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~ 2008 - 2009 season ~
DOG SEES GOD: CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE BLOCKHEAD
by Bert V. Royal
Directed by Dale Mc Kim
Wednesday, July 30th at 7pm in the LARAC Gallery
"Good grief! The Peanuts kids have finally come out of their shells.” —Time Out.
When Charlie Brown’s dog dies from rabies, CB begins to question the existence of an afterlife. His best friend is too burnt out to provide any coherent speculation; his sister has gone goth; his ex-girlfriend has recently been institutionalized. Pushing teen angst to the very limit; drug use, suicide, eating disorders, teen violence, rebellion and sexual identity collide and careen toward an ending that shows The Peanuts kids have finally come out of their shells and grown up..
WARNING: Adult Content for Mature Audiences Only
SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY
by Edgar Lee Masters
Directed by the etc Committee
Wednesday, September 17th at 7pm in the LARAC Gallery
Hometown U.S.A. journeys through the looking glass!
Written in 1915, etc dusts off a neglected classic! In this collection, Edgar Lee Masters tells the stories of the dead through their own posthumous words. Realistic, often cynical, these epitaphs are spoken from the grave by former citizens of a small Midwestern village. The entire spectrum of human life is represented here--everyone from poet to shopkeeper is given a chance to narrate their life, to tell of their struggles and their thwarted hopes and dreams. The characters who speak here tarnish the pure image of their Midwestern hamlet by holding forth from the grave with tales of illicit love affairs, betrayed confidences, political corruption, and miserable marriages. Here is the respected doctor, jailed for swindling; here is the chaste wife, rapt with desire; here is the pastor, angry and resentful. With these classic poems, Masters took his revenge on the hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness of small-town America, revealing it in all its injustice, corruption, and cruelty. The first serious work of psychological naturalism, it is a must-see for any resident of any Hometown U.S.A.
JANUARY READING SLOT OPEN – TBA
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 7pm in the LARAC Gallery
WINNERS OF THE ACC TEN-MINUTE PLAYWRIGHTING COMPETITION
Directed by Ruth Liberman
Wednesday, March 25th at 7pm, 2009 at 7pm in the LARAC Gallery
Top Attendance of last year's Reading Series!
TBA
CLUE (Screenplay)
by Jonathan Lynn and John Landis
Directed by Jason C. Polunci
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 7pm in the LARAC Gallery
It's Not Just a Game Anymore!
Taking a break from traditional theatre pieces, etc brings you a play of another kind. A Screenplay! Clue is a 1985 dark comedy film based on the Parker Brothers board game. In the spirit of Neil Simon's Murder by Death and Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, Clue is a murder mystery set in a Gothic New England mansion, originally directed by Jonathan Lynn. The all-star cast included Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, and Madeline Kahn, amongst others, and became an instant cult classic. Please join us as we breathe hysterical new life into Mrs. White, Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlet and their compatriots, all prone to wielding candlesticks and kitchen knives to keep their scandalous secrets. The whodunit crescendos into a madcap run about the house to solve the murders with three different endings, a first in the genre of film. A spoof of McCarthy-era paranoia and 1950s wholesomeness, this classic murder mystery dinner party's laughs are only matched by its body count.
THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL
music and lyrics by David Nehls, Book by Betsy Kelso
Directed by Cory Seelye Dixon
Wednesday, July 29th at 7pm in the LARAC Gallery
A cubic zirconium in the rough!
Join us for this preview reading of not only etc's first musical venture but its first full-length production! South Park meets Desperate Housewives in this big-hearted, low-rent musical comedy about adultery, strippers, murderous ex-boyfriends, Costco and the Ice Capades. Joyful and unashamedly vulgar, this comic fable about women in a Florida trailer park and their no-account men is more fun than a chair-throwing episode of Jerry Springer set to music. With a thrillingly trashy Greek chorus of trailer park matrons, it is fast becoming the most laugh-out-loud show in town. There’s a new tenant at Armadillo Acres—and she’s wreaking havoc all over Florida’s most exclusive trailer park. When Pippi, the stripper on the run, comes between the Dr. Phil–loving, agoraphobic Jeannie and her tollbooth collector husband—the storms begin to brew. A cubic zirconium in the rough, it can't miss!
WARNING: Adult Content for Mature Audiences Only
A Double Bill:
DEGAS C'EST MOI by David Ives & A PICASSO by Jeffrey Hatcher
Directed by Richard Joyce
Wednesday, September 28th, 2009 at 7pm at the LARAC Gallery
A Masterpiece of an evening!
In celebration of the Hyde Museum's renowned Degas exhibit, etc and LARAC present Degas C'est Moi, a short play in whicha man wakes up one morning and decides to be the French artist Degas. The best place to do that is in New York City (and Glens Falls!) where he encounters all that makes great art. From the volume entitled Mere Mortals, David Ive's play is a masterpiece!
To round out our evening's tribute to the fine arts, etc introduces A Picasso by Jeffrey Hatcher, the author of last year's acclaimed reading of Compleat Female Stage Beauty. A Picasso transports us to 1941 Paris where Pablo Picasso has been summoned from his favorite café by German occupation forces to a storage vault across the city for an interrogation. The Nazis present him with three of his paintings recently “confiscated” from their Jewish owners. Asked to authenticate his work for a exhibit by the Ministry of Propaganda, Picasso confirms they are indeed his own. But when it is revealed that the “exhibition” is actually a burning of “degenerate art,” Picasso becomes desperate to save his work and engages in a pressurized negotiation to hold on to two of his precious “children” while consigning the third to the flames. A cat-and-mouse drama about art, politics, sex and truth, with a twist.
These readings will be held as part of this new series developed as a joint venture between Glens Falls Community Theatre and LARAC. The etc (experimental theatre company) Play Reading Series was founded to create theatre and performance which pushes the boundaries of playwriting, dramaturgy and production. The company was founded to provide a safe and supportive environment for literary and performing artists to create and explore new works, develop original plays, rediscover neglected classics, and to build new audiences for this work.
~ Click here to view photos from etc's hugely successful 2007-2008 season ~
For more information on Glens Falls Community Theatre's etc play reading series, or to volunteer to direct, act or submit manuscripts for these readings, please contact Debbie Gecewicz at 469-5383 or via e-mail at dipperdgy@aol.com.