Hudsonhubtimes.com - Actors' Summit announces 10th season of shows

Eight shows, more 100 performances, one world premiere, two English language premieres, and the return of Ohio's favorite theater duo (the Silvers) are some of the ingredients that make up the 10th season at Actors' Summit in Hudson. The season will run from Sept. 18 through May 31, 2009.

The theater will open its 10th season with the regional premiere of the musical comedy "Main Travelled Roads," which will run from Sept. 18 to Oct. 5. The play's music is by Paul Libman, with book and lyrics by Dave Hudson, and will be directed by Sasha Thackaberry. "Main-Travelled Roads," the winner of the 2007 Richard Rogers Award, is based on the short stories of Hamlin Garland. Garland was born seven years before and a few miles south of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

"Nixon's Nixon" by Russell Lees will be staged next, running from Oct. 23 to Nov. 9. The show will be directed by Constance Thackaberry and will star Neil Thackaberry as Richard M. Nixon, and Terry Burgler as Henry Kissinger. "Nixon's Nixon" is the playwright's speculation about what went on at a meeting between the embattled president Nixon and his closest advisor, Kissinger, the night before the president's historic resignation.

Actors' Summit's holiday show will be the musical "Sanders Family Christmas," which will be staged Dec. 4 through 21. The play, written by Connie Ray and conceived by Alan Bailey, with musical arrangements by John Foley and Gary Fagin, will be directed by MaryJo Alexander. The musical Sanders family returns to Mount Pleasant, NC, home of the Mount Pleasant Pickle Factory. It's Christmas Eve, 1941, and Pearl Harbor is on everyone's mind. Reverend Oglethorpe has invited the Sanders to the Baptist Church to sing and witness. It's a challenge to get the holiday spirit soaring before the boys head off to fight World War II.

The comedy "Russians in Love" will start of 2009, with the play staged from Jan. 15 to Feb. 1. The play, written by Anton Chekhov, features a new translation by George Malko and is directed by Thackaberry. Two one-act farces (The Bear & The Proposal), and the English language premieres of a monologue "In the Spring," and a comic sketch "The Dimwit" are presented on a single evening make up the bill of fare. These brilliant short pieces are theatrical proof of Chekhov's laugh-out-loud comic genius. In "The Proposal" a well intentioned, but very nervous young man, comes to ask a young woman to marry, but gets embroiled in a real estate dispute. The "Bear" has come to collect a debt from a widow with whom he falls in love.

Next in line will be "The Year of Magical Thinking," an adaptation of the book by Joan Didion. It will be staged Feb. 12 through March 1, and will star Alexander. Didion transforms the story of the sudden and unexpected loss of her husband and their only daughter into a one-woman play. In passionate and poetic language she takes us through the process of acceptance to a conclusion that is uplifting and life affirming.

"Spoon River Anthology" by Edgar Lee Masters will be staged March 12 through 29, and will be directed by MaryJo Alexander. Spoon River, in rural Illinois, produced one of America's great poets -- Masters. In the town's weekly paper he created brief dramatic portraits of his fellow citizens by having them speak from the grave. There will be special weekday matinees for school groups.

The world premiere of "Tremont," by Robert Thomas Noll and Pamela V. Noll will follow April 16 through May 3, and will be directed by Thackaberry. Set in a neighborhood bar in the Tremont area of Cleveland in the early 1960s, the play is a snapshot of a culture in transition. The steel mills that allowed immigrants to buy homes and cars are closing. The young people are moving to Parma, and the old folks are lost in a changing landscape. After her home is broken into, Eva seeks refuge with family friend Zoltan who owns the Silver Bush bar. Long absent relatives return and a new equilibrium is found, at least for the moment.

The theater will close its season with "Laughter in 3 Languages, Part II" May 14 through 31, a follow-up of the successful "Laughter in Three Languages" staged in 2004. The play is conceived, written, directed and performed by Dorothy and Reuben Silver. Dorothy and Reuben are back with new stories, and a few classics.

Ticket prices

The cost of season subscriptions and Good-Time-Any-Time Coupons will stay at the same prices as last year. Individual ticket prices have yet to be announced. Season subscriptions range from $56 for students to see all eight shows. Good Time Any Time Coupons are available in books of 8 for $20 per ticket. Individual tickets will go on sale two weeks prior to the first performance of each show.

"Our preview subscription continues to be our most popular," said MaryJo Alexander, associate artistic director. "Seniors can see all ten plays for only $10 a show."

The box office phone number is 330-342-0800. Actors' Summit Theater can be found on the web at www.actorssummit.org.