates: December 1 - December 11, 2016

This classic production takes place, as Mr. Dickens himself would have it, in the streets of Victorian London and in the counting house and bedchamber of Ebenezer Scrooge. In the revelations of his visitors and in his memory, we are transported to times and places of Scrooge's past, present, and future. A Christmas Carol has been produced by Colonial Players of Annapolis since 1981.

The City of Conversation

By Anthony Giardina
Performance dates: January 13 - January 28, 2017

In 1979, Washington D.C. was a place where people actually talked to each other—where adversaries fought it out on the Senate floor and then smoothed it out over drinks and hors d'oeuvres. But it was all about to change. In this play, spanning 30 years and six presidential administrations, Hester Ferris throws Georgetown dinner parties that can change the course of Washington’s politics. But when her beloved son suddenly turns up with an ambitious Reaganite girlfriend and a shocking new conservative worldview, Hester must choose between preserving her family and defending the causes she's spent her whole life fighting for.

Calendar Girls

By Tim Firth
Performance dates: February 17 - March 11, 2017

After Annie's husband John dies of leukemia, she and best friend Chris resolve to raise money for a new settee in the local hospital waiting room. They manage to persuade four fellow members of the local Women’s Institute to pose nude with them for an "alternative" calendar.  The news of the women's charitable venture spreads like wildfire, and hordes of press soon descend on the small village of Knapeley in the Yorkshire Dales. The calendar is a success, but Chris and Annie's friendship is put to the test under the strain of their new-found fame.

Nine

Book by A. Kopit, Music and Lyrics by M. Yeston, Adapted from the Italian by Mario Fratti
Directed by Ron Giddings
Performance dates: March 31 - April 30, 2017

Nine is the story of a film director, the celebrated Guido Contini, and his attempts to come up with a plot for his next film as he is pursued by hordes of beautiful women, all clamoring to be loved by him and him alone. Flashbacks reveal the substance of his life, which will become the material for his next film: a musical version of the Casanova story.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

By Christopher Durang
Performance dates: May 19 - June 10, 2017

Vanya and Sonia rarely leave the confines of their childhood home in Bucks County, Pa., while their sister Masha has been gallivanting around the world as a successful actress. A surprise visit from Masha and her 20-something boy toy, Spike, throws the normally quiet household into utter upheaval as its residents and visitors get swept up in an intoxicating mixture of lust, rivalry, regret, and the sudden possibility of escape. Some of the show's elements were derived from works of Anton Chekhov, including several character names, the play's setting in a cherry orchard, and the theme of the possible loss of an ancestral home.