2020 Season
An Update to the STAGEStheatre Season Schedule Regarding COVID-19
Friends and Family,
When STAGEStheatre was started almost thirty years ago, we had no idea how long we would be around or how many stages we would move through as an organization. Looking back, it’s been a fantastic, wild ride.
In March of 2020, it became clear to us that COVID-19 was here to stay for a while, that it was going to take a significant toll on all live entertainment, and quite possibly decimate many, if not all, small venues as we were left with no way to keep our doors open to the public.
Theatre is a face to face experience, and right now, the circumstances that we find ourselves in as a country do not seem to favor a return to that form anytime soon.
Appropriate provisions have not been made to support small businesses and non-profits in these unprecedented times, so it is with boundless hope for a bright future, that we are announcing at this time that STAGEStheatre will be closing our theatre space at 400 E. Commonwealth Ave in Fullerton.
Leaving our theatre space allows us to streamline our entire organization so that once it is safe to return to live performances we will be situated in the most ideal position possible. It will allow us to consolidate our resources and reduce our payables for the foreseeable future.
This in no way means that STAGEStheatre as an organization is closing. STAGEStheatre is more than a building. Indeed, although we have been at our home in Fullerton for the longest stretch of time, it is not our first venue. Our intention is to take this time to reorganize, fundraise, and plan our return when it is deemed safe to do so. We make this decision so that we may live to play another day.
There are countless fond memories we leave in our Fullerton home as we begin looking toward the future and to the next stage in our journey. We thank each and every one of you for your years of support and patronage and we hope that once we are able to, you will come out and See More Theatre!
In gratitude and love,
The Board of Directors of STAGEStheatre: Patti Cumby, Amanda DeMaio, April Skinner, Jon Gaw, Mo Arii, Mary Krell-Oishi, and Roxzan Botash
The Game’s Afoot
January 10th – February 9th, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, Sundays at 2:00pm
Written By Ken Ludwig
Directed by Jason Sutton
It is December 1936, and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. It is then up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears. The danger and hilarity are non-stop in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays.
She Kills Monsters
February 28th – March 21st, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, Sundays at 2:00pm
Written By Qui Nguyen
Directed by Shinshin Yuder Tsai
After the death of her teenage sister Tilly, Agnes discovers an untouched Dungeons and Dragons campaign in Tilly’s room. In an effort to connect with her sister one last time, Agnes enters the imaginary Dungeons and Dragons world she once mocked. On her quest, she uncovers levels of her sister that she didn’t know existed in an action-packed adventure filled with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and ‘90s pop culture. Along the way, Agnes discovers new friends, joys, and hard questions.
The Paper Hangers/Deanna and Paul
March 7 – March 21, 2020
Deanna and Paul
A new play by Dagney Kerr
Directed by Brenda Kenworthy
Deanna’s a quirky waitress with a strict no tipping policy. Paul’s a surly customer with a tight lid on his heart. Their lonely worlds collide one day in a small-town diner, where one cup of coffee can change everything.
Presented at the 2019 Page to Stage festival at the Curtis Theatre, in partnership with Project La Femme
The Paper Hangers
A new play by Emily Brauer Rogers
Directed by Jill Cary Martin
New mother, Me, is overwhelmed. Brought to the countryside by her husband for rest and recuperation, the woman instead finds herself drawn to the verdant beauty beyond her window, yet is haunted within her isolated room by visions of who and what she might become. Based upon Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” The Paper Hangers takes a modern look at one woman’s struggle to deal with postpartum depression when society, her husband, and her mother expect the new mother to embrace motherhood and domesticity. Her attempt to reconcile this struggle may restore her, or may cost her everything.
Presented at the 2019 Page to Stage festival at the Curtis Theatre, in partnership with Project La Femme
A Dolls House, Part 2
A dramatic comedy by Lucas Hnath
Directed by Amanda DeMaio
April 10 – May 10, 2020
This fresh, smart, funny and utterly engrossing play picks up where Ibsen’s groundbreaking play left off. Fifteen years ago, Nora left her husband, Torvald. In the years since, the two have had no contact. Nora has become a successful feminist writer, while Torvald continued to work at the bank and raised their children on his own. Now, Nora has learned that, contrary to what she believed, she and Torvald were never actually divorced. She returns to her old home to request he finally grant her a divorce. But after all that’s happened, will he be willing to give her what she wants? After all this time, is Nora prepared to face what she left behind?
