GREENSBORO COLLEGE THEATRE SEASON – 2016-2017 PLAY DESCRIPTIONS

Note: All productions are FREE to Faculty and Staff (and their Families) and Students.

Scenic and costume elements  in all productions this season are supervised and/or designed by John Saari and Adjunct Faculty members Marion Seaman and Sean Saari.

---

Small Engine Repair: September 1-4

Directed by Faculty Member David Schram, Script by John Pollono

Former high school buddies Frank, Swaino and Packie—now past their prime—meet off-hours one night in Frank’s out-of-the-way repair shop under cloudy circumstances that only Frank seems to have a handle on. Enter Chad, a plugged-in, preppy college jock, whose arrival ignites a long-simmering resentment that sets this taut, twisty, comic thriller on its breathless course.

---

Sugar: October 20-23

Directed by Faculty Member Wm. Perry Morgan, Choreographed by Faculty Member Ashley Hyers, Book by Peter Stone, Based on the Screenplay “Some Like It Hot” by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, Based on a Story by Robert Thoeren, Music by Jule Styne, Lyrics by Bob Merrill

Based on the film “Some Like It Hot,” SUGAR chronicles the zany lives of two musicians, of the prohibition era, who witness a gang slaying. Forced to disguise themselves as women, they join an all-female orchestra, and the games begin! Memorable musical numbers include Penniless Bums, The Beauty That Drives Men Mad, We Could Be Close, Doin’ It for Sugar, What Do You Give (To a Man Who Has Everything?), Beautiful Through and Through and November Song. This show is both outrageous and touching.

---

Four Student-Directed One-Act Plays: December 1-4

Directed by Sara Simmons, Script by Louis E. Catron

A boy and girl meet and fall in love by discovering how to touch as people, not as sexual beings.

Directed by Claire Sellers, Script by Adjunct Faculty member Tommy Trull

A superhero discovers that his wife and his alter-ego’s wife have found out about each other.

Directed by Ana Radelscu, Script by Edward Albee

Memphis, Tennessee, 1937, a time when the South’s aristocracy is crumbling amidst the deeply racist views of its citizens. At a hospital a Nurse belittles an Orderly and a polite young man is severely condescending to an Intern.

Directed by Reid Miller, Script by Edward Albee

A neat, ordered, well-to-do and conventional man sits peacefully reading in the sunlight in Central Park. There enters a second man, a young, unkempt and undisciplined vagrant, a soul in torture and rebellion. He longs to communicate so fiercely that he frightens and repels his listener.

---

Complete History of America (abridged): February 23-26

Supervised  by Adjunct Faculty Member Dan Seaman, Co-Directed by Dan Seaman, Allie Cipoletti, Rebecca Hougas, and Caroline Meisner,  Script by Adam Long, Austin Tichenor, Reed Martin

600 years of history in 6000 seconds … history will never be the same! From Washington to Watergate, yea verily from the Bering Straits to Baghdad, from New World to New World Order – THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF AMERICA (ABRIDGED) is a ninety-minute rollercoaster ride through the glorious quagmire that is American History, reminding us that it’s not the length of your history that matters — it’s what you’ve done with it!

---

Much Ado About Nothing: March 30 – April 2

Directed by Adjunct Faculty member Sara Hankins, Script by William Shakespeare

By means of “noting” (which, in Shakespeare’s day, sounded the same as “nothing” as in the play’s title, and which means gossip, rumour, and overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into rejecting Hero at the altar on the erroneous belief that she has been unfaithful. At the end, Benedick and Beatrice join forces to set things right, and the others join in a dance celebrating the marriages of the two couples.

---

Tonin: April 28-30

Concept, Direction, and Choreography by Faculty Members Ashley Hyers and Wm. Perry Morgan, Music by Manhattan Transfer

In the genre of the Broadway musicals “Come Fly Away” and “Movin Out” created by Twyla Tharpe, this original production is a musical dance and movement piece using the music of the Grammy Award winning group The Manhattan Transfer collaborating with musical guests that include BB King, Bette Midler, James Taylor, Chaka Kahn, Phil Collins, Smokey Robinson, and Frankie Valli.

---