Colonial Players sees life in 360 degrees and as we roll through our season, we take pleasure in presenting the variety it offers:

In the fall, we visit a monastery of 12^th century French monks hilariously digging up a remedy for their poverty, and finding the Incorruptible in a miracle of mistaken identity. We move next to an attic in England in the penumbra of the Second World War, where mothers and daughters seek each other’s understanding in the wrenching circumstances of Kindertransport. After Christmas, we’re off to wisteria-filled Italy, fleeing rainy, gray England in 1920 during Enchanted April. In the late winter, we join a troupe of colorful actors in the throes of romantic turmoils as complicated as the Shakespearean characters they play on stage, musically portrayed as only Cole Porter could do it in Kiss Me Kate. Finally in the spring, we come home to America, but in the 1930s, at the time of the kidnapping of the Lindberg baby, as we witness the trial of Hauptmann.

Please note: Scroll down to read entire page. All shows are subject to rights availability.

Incorruptible
Written by Michael Hollinger
Directed by Tom Newbrough
 
Comedy - Production dates August 31 - September 29,  2007

It is the Dark Ages in France, and the monks of Priseaux are in trouble – their saint is no longer performing miracles, so their main source of income has dried up. On the brink of financial ruin, they suddenly get an idea – a perfectly wonderful, awful idea. Throw in some mistaken identities, the imminent arrival of the Pope, and a number of mysterious burlap sacks, and this farcical romp shows that there can be hell to pay when digging for the Truth. This wickedly funny comedy trumps disaster with a miracle of a love story.

Kindertransport
 Written by Diane Samuels
Directed by Terry Averill

Drama - Production dates October 19 - November 17, 2007

This moving story explores identity and mother-daughter relationships through the eyes of a German Jewish girl sent to England before the borders were closed and the Holocaust began. Evelyn embraced her new country and new family, even rejecting her German mother when they were reunited after the war.  Years later, she must face the choices she made, when her own grown daughter discovers her history. Beautifully written with compassion and insight, this play reveals the complicated sources of self and connectedness that underlie all family relationships.

A Christmas Carol
 Play and Lyrics by Richard Wade
Music by Dick Gessner

Directed by Pat Browning
Musical - Production dates December, 2007
Tickets go on sale November 17, 2007

Our traditional Christmas offering. Dickens' classic tale of Ebenezer Scrooge and his encounter with the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

Enchanted April
 Written by Matthew Barber
From the novel by Elizabeth von Arnim
Directed by Mary Fawcett Watko

Comedy - Production dates January 11 - February 9, 2008

This charming comedy will be just the lift your winter needs! When two proper housewives recruit two very different English women to share a villa in Italy far away from war-weary and perpetually rainy London in 1922, they embark on a month in idyllic sun-drenched, wisteria-filled surroundings and rediscover laughter, learn new truths about themselves and find just the romance they need – although perhaps not the romance, we – or they – expect to find.

Kiss Me Kate
Book by Samuel and Bella Spewack
Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter
Directed by Beverly Hill van Joolen

Musical - Production dates February 29 - March 16 and March 27 - April 5, 2008 (note - there will be no performances Easter Weekend)

 Vibrant young actors and dancers in a troupe touring Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew have backstage dramas that echo the explosive story of Petruchio and his reluctant Kate. Colorful both visually and verbally, Kiss Me Kate is loaded with the wonderful music and spicy lyrics of the inimitable Cole Porter: Wunderbar, Brush Up Your Shakespeare, Always True to you Darling in My Fashion, and So In Love to name just a few.
 

Hauptmann
Written by John Logan
Directed by Beth Terranova
 
Drama - Production dates April 25 - May 24, 2008

In 1936, Richard Hauptmann was convicted for the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr., but in this tour-de-force retelling of his life and trial, reasonable doubt enters in. Interestingly staged, with six actors playing many different roles, this play allows us to return to an earlier America when suspicion of foreigners often colored judgment and the culture needed heroes. In these days of fear and the Patriot Act, we can find much in exploring Hauptmann's story that is thought provoking and relevant to our times.