📌 An Update To Our 2024 Season 📌
As we continue working on our building and eagerly await word from the city planning department, we have to make a few required changes in our season. Along with those unavoidable circumstances, the passing of our friend and director Bob Kempf left another uncertainty in our season.
🌺 STEEL MAGNOLIAS: Originally slated to open our 21st season this February, Steel Magnolias will now be featured in our April production slot. Exact show dates and time will be released in the upcoming weeks and we thank the cast and crew for their unwavering teamwork and adaptability.
🦌 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR: The board of directors met with Merry Wives of Windsor's co-director Tish Gamez and formulated a new plan for the production in wake of Bob's recent passing. Here are a few words from Tish:
"Due to the passing of Bob Kempf, my good friend and co-director, Merry Wives will not be taking place in its intended slot this Spring. Bob and I were so looking forward to working on this project. We had been talking for years about directing together. Following certain health issues, his confidence regarding theatre was shaky but we would often throw around ideas of shows he might feel comfortable directing.
The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of our favorites. It was going to be our first show back in the theatre together since 2019. The plan now is to open in the Spring of 2025, after taking some time to heal and adjust.
I am grateful to have the opportunity to continue to work on this show — if not with him, then for him. This Merry Wives journey has been kind of a long one, and I am content to wait a little longer if it means being able to carry out our vision in Bob’s memory. This show meant a lot to him and I can only hope to make him proud."
We thank you again for your support as we do our best to continue providing art and theatre to our community while navigating these unfortunate delays within our city's planning department. We'll see you at the space soon!
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Music and Lyrics by William Finn
Conceived by Rebecca Feldman
Directed by Emily Thompson
Vocal Directed by David Allen Alvarez
March 2024
Winner of the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards for Best Book, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has charmed audiences across the country with its effortless wit and humor. Featuring a fast-paced, wildly funny and touching book by Rachel Sheinkin and a truly fresh and vibrant score by William Finn, this bee is one unforgettable experience.
An eclectic group of six mid-pubescents vie for the spelling championship of a lifetime. While candidly disclosing hilarious and touching stories from their home lives, the tweens spell their way through a series of (potentially made-up) words, hoping never to hear the soul-crushing, pout-inducing, life un-affirming "ding" of the bell that signals a spelling mistake. Six spellers enter; one speller leaves a champion! At least the losers get a juice box.
STEEL MAGNOLIAS
Written by Robert Harling
Directed by Ron Warren
April 2024
The action is set in Truvy’s beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are “anybody” come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town’s rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, ("I’m not crazy, I’ve just been in a bad mood for forty years"); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M’Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a “good ole boy.” Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.
PETER AND THE STARCATCHER
Written by Rick Elice
With Music by Wayne Barker
Directed by Salvador Vidaurri
May 2024
Tony-winning Peter and the Starcatcher upends the century-old story of how a miserable orphan comes to be The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (a.k.a. Peter Pan). A wildly theatrical adaptation of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson’s best-selling novels, the play was conceived for the stage by directors, Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, and written by Rick Elice, with music by Wayne Barker. From marauding pirates and jungle tyrants to unwilling comrades and unlikely heroes, Peter and the Starcatcher playfully explores the depths of greed and despair... and the bonds of friendship, duty and love.
A young orphan and his mates are shipped off from Victorian England to a distant island ruled by the evil King Zarboff. They know nothing of the mysterious trunk in the captain’s cabin, which contains a precious, otherworldly cargo. At sea, the boys are discovered by a precocious young girl named Molly, a Starcatcher-in-training who realizes that the trunk’s precious cargo is starstuff, a celestial substance so powerful that it must never fall into the wrong hands. When the ship is taken over by pirates – led by the fearsome Black Stache, a villain determined to claim the trunk and its treasure for his own – the journey quickly becomes a thrilling adventure.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Based on the novel by Mark Haddon
Adapted by Simon Stephens
Directed by Sheila McClure
Assistant Directed by Oliver Love
June 2024
Winner of the 2013 Tony Award® for Best Play!
