Crested Butte Mountain Theatre 2009 Season
Narnia: The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe
Dramatized by Joseph Robinette
from the novel by C.S. Lewis
Director: Mollie Mook, Artistic Director of A Theatre Group, Silverton, CO
November 12P, 13, 14, 15M, 19, 20, 2009
Genre: Drama / Musical Award-winning playwright Joseph Robineete faithfully recreates the wonderful world of C.S. Lewis' Narnia. Here is the heroic tale of love, faith, courage, and giving; the life and death struggle for control of Narnia and the grandeur of the triumph of good over evil which has enthralled audiences of all ages.
A Christmas Carol
Adapted by Mollie Mook-Fiddler
from the novella by Charles Dickens
Director: Mollie Mook, Artistic Director of A Theatre Group, Silverton, CO
December 19, 20M, 22, 23, 26, 27MP*, 29 30 - 2009, January 1, 2, 3 - 2010
Genre: Holiday Drama / Ebenezer Scrooge has lost his only friend, his business partner Jacob Marley. Seven years have passed since Marley's Christmas death, and Scrooge has not changed a bit. He still refuses to give to the poor, suggesting that for them perhaps the only place better than prison is the grave. He still only grudgingly gives his employee Christmas day off, and he still refuses his nephew's offer of Christmas dinner. He dismisses the whole holiday as a "Humbug."
But, on this particular Christmas, his dreary home will be visited by ghosts.
First, Marley will arrive and, despite Scrooge's refusals, he promises that further spirits will arrive. Christmas Past will bring Scrooge on a tour of his unpleasant childhood, his fall from grace with his father, and the loss of a fiancée; but he will show the good times too, when, as the employee of Fezziweg, Scrooge learned what a joyous holiday Christmas could be. Christmas Present will show him the celebrations going on without him: the sentimental family celebration of the Cratchits and the more rollicking party thrown by his nephew Fred. But Christmas Present will also warn Scrooge that without more money, the Cratchit family will lose its youngest and most fragile member, Tiny Tim.
The Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come will show Scrooge the world after Scrooge's death: His old business cronies will care not for his demise, his maid will steal the very blankets from his deathbed, and Tiny Tim will in fact pass from this world.
Scrooge awakens the next morning to find himself gloriously transformed. Not only can he once again laugh, but he will purchase dinner for the Cratchits, sing in church, and finally visit Fred. We are told that from this day forward Scrooge will become well known for his devotion to the Christmas holiday.
M*: denotes matinee performance
P*: denotes a Pay-What-You-Can performance
Following is a list of recent productions:
As You Like It
by William Shakespeare
Director: Alison Sutcliffe, freelance RSC director and artistic director of the Bridge House Theatre in Warwick, England
Dates: September 24, 25, 26, 27M, 30P; October 1, 2, 3, 2009
The Wild Guys
by Andrew Wreggitt and Rebecca Shaw
Director: Barbara Segal
July 23, 24, 25, 26M, 30P, 31; August 1, 2M
Genre: Comedy Well, it's been written that The Wild Guys is a kind of like Deliverance without violence and Peter Pan without Wendy, and with four "wild guys" standing in for the lost boys. Sounds like situation comedy at its best. Four guys with nothing in common except their gender go into the woods for a weekend "encounter session', of the kind popularized in the last decade or so by the poet Robert Bly, the bard of the "men's movement". Of course they get lost, and of course they confront their own fears and emotions and of course there's a virtually endless stream of jokes about the men's movement and coming out of it. One could argue there's a lot of useful information both men and women can glean from such a comedy, because after all, don't we frequently hide our discomfort of the truth in raucous laughter, that allows us at the the end to take none of it seriously? This will be one wild ride!
Southern Hospitality
by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, Jamie Wooten .
Director: Mary Tuck
August 20, 21, 22, 23M, 27P, 28, 29, 30M, 2009
Genre: Comedy
This may be a first for CBMT: running an entire trilogy. Southern Hospitality rounds out the plays that included Dearly Beloved and Christmas Belles, all directed by veteran actress/director Mary Tuck. Southern Hospitality includes side-splitting laughter, punchy one-liners, offbeat characters and small-town "charm". This one picks up five years after Christmas. We don't want to give away too much because that would be giving up the goat on Christmas Belles. So we'll update it more after the holidays. In the meantime, we hope you'll be tempted to see Christmas Belles, then rest up for a few months before seeing Southern Hospitality.
The Music Man
Book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson
Musical director: Mark Sforzini (St. Petersburg Opera; CBMF)
Stage director: Theresa Andrasy (St. Petersburg Opera)
June 25P, 26, 27, 28M; July 1, 2, 3, 2009
Genre: Musical
Crested Butte Mountain Theatre is pleased to again collaborate with the Crested Butte Music Festival to bring us The Music Man for your summer musical theatre entertainment. Using musicians that travel to CB for the music festival, this year we're happy to also bring Theresa Andrasy, stage director for St. Petersburg Opera in Florida. (She found out how much fun Mark Sforzini had last year and figured she had to join in. Mark is Artistic Director and Conductor with the The St. Petersburg Opera Orchestra.) Check back for more information.
10-Minute Plays: Around the Campfire
Local Playwrights
May 21, 22, 23, 24MP, 2009
Director: various and sundry characters We're setting our locally-written, locally directed 10-Minute plays "Around the Campfire". It should logically elicit a number of plays set in the forest, but it might illogically bring in a slew of plays where kids built their first campfire in the living room during Christmas. Or perhaps someone stranded in the middle of the road creates a small roadside campfire to await the rising sun and keep the critters away. It all depends on you. Deadline for submission is March 15. We'll provide the campfire; you provide other props, which must be easily and quickly transported on and off the stage!
Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure
by Steven Dietz
based on the original 1899 play by William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle
Director: Jonathan Allsup and Elizabeth Zurn (Creede Repertory Theatre)
March 26, 27, 28, 29M and April 1P, 2, 3, 4, 2009
The world’s most famous detective faces his greatest challenge in this suspenseful adaptation. A chilling mystery involving a kidnapped damsel, scandalous letters and London’s seamy underworld finds Sherlock Holmes pitted against his two most perilous foes: certain death and impassioned love. As the plot twists and turns to its pulse-quickening conclusion, will Holmes prevail against the mastermind of evil Professor Moriarty and keep his wits opposite Irene Adler, the beautiful opera diva who has captured his heart? No one has ever gotten the best of the great detective...until now.
Rabbit Hole
by David Lindsay-Abaire
Director: Paul Edwards (Gunnison Arts Center)
February 20, 21, 22MP, 26P, 27, 28, 2009
Genre: Drama When The New York Times reviewed Rabbit Hole in 2006, they called it "a wrenching new play". Centered around the aftermath of the devastating loss in a family, Rabbit Hole is a fine script that allows you to peek into the emotions of these characters without them actually telling you what's going on. It's a real play, without gimmicks or trickery and is as honest as if you were a fly on the wall of this house. Sure, you might cry. But not because, to quote the NYT, "you have been mauled by a sentimental brute who keeps telling you to go ahead and cry". Rather, you will be moved because the play reaches beyond the immediate devastation of the event and into the realm of human experience of how we all deal with distaster and trauma. If you desire theatre to move you and make you feel something, Rabbit Hole will satisfy.