ONSTAGE in Bedford Artistic Director Michael B. Winters announced tonight via Facebook the theater's 32nd season, which will be performed at the Trinity Arts Theater in the historic Bedford Boys Ranch. The new season will begin in January, 2017, with a mix of classic plays and newer works, including a regional premiere and three area premiere productions, as well as a new program the theater is calling "SpotON", a spotlight series featuring new works, staged readings and more.
"Our audiences are in store for an amazing variety of plays and musicals next year", said Winters. "ONSTAGE is very excited to be producing the regional premiere of the 2016 Broadway smash Disaster! along with other recent successes from both on and off Broadway. These will be accented with two classic comedy favorites. We're proudly billing 2017 as our 'Best. Season. Yet.'"
"For DFW area actors, I think they're going to be amazed at the opportunities we have in store both women and men of all ages and ethnic backgrounds," he added. Audition information for upcoming productions will continue to be made available via Facebook.
ONSTAGE's main seven-production season starts with the North Texas premiere of Ken Ludwig's Be My Baby (which premiered in Houston with Hal Holbrook and Dixie Carter). Next, fresh from Broadway, is the Tarrant County premiere of Peter and the Starcatcher, an inventive, five-time Tony Award winning play with music based on the best-selling Peter Pan prequel novels by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, followed by the classic Neil Simon' comedy Plaza Suite. Summer kicks off with the regional premiere of the 2016 Broadway hit Disaster!, an homage to disaster movies of the 1970's with an electrifying disco jukebox score. Doris Baizley's dramatic comedy Shiloh Rules then takes the stage. This Tarrant County premiere about woman Civil War reenactors has been hailed as "an inventive comedy with drama, history and first aid tips thrown in." Halloween is ushered in with the period thriller Corpse! Set in 1930's London, it's a fast-paced "whodunit to whom" where no one is whom they seem to be, featuring twin brothers played by one actor. The year is wrapped up with the 1950's comedy hit My Three Angels, about two murders and a swindler, all believers in true justice, who set out to save a family in French Guiana from their sinister relatives.
Details on the SpotON series, under the direction of Joe Chapa, will be announced at a later date.
New ticketing discounts are also available for the upcoming season, including those for members of the military, first responders and educators. Individual ticket and membership prices will remain at current rates.
Single tickets and Season Memberships are available at the theater's website, www.onstageinbedford.com, as well as their Facebook page.
The season announcement video can be viewed here:
FULL SEASON DETAILS
Be My Baby
by Ken Ludwig
NORTH TEXAS PREMIERE
January 25 - February 12, 2017
Comedy, Rated PG -13
Directed by Rose Ann Holman
A comedy about an irascible Scotsman and an uptight English woman who are thrown together when his ward marries her niece. When the young couple decides to adopt a new born baby, the older couple has to travel 6,000 miles to California to pick up the child and bring her safely home to Scotland. The problem is, John and Maude despise each other. Worse, they get stranded in San Francisco where they learn some startling lessons about life and love.
Peter and the Starcatcher
Book by Rick Elice
Music by Wayne Barker
TARRANT COUNTY PREMIERE
March 17 - April 9, 2017
Musical, Rated PG -13
Directed by Ashley H. White
The Tony-winning play with music upends the century-old story of how a miserable orphan boy becomes the legendary Peter Pan. This wildly theatrical adaptation of the best-selling novels includes everything from marauding pirates and jungle tyrants to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes. Peter and the Starcatcher playfully explores the depths of greed and despair... and the bonds of friendship, duty and love.
Plaza Suite
by Neil Simon
May 12 - 28, 2017
Comedy, Rated PG -13
Directed by Ben Phillips
Three tales all set in the same suite in New York's famed Plaza Hotel: a long-time married couple teetering on the edge of divorce; a thrice-married Hollywood producer attempting to seduce his old flame (who's now a suburban housewife); and two parents attempting to talk their daughter, a panicked bride who has locked herself in the bathroom, into getting married. This Tony-nominated Neil Simon classic gives everything from slapstick comedy to surprisingly touching moments.
Disaster!
By Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick
Concept created by Seth Rudetsky and Drew Geraci
Additional Material by Drew Geraci
REGIONAL PREMIERE
June 30 - July 23, 2017
Musical, Rated PG -13
Directed by Lon Barrera
Disaster! is a new musical straight from Broadway which parodies and pays comedic tribute to 1970s disaster films. In this musical, featuring some of the most unforgettable songs of the decade, a group of New Yorkers attends the opening of a floating casino and discothèque that quickly succumbs to multiple disasters. "Knock On Wood," "Hooked On A Feeling," "Sky High," "I Am Woman" and "Hot Stuff" are just a few of the scintillating hits in this hilarious musical!
Shiloh Rules
by Doris Baizley
TARRANT COUNTY PREMIERE
August 25 - September 10, 2017
Comedy, Rated PG -13
Directed by Mike Hathaway
A Union nurse and a Confederate refugee meet on the Shiloh battlefield to compete for the title of "Best Female Reenactor of the Year". With their young trainees trying to out-do each other in "authenticity," their competition leads to real conflict with an African-American female park ranger who would rather be anywhere than the year 1862, imaginary or not. As the re-enactment rages out of control, all six women discover that some conflicts weren't left behind in 1862.
Corpse!
by Gerald Moon
October 13 - 29, 2017
Comedy, Rated PG
Directed by Seth Johnson
Set in 1936 London, Corpse! tells the story of twin brothers (played by one actor), one of whom plots to murder the other in the most unusual circumstances. Evelyn, an out of work actor, engages the genial Irishman Powell, with a shady past, to do away with his suave, sophisticated, monied twin. Their plotting in Evelyn's Aladdin's cave of a flat is punctuated by the visits of a delightfully theatrical landlady. As with most fool proof plans, things do not go as they should and people are not what they seem! Corpse! is not so much a whodunnit as a whodunnit to whom!
My Three Angels
by Samuel Spewack and Bella Spewack
December 1 - 17, 2017
Comedy, Rated PG -13
Directed by Bill Sizemore
It's Christmas Day, 1910, in French Guiana and the temperature has graciously dropped to 104°. Three convicts -two murderers and a swindler- are employed as roofers by a family whose roof is in desperate need of maintenance. On the way from France is an evil-minded cousin, to oust the father of the family from his business, and his cold-blooded nephew, who is jilting the father's daughter for an heiress. The convicts, with warm hearts and passionate believers in true justice, take the visitors on. Will they prevail? Find out in this comedy classic!