Dearly Departed   (Southern Comedy)
February 25 - March 06, 2011
Author: David Bottrell and Jessie Jones  |  Director: Leslie Kimbell

PER DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, THE STORY: In the Baptist backwoods of the Bible Belt, the beleaguered Turpin family proves that living and dying in the South are seldom tidy and always hilarious. Despite their earnest efforts to pull themselves together for their father's funeral, the Turpin's other problems keep overshadowing the solemn occasion: Firstborn Ray-Bud drinks himself silly as the funeral bills mount; Junior, the younger son, is juggling financial ruin, a pack of no-neck monster kids, and a wife who suspects him of infidelity in the family car; their spinster sister, Delightful, copes with death as she does life, by devouring junk food; and all the neighbors add more than two cents. As the situation becomes fraught with mishap, Ray-Bud says to his long-suffering wife, "When I die, don't tell nobody. Just bury me in the backyard and tell everybody I left you." Amidst the chaos, the Turpins turn for comfort to their friends and neighbors, an eccentric community of misfits who just manage to pull together and help each other through their hours of need, and finally, the funeral.

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The Dining Room   (Dramatic Comedy)
May 13 - 22, 2011
Author: A. R. Gurney  |  Director: Billie Nye-Muller

PER DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, THE STORY: The play is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions. The action is comprised of a mosaic of interrelated scenes—some funny, some touching, some rueful—which, taken together, create an in-depth portrait of a vanishing species: the upper-middle-class WASP. The actors change roles, personalities and ages with virtuoso skill as they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids. Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events; a father lectures his son on grammar and politics; a boy returns from boarding school to discover his mother's infidelity; a senile grandmother doesn't recognize her own sons at Christmas dinner; a daughter, her marriage a shambles, pleads futilely to return home, etc. Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, the varied scenes coalesce, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.

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Father of the Bride   (Comedy)
August 12 - 21, 2011
Author: Caroline Francke  |  Director: Elinor Hasty

PER DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, THE STORY: Mr. Banks learns that one of the young men he has seen occasionally about the house is about to become his son-in-law. Daughter Kay announces the engagement out of nowhere. Mrs. Banks and her sons are happy, but Mr. Banks is in a dither. The groom-to-be, Buckley Dunstan, appears on the scene and Mr. Banks realizes that the engagement is serious. Buckley and Kay don't want a "big" wedding—just a simple affair with a few friends! We soon learn, however, that the "few" friends idea is out. Then trouble really begins. The guest list grows larger each day, a caterer is called in, florists, furniture movers and dressmakers take over, and the Banks household is soon caught in turmoil—not to mention growing debt. When Kay, in a fit of temper, calls off the wedding, everyone's patience snaps. But all is set right, and the wedding (despite more last-minute crises) comes off beautifully. In the end, the father of the bride is a happy, proud man, glad that the wedding is over, but knowing too that it was worth all the money and aggravation to start his daughter off so handsomely on the road to married life.

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Terror By Gaslight   (Mystery / Thriller)
October 28 - November 06, 2011
Author: Tim Kelly  |  Director: Terri Duffield

PER DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, THE STORY: The action takes place in nineteenth-century Philadelphia, where Dr. Cyrus Norton, a brilliant but eccentric surgeon, is creating an "anatomical museum" to further his standing as a recognized expert on anatomy and dissection. The problem is that he needs cadavers, and by law these can only be obtained from the public gallows, so he is forced to deal with the unsavory Gin Hester and her sinister partner, Scrubbs, two grave robbers and body-snatchers who have little concern about where the corpses might come from. In fact, in their zeal to practice their lucrative trade, the two soon bring suspicion on Dr. Norton and his household: his devoted daughter, who wants to follow in her father's footsteps; his vapid spinster sister; and his eager assistant, a young doctor who has fallen in love with the daughter. Chills mount as one eerie scene follows another, and the persistent police detective assigned to the case moves nearer to learning the truth about the blackmail and increasingly vicious murders which have been engendered by the doctor's obsession.

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