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MEDAL OF HONOR RAG
by Tom Cole
AUGUST 4-7
7:00 PM
Thursday-Saturday
2:00 PM Sunday |
Dennis Black directs
the first play, Medal of Honor Rag featuring former Civic
Managing Artistic Director Lynn Kinkade and USI senior Preston
Harris-Dunlap in a powerful drama dealing with the emotional
aftermath of Vietnam and the effect it had on one black soldier.
Medal of Honor Rag will be presented August 4-7 at 7:30
PM at the Evansville Civic Theatre Underground at the Annex in
Washington Square Mall.
In an army hospital, a black winner of the Congressional Medal
of Honor and a psychiatrist, both guilty survivors of Viet Nam,
verbally spar until the doctor draws out the horror and disgust
that has traumatized D.J. His barriers crumbling, D.J. turns on
the psychiatrist and exposes the man behind the professional
facade. Yet D.J. desperately hopes and the psychiatrist believes
he can be helped. Before another interview takes place, D.J.
goes AWOL to get money for unpaid bills and is killed in an
attempted robbery.
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FROZEN
by Bryony Lavery
September 22-25
7:30 PM |
Next up is Frozen
directed by Ashley Frary of Think Pink! Productions.
Frozen is a tale of the abduction of a 10 year old girl and the
years that follow focusing on the lives of the girl’s mother and
the man who took her daughter’s life. Frozen will be presented
September 22-25 at 7:30 PM at the Evansville Civic Theatre
Underground at the Annex in Washington Square Mall.
One evening, ten-year
old Rhona goes missing. Her mother, Nancy, retreats into a state
of paralytic hope, 'frozen' as it were, in the expectation her
daughter will be returned safe and sound. Agnetha, an academic,
comes to England to research a thesis titled "Serial Killings: A
Forgiveable Act?" Then there's Ralph, a loner with a bit of a
record who's looking for some distraction. Drawn together by
horrific circumstances, these three embark upon a long, dark
journey that finally curves upward into the light in this "big,
brave, compassionate play about grief, revenge, forgiveness, and
bearing the unbearable"-The Guardian
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WOMEN OF MANHATTAN
by John Patrick Shanley
November 10-13
7:30 PM |
Director Ellen Shrode
will tackle Women of Manhattan - a Sex in the City
style dramedy by Pulitzer Prize Winner John Patrick Shanley,
author of last season’s mainstage production Doubt.
Women of Manhattan will be presented November 10-13 at 7:30
PM at the Evansville Civic Theatre Underground at the Annex in
Washington Square Mall.
Described by the
author as "an Upper West Side story," this provocative,
brilliantly stylized and often very funny play delves into the
lives of three upscale Manhattan female "yuppies" whose
financial success is counterbalanced by their unmet emotional
needs. Rhonda, Judy and Billie are having dinner, over which
they lament the fact that, while their careers are flourishing,
their emotional lives are a wreck. Rhonda has just broken up
with her boyfriend; Billie, "happily married," frets that she
and her husband are stuck in their honeymoon phase; and Judy
despairs of ever meeting an attractive man who isn't gay. But
then, in a series of sharply written, subtly revealing scenes,
their situations change. Billie fixes up Judy with her
ex-boyfriend, a debonair black executive who proves to be more
than an adequate lover; Billie's husband gives her a black eye;
and Rhonda, still alone, summons up the courage to dispose of
her boyfriend's sneakers. As the play ends, the three are
hopeful about better times ahead but also painfully aware that
the brittle, competitive Manhattan lifestyle disappoints as
quickly as it rewards.
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BAT BOY:
THE MUSICAL
February 23-26
7:30 PM |
Finally, Blaylock and
Think Pink! finish off the Annex season with Bat Boy: The
Musical - a wacky, whimsical love story featuring a star
from The Weekly World News! Bat Boy: The Musical
will be presented February 23-26 at 7:30 PM at the Evansville
Civic Theatre Underground at the Annex in Washington Square
Mall.
Based on a story in
The Weekly World News, BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL is a musical
comedy/horror show about a half boy/half bat creature who is
discovered in a cave near Hope Falls, West Virginia. For lack of
a better solution, the local sheriff brings Bat Boy to the home
of the town veterinarian, Dr. Parker, where he is eventually
accepted as a member of the family and taught to act like a
"normal" boy by the veterinarian's wife, Meredith, and teenage
daughter, Shelley. Bat Boy is happy with his new life, but when
he naively tries to fit in with the narrow-minded people of Hope
Falls, they turn on him, prodded by the machinations of Dr.
Parker, who secretly despises Bat Boy. Shelley and Bat Boy, who
have fallen in love, run away together from the ignorant
townfolk and have a blissful coupling in the woods, but their
happiness is shattered when Meredith arrives and reveals a
secret. Soon the entire town arrives and hears the shocking
story of Bat Boy's unholy origin.
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