This award-winning theatrical sequel crackles with razor-sharp humor that speaks directly to today’s audiences, giving new voice to its predecessor’s themes of marriage, fidelity and personal independence. A Doll’s House, Part 2 is a blistering and very funny meditation on marriage and the high cost of personal fulfillment.
The Underpants
A comedy by Carl Sternheim & Steve Martin
Directed by Wade Williamson
April 18 – May 10, 2020
Theo has an unusual problem…..his wife’s underpants won’t stay on. One Sunday morning they fall to her ankles right in the middle of town – a public scandal! Mortified, he swears to keep her at home until she can find some less unruly undies. Amid this chaos he’s trying to rent a room in their flat and the prospective lodgers have some underlying surprises of their own.
Steve Martin, the renowned comic actor and author of Picasso at the Lapine Agile brings his comic genius and sophisticated literary style to Carl Sternheim’s classic 1910 farce in this wild satire adapted from the classic German play.
Bureaucrazy
A new workplace comedy by Kate Danley
Directed by Patti Cumby
June 5 – June 28, 2020
Grace and Amy are just two regular girls working as secretaries in a soul sucking office. But when their boss chokes on an oatmeal raisin cookie, it starts a domino effect of death and disaster in this female-driven, Commedia/Restoration-style, modern comedy about office politics and social stratification.
Ignition Arts: “A hilarious farcical plunge in the secretarial pool … Thank you, Danley, for writing this brilliant, smart and deliciously dark comedy. Young physical comediennes everywhere, rejoice! ”
Presented at the 2019 Page to Stage festival at the Curtis Theatre, in partnership with Project La Femme
Fly Me To The Moon
A new satirical comedy by David Macaray
Directed by Phil Brickey
June 12 – June 28, 2020
After decades of watching helplessly as American taxpayer support for the space program continued to decline, NASA finally took drastic steps to rekindle interest. How drastic? As part of a splashy public relations campaign, they assembled the first All-Civilian crew in history to fly to the moon. Two men, two women. Three billionaires and a school teacher. None with any aeronautical experience. One is reminded of that old movie line where a character says, “You know what? This might just be crazy enough to work!”
The Twilight Zone
July 17 – August 16, 2020
The Twilight Zone
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. A dimension as vast as space, as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call “The Twilight Zone”. “That’s the signpost up ahead. Your next stop: The Twilight Zone.”
Directed by Darri Kristin & David Campos
TBD
A dramatic comedy by Lucas Hnath
Directed by Amanda DeMaio
April 10 – May 10, 2020
This fresh, smart, funny and utterly engrossing play picks up where Ibsen’s groundbreaking play left off. Fifteen years ago, Nora left her husband, Torvald. In the years since, the two have had no contact. Nora has become a successful feminist writer, while Torvald continued to work at the bank and raised their children on his own. Now, Nora has learned that, contrary to what she believed, she and Torvald were never actually divorced. She returns to her old home to request he finally grant her a divorce. But after all that’s happened, will he be willing to give her what she wants? After all this time, is Nora prepared to face what she left behind?
This award-winning theatrical sequel crackles with razor-sharp humor that speaks directly to today’s audiences, giving new voice to its predecessor’s themes of marriage, fidelity and personal independence. A Doll’s House, Part 2 is a blistering and very funny meditation on marriage and the high cost of personal fulfillment.
The Stranger
A new mystery by Agatha Christie
Directed by David Campos
October 9 – November 8, 2020
STAGEStheatre is truly excited to produce this newly discovered thriller from the pen of Agatha Christie. This stage adaptation, which was lost in the shadows of a later collaboration of the same work, Love from a Stranger. The Stranger was recently unearthed and just published in 2018.
In the play, Enid has accepted what she believes is her last, best chance at marriage. It’s a safe, sensible choice and she can’t help but feel a little trapped. Then a handsome stranger walks into her life and opens the door to new possibilities. It seems too good to be true… and very well may be.
The Stranger confronts themes of feminine vulnerability and the seduction of the trope “love at first sight.” From the mouth of a “confidence man”, the likes of which crowd our headlines nowadays… “Woman’s weakness is man’s opportunity. Did Shakespeare say that or did I think of it myself? I believe I thought of it. If so, it’s good, it’s damned good!”
It’s a Wonderful Life: a live radio play
A classic holiday favorite by Joe Landry
Directed by Amanda DeMaio
November 27 – December 20, 2020
The beloved American Classic comes to captivating life as a live 1940’s radio broadcast. With the help of an ensemble that brings a few dozen characters to the stage, the story of idealistic George Bailey unfolds as he considers ending his life one fateful Christmas Eve.