Inspired by the recent win of the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton of the coveted Pulitzer Prize for drama, Marietta’s Community Theatre, the Susquehanna Stage Company (SSC) has chosen six former Pulitzer Prize winning plays and musicals for the 2017 season. An eclectic and challenging season awaits theatre goers at SSC, located on the grounds of the Marietta Community House at 264 West Market Street.
Season nine begins Feb. 10-19 with The Diary of Anne Frank, the true story of teenage Anne, hiding from the Nazi invasion in a Dutch attic during World War II. Directed by Holocaust scholar Matthew Good, this dark, somber, yet optimistic play has been a favorite story and part of history.
Next to Normal is a rock musical from the 2009 season on Broadway. This contemporary story revolves around the unraveling of a family as a wife/mother struggles with bipolar disorder. The show runs April 7-15.
More family dysfunction is at the center of Beth Henley’s 1979 Southern gothic black comedy-drama, Crimes of the Heart. Peek into the McGrath sisters’ lives as past resentments, unfulfilled hopes, and broken dreams consume their relationship. This show will be presented from June 9-18.
Dancers vying for jobs in a Broadway show tell their stories in the 1975 musical, A Chorus Line, running Aug. 11-20. This groundbreaking, dazzling, tour de force musical-comedy features the popular anthem, “What I Did For Love”. Rarely attempted in a community theatre setting, this play promises triple-threat talent performing onstage in Marietta.
Tennessee Williams’ epic family opus, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof from 1955 brings Maggie, Brick, Big Daddy, Big Mama and their Mississippi plantation to life. Struggles with alcoholism, infidelity, honesty, and death play out among the large Southern family. This seering and controversial play runs Oct. 13-22.
Rent, the 1996 cult favorite rock musical about bohemian artists struggling to survive and connect in New York City amid poverty andHIV/AIDS rounds out the season Dec. 9-17. This popular musical is credited with bringing young people back to the theatre played on Broadway for years. Guest director Nick Smith (Little Shop of Horrors) is at the helm.
In addition to the six main-stage productions, the Children’s Workshop Production of Once Upon a Mattress is set for April 28-May 7.
Tickets are available for $22 each and a full season subscription (six shows) is $110 (one show free). For more information, visit susquehannastageco.com or call 717-426-1277. See you at the theatre… We’ve got magic to do!