True West

by Sam Shepard

October 3 - November 8, 2008

Set in the desert east of Los Angeles, True West is the tale of two brothers: Austin, a "successful" young man with a budding screenwriting career, who comes to house-sit for his mother and to work on a screenplay for a Hollywood producter, and Lee, an alcoholic, thief, and "loser" who has also decided to return home to steal from his mother’s neighbors before moving on. Rather than leaving, Lee pitches his own movie idea to the producer, who decides he wants to make Lee’s movie instead. Gradually, the two brothers reverse roles. Their tragicomic struggle ends in a stalemate, but along the way this Pulitzer Prize-winning author takes potshots at Hollywood, the myth of the frontier, and the escape fantasies that drive the American imagination.

“By far the funniest, truest, and most mesmerizing play on Broadway.” — New York Daily News

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The Fantasticks

by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt

December 12, 2008 - January 24, 2009

This musical allegory concerns two parents who put up a wall between their houses to ensure that their children fall in love. Elements of Shakepeare’s Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and other classic love plots give the story its sweetness and romance. The beauty of the music and the poetry of its dialogue carried the play through 17,162 performances Off Broadway. This warm and funny musical will appeal to all ages, for those who try to remember as well as those who are just beginning.

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The Gin Game

by D.L. Coburn

February 20 - March 28, 2009

A woman in her twilight years, Fonsia Dorsey, enters a "home for the aged" and is for a while saved from melancholy by the crusty charm of Weller Martin. The sardonic Weller cajoles Fonsia into playing a series of gin games on the home's sunlit porch. As they seemingly become close companions, much is revealed about their respective regret-filled lives, Their mutual need for solace is momentarily satisfied, until Weller's pent-up rage, and Fonsia's subtle needling, build to a final heart wrenching conclusion.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, 1978

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Candida

by George Bernard Shaw

April 24 - May 30, 2009

Candida is the wife of a first-rate clergyman named James Mavor Morell, a popular Christian Socialist Reverend in the Church of England, yet his wife Candida is responsible for much of his success. She returns home from a trip to London with Eugene Marchbanks, a young poet who worships her and wants to rescue her from what he presumes to be a dull family life. Ultimately, Candida’s wisdom saves the days as the two men become rivals for her love. Although set in the 19th century, the strength of the play lies in its very modern humor which springs from the timeless humanity of its characters.