Fifteen-year-old Christopher has an extraordinary brain: He is exceptional at mathematics but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched, and he distrusts strangers. Now it is 7 minutes after midnight, and Christopher stands beside his neighbor’s dead dog, Wellington, who has been speared with a garden fork. Finding himself under suspicion, Christopher is determined to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington, and he carefully records each fact of the crime. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a thrilling journey that upturns his world.
Little Shop of Horrors
Book & Lyrics by Howard Ashman
Music by Alan Menken
Based on the film by Roger Corman, screenplay by Charles Griffith
Directed by Justin Thompson
Vocal Directed by Braeden Addison
July 2024
A deviously delicious Broadway and Hollywood sci-fi smash musical, Little Shop Of Horrors has devoured the hearts of theatre goers for over 30 years. Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Disney's The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, and Aladdin) are the creative geniuses behind what has become one of the most popular shows in the world.
The meek floral assistant Seymour Krelborn stumbles across a new breed of plant he names "Audrey II" - after his coworker crush. This foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore promises unending fame and fortune to the down and out Krelborn as long as he keeps feeding it, BLOOD. Over time, though, Seymour discovers Audrey II's out of this world origins and intent towards global domination!
Gruesome Playground injuries
Written by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Maya Blackstone
August 2024
Over the course of 30 years, the lives of Kayleen and Doug intersect at the most bizarre intervals, leading the two childhood friends to compare scars and the physical calamities that keep drawing them together.
WheN I Was Your AGE
Written by Vanessa Beltran
Directed by Mendy McMasters
September 2024
Written by Bakersfield artist Vanessa Beltran, When I Was Your Age tells the story of a first-generation family. When a birthday celebration brings the protagonist back home after a long time away, the family is forced to come to grips with deep-rooted issues of toxic masculinity, mental illness, and generational trauma.
Beltran says, “It’s a love letter to my community focused on breaking the generational trauma cycle in first-generation families. We’re all passing down some form of generational trauma, and this story, in particular, does deal with a first-generation family in a household where there is the children, parents, and grandparents and how each group deals with issues like machismo, mental illness, and substance abuse,”
Winner of the Outstanding Undergraduate Award at Cal State University Bakersfield and recipient of the National ASPIRE Arts Leadership Fellow, don’t miss this inspiring new work.
The Rocky Horror Show
Book, Music, and Lyrics by Richard O’Brien
Directed by Kelsey Morrow & Ron Warren
October 2024
In this cult classic, sweethearts Brad and Janet, stuck with a flat tire during a storm, discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker and a creepy butler. Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named "Rocky."
Fran-N-Furter and his motley crew did the "Time Warp" on Broadway in a 25th anniversary revival. Complete with sass from the audience, cascading toilet paper, and an array of other audience participation props, this deliberately kitschy rock 'n' roll sci-fi gothic musical is more fun than ever.
Pride And Prejudice
Written by Kate Hamill
Directed by Kristina Saldaña
November 2024
This isn’t your grandmother’s Austen! Bold, surprising, boisterous, and timely, this P&P for a new era explores the absurdities and thrills of finding your perfect (or imperfect) match in life. The outspoken Lizzy Bennet is determined to never marry, despite mounting pressure from society. But can she resist love, especially when that vaguely handsome, mildly amusing, and impossibly aggravating Mr. Darcy keeps popping up at every turn?! Literature’s greatest tale of latent love has never felt so theatrical, or so full of life than it does in this effervescent adaptation. Because what turns us into greater fools… than the high-stakes game of love?
Anastasia: THe Musical
Book by Terrence McNally
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Directed by Andrea Vega
December 2024
From Tony winners Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, creators of such Broadway classics as Ragtime and Once On This Island, this dazzling show transports its audience from the twilight of the Russian Empire to the euphoria of Paris in the 1920s, as a brave young woman sets out to discover the mystery of her past. Pursued by a ruthless Soviet officer determined to silence her, Anya enlists the aid of a dashing con man and a lovable ex-aristocrat. Together, they embark on an epic adventure to help her find home, love and family.
Inspired by the Twentieth Century Fox Motion Pictures by special arrangement with Buena Vista Theatrical. From the play by Marcelle Maurette as adapted by Guy Bolton.
All shows subject to change.