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.

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

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.

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.