Time Magazine’s “Best Play of the Year” in 1988

A compassionate story of two people whose love is able to transcend time and space.
Limited Intimate Suround Seating

 

Thursday, Friday and Saturday
June 21, 22 & 23, 2012

 
 
A Year with Frog and Toad

 
Book and Lyrics by Willie Reale
Music by Robert Reale
Based on the books by Arnold Lobel

 

Arnold Lobel’s well loved characters jump from the page to the stage.
A family musical that follows the cheerful Frog and grumpy Toad through four fun-filled seasons.
Outdoor Seating at the Wonderful Yanney Park Ron & Carol Cope Amphitheater

Tuesday through Saturday
July 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7, 2012

 
 
Into the Woods

 
Composer and Lyricist: Stephen Sondheim
Librettist: James Lapine

New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award,
Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, Britain’s Olivier Award

and the original cast recording even won a Grammy Award.

 
All your favorite fairy tale characters come together for an amazing journey.

 

Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays
July 26, 27 & 28  and  August 2, 3 & 4, 2012

 
 
SHOW SYNOPSIS

 

 

Two Rooms

 

Two Rooms is both a love story and a debate. Named by Time Magazine as “Best Play of the Year” in 1988, Lee Blessing has crafted a truly powerful story of perseverance that deserves to be heard.

The story takes place in, as the title suggests, two rooms.   It opens with hostage Michael Wells, a history professor in Beirut, Lebanon, blindfolded in his room, a small windowless cell.  The other room lies across the world at his home in the United States.  As the months turn into years and her husband’s fate hangs precariously, Michael’s wife, Lanie, strips the room to the bare walls in order to feel closer to him.  For her, a thin mat she has dragged into his office represents all the corners of the room, and where she imagines she can speak with her missing husband.   These two people, who are separated by an ocean are still able to make their love transcend time and space.

While the four characters in Blessing’s play may represent separate poles of experience, their humanity and humor mark them as more than mere caricature.  Lainie, befitting her status as a wife of a hostage, receives regular visits by Ellen VanOss, an officious State Department liaison, who makes a good show of representing the government’s position while also portraying a certain amount of sympathy.  Lanie also talks to Walker Harris, a crusading reporter who wants to publicize the ongoing plight and get a good story for himself.

As months go by, Lanie becomes frustrated by the excuses and rationalizations given to her for why the government refuses to negotiate for the release of her husband.  When Walker is prevented from going to Beirut by the State Department, Lanie lashes out against government policies, triggering a firestorm in the media and triggering a series of events which brings the play to its startling conclusion.

Destined to become a classic, A Year With Frog And Toad is inventive, exuberant and totally enchanting.   Arnold Lobel’s well-loved characters hop from the page to the stage in Robert and Willie Reale’s musical.   Conceived by Mr. Lobel’s daughter, Adrianne Lobel, A Year with Frog and Toad remains true to the spirit of the original stories as it follows two great friends, the cheerful and popular Frog and the rather grumpy Toad through four fun-filled seasons.

Waking from hibernation in the spring, they proceed to plant gardens, swim, rake leaves and go sledding, learning life lessons along the way, including a most important one about friendship and rejoicing in the attributes that make each of us different and special.   Set to a jazzy score that bubbles with melody and wit, this Tony nominated family musical lovingly captures the spirit of this unlikely friendship as it blossoms and grows.

A popular Broadway musical that first made it’s way into the hearts of audience members in 1986, Into the Woods is a Tony Award winning classic you will not want to miss.   Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine have intertwined the stories of various familiar fairy tales with an original story of a childless Baker and his Wife, who are the focus of the story by attempting to reverse a curse on their family.   Thus creating a single even bigger fairy tale.

In the first act, the characters set out to achieve their goal of living happily ever after through familiar routes.  Cinderella goes to the Ball and captures the heart of Prince Charming, Jack climbs the Beanstalk and finds a land of Giants and Gold, Little Red Riding Hood survives her clash with the wolf at Grandma’s house, and Rapunzel manages to escape her tower with the aid of a handsome prince who climbs her long hair.   The Baker and his wife must enter the woods to assemble the ingredients for a potion required by their neighbor, the Witch, to remove a curse preventing them from having a child.  In their search, the Baker and his wife meet up with Jack, Red Riding Hood, and the Wolf, as well as Cinderella, Rapunzel and their respective Princes.   These characters are all busy with their own fairy tales, but each possesses one ingredient for the potion.   The ingredients are eventually gathered, and the spell works, stripping the Witch of her power, but restoring her beauty.   By the end of Act One, all the characters seem poised to live happily ever after, but do they?

In Act Two, all the characters must deal with what happens after Happily Ever After.   As they face a genuine threat to their community, they realize that all actions have consequences.   They are forced Into the Woods to escape the giant’s wife, who has come down to earth on an errant beanstalk to get revenge for her husband’s untimely demise.   After a good deal of squabbling ensues and some characters lives are taken, the Baker decides it is time they take responsibility.   They realize that their lives are inescapably interdependent, but also it’s that interdependence that is their greatest strength, so the group finally bands together to dispose of the giant’s wife.

Thus, what begins a lively irreverent fantasy becomes a moving lesson about community responsibility and the stories we tell our children.