The Golden West College 2011-12 Theater Season promises to be one of its most exciting seasons to date. The GWC Theater Department will produce four fabulous plays in the 339-seat Mainstage Theater and one engaging student production in the 96-seat Stage West Theater.
The Mainstage Theater opens October 14, 2011 with Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest. This hilarious play is directed by Martie Ramm and runs through October 23. First performed over 100 years ago in London, The Importance of Being Earnest is regarded by critics and scholars as being one of the wittiest plays ever written. Known as a trivial comedy for serious people, this hilarious play finds two dashing men-about-town pursuing their share of wine, women and song. Deciding to bend the truth in order to put some excitement into their lives, they complicate matters by inventing imaginary characters to help them escape their tedious obligations and cover their clandestine activities.
Tennesee William’s A Street Car Named Desire, directed by Tom Amen, opens on November 11, 2011 and ends with a Sunday matinee on November 20. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, A Streetcar Named Desire, is not only a landmark American drama, but is a ground-breaking theatrical event! Set in the steamy French Quarter of New Orleans, the play revolves around Blanche DuBois, an emotionally fragile and destitute woman who has come to the end of the line; the seedy home of her sister, Stella, and her rough, brutish brother-in law, Stanley Kowalski. Poetic and provocative, lyrical and lusty this play is a haunting, uncompromising, and undisputed masterpiece from one of the great voices of the American Theater.
The Servant of Two Masters, directed by Tom Amen, will run from March 16 – 25, 2012 in the Mainstage Theater. Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni’s delightful 18th Century farce, has never been livelier than in this raucous and rollicking new translation and adaptation by Jeffery Hatcher and Paolo Emilio Landi. Befuddled fathers, jealous lovers, thwarted marriages, mistaken identities, intentional disguises, and, of course, one very wily servant, collide head-on in this impossible tangle of misunderstandings and mad-cap comedic mayhem! A gem of a play, and a brilliant example of the Commedia dell’Arte style, The Servant of Two Masters has been entertaining global audiences for over 250 years!
Last but not least, the theater season ends with CABARET, directed and choreographed by Martie Ramm. The musical runs from May 4 – 13, 2012 and is for mature audiences. One of the most provocative and innovative musicals in Broadway history, Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret brings to life the outrageous characters that inhabited Berlin right before the start of the Third Reich. Winner of 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Cabaret is based both on the play “I Am a Camera” by John Van Druten and stories by Christopher Isherwood. In showing the denizens of the seedy Kit Kat Club and the decadent real world of Berlin where love and politics touched the lives of many, Cabaret confirms its status as a daringly original musical drama.
With this excellent lineup of productions, a talented and diverse group of performers and designers, and a season ticket package that is a tremendous value, we know that you will be delighted with Golden West College’s 2011-2012 theater season!
For more information or to purchase tickets and season packages go to: www.gwctheater.com
