Ninety Years in the Making: The 2012/2013 Season

Community Players is proud to announce its upcoming 90th season with a celebration of comedy, drama, and musicals.

You Can't Take it With You

Comedy: George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
Auditions: July 16-17, 2012,
Preview: August 30, 2012
Performances: August 31-September 2, 6-9, 2012

Director: Jeremy Stiller
Producer: Joel Shoemaker

Winner of the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, You Can't Take it With You tells the tale of the Sycamore family. At first they seem mad, but it is not long before you realize that if they are mad, then the rest of the world is madder! The play was the basis for the 1938 film—directed by Frank Capra and featuring Jimmy Stewart, Jean Arthur, and Lionel Barrymore—which was awarded the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director.

Leaving Iowa

Comedy: Tim Clue and Spike Manton
Laboratory Theatre Production. Not a part of Community Players' Season Ticket package.

Auditions: September 4 & 5, 2012
Performances: October 4-7, 2012

Director: Sally Parry
Producer: Dorothy Mundy

The spark behind Leaving Iowa comes from being children of parents from the now dubbed "greatest generation." The story is a toast to their idealism and character and a little roast of their undying dedication to the classic family road trip. More specifically, it is about Don Browning, a middle-aged writer, who returns home and decides to finally take his father's ashes to his childhood home. When Don discovers Grandma's house is now a grocery store, he begins traveling across Iowa searching for a proper resting place for his father. This father-and-son road trip shifts smoothly from the present to Don's memories of the annual, torturous vacations of his childhood. Don't miss this special, one-weekend-only offering!

Irving Berlin's White Christmas

Musical: Music and Lyrics by Irving Berlin; Based on the film by Norman Krasna, Norman Panama and Melvin Frank; Book by David Ives and Paul Blake

Auditions: October 7-9, 2012
Preview: November 29, 2012
Performances: November 30-December 2, 6-9, 13-16, 2012

Director: Deb Smith
Producers: Jean and John Lieder

Based on the beloved, timeless film, this heartwarming musical adaptation features seventeen Irving Berlin songs and a book by David Ives and Paul Blake. War veterans Bob Wallace and Phil Davis have a successful song-and-dance act after World War II. With romance in mind, the two follow a duo of beautiful singing sisters en route to their Christmas show at a Vermont lodge, which just happens to be owned by Bob and Phil's former army commander. The dazzling score features well known standards including "Sisters," "Snow," "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing," and the perennial favorite, "White Christmas."

Lend Me a Tenor

Comedy: Ken Ludwig

Auditions: December 10-11, 2012
Preview: January 24, 2013
Performances: January 25-27, January 31-February 3, 2013

Director: Cris Embree
Producer: Jay Hartzler

Premiering in 1986, Lend Me a Tenor had an initial Broadway run of 476 performances. In 1934, the renowned tenor, Tito Merelli, is scheduled to sing the lead in Othello for the Cleveland Opera Company. Chaos ensues when Merelli's wife, who has mistaken an autograph-seeker hidden in his closet for a secret lover, leaves him a "Dear John" letter. The distraught Merelli accidentally is given a double dose of tranquilizers and passes out. Saunders, the company's General Manager, is determined that the show will go on, so he forces his assistant Max to impersonate the opera star. What follows is a chain-reaction of mistaken identities, farcical plot twists, double entendres, innuendoes, and constant entrances and exits through many doors!

To Kill a Mockingbird

Drama: Based on the book by Harper Lee; Dramatized by Christopher Sergel

Auditions: January 28-29, 2013
Preview: March 14, 2013
Performances: March 15-17, 21-24, 2013

Director: Marcia Weiss
Producer: Samantha Smith

To Kill a Mockingbird centers on Scout Finch, a young girl living in the quiet, southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, with her father, Atticus, and her older brother, Jem. Scout is about to experience the dramatic events that will affect the rest of her life. Atticus is appointed by the court to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of assaulting a young white woman. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, To Kill a Mockingbird was also adapted into a critically acclaimed 1962 film of the same name, starring Gregory Peck, as Atticus Finch. Make sure to get your tickets early; this American classic is sure to be a hit!

Monty Python's Spamalot

Musical Comedy: Music by John Du Prez, Eric Idle, and Neil Innes, Book and Lyrics by Eric Idle

Auditions: March 17-19, 2013
Preview: May 9, 2013
Performances: May 10-12, 16-19, 23-26, 2013.

Director: Brett Cottone
Producer: Chris Strupek

Lovingly "ripped off" from the 1975 film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian legend, but it differs from the film in many ways, especially in its parody of Broadway theatre. The original 2005 Broadway production—starring Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce, and Hank Azaria—won three Tony Awards, including Best Musical and received 14 Tony Award nominations. This hilarious romp features such Python favorites as "Knights of the Round Table," "Brave Sir Robin," "The Song That Goes Like This," and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."