By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Black Swamp Players audiences should be prepared for something different in the troupe’s coming season.
Heath Diehl, the Players president and a member of the selection committee, said the committee wanted to bring “fresh and new” shows to their stage.
“Community theaters get into these cycles where you see the same shows every season,” Diehl said. “We wanted to make sure we weren’t doing anything that any other community theater has done in the last at five years. Some have never been done, or they were done five years or more ago.”
The committee, also, Diehl said, “wanted a diversity of plays. Some that would make people laugh and some that would make people cry and some that would make people think” as well as representing a diversity of genres and ideas.
On Saturday night, the Players announced the lineup for 2022-2023 season, which runs from September through June. Productions will be in the Black Swamp Players’ home at 115 E. Oak St.
Shows scheduled are:
- Alan Ball’s “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,” a comedy is set during an ostentatious wedding reception at a Knoxville, Tennessee, estate, where five reluctant, identically clad bridesmaids hide out in an upstairs bedroom, each with her own reason to avoid the proceedings below. On stage weekends, Sept. 16-25.
- Jordan Harrison’s “Marjorie Prime,” set in the age of artificial intelligence, somewhere in the near-distant future. Its eponymous 85-year-old protagonist— who is a jumble of disparate, fading memories — has a handsome new companion who’s programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. The play asks us to consider: What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? On stage weekends, Dec 2-11.
- “The Spitfire Grill,” a musical based on a 1996 film, is set in a small Wisconsin town, where a feisty parolee follows her dreams, based on a page from an old travel book, and finds herself working at a diner. The diner is for sale, but there are no takers for the only eatery in this economically depressed town, so newcomer Percy convinces owner Hannah to raffle it off. On stage weekends, February 17-26.
- “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” a mystery adapted from a novel presents the story of a 15 year-old who has an extraordinary brain. He is exceptional at mathematics, but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. Determined to solve mystery about a slain dog, his detective work takes him on a thrilling journey that upturns his world. On stage weekends, April 21-30, 2023.
- “Not Quite Gone,” written by recent BGHS graduate Ethan Woody Brown, the play was the winner of the BSP’s annual playwriting contest. With the help of a friend, an aging woman experiencing dementia discovers how to remember her past. An earlier version of Brown’s “Not Quite Gone” was part of a slate of student written and directed one-act plays staged in January 2020. On stage weekends, June 16-25.
Diehl said that from the first meeting of selection committee “”The Curious Incident,” Marjorie Prime,” and “The Spitfire Grill” stood out.
The process of picking plays can be “like herding cats because people are going in a million different directions.” But right away these scripts caught committee members’ attention as “very strong contenders” and throughout the process “we kept coming back to these three.”
Once they made the cut, the committee knew they needed a comedy. Also, the shows already picked had casts with characters in their 30s through 80s. They wanted something to showcase young actors. “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” fit the bill. Its cast calls for five women in their 20s and one man.
“One of the things we’ve really emphasized since moving into our building is inclusivity,” Diehl said. “We want to make sure that we’re doing the best we can, while keeping in mind who actually comes out to audition, that we represent the community we live in. Telling stories that have never been told on our stage before. Having characters who are part of our population that have never been represented. That was a big thing.”
The Players are still exploring the possibilities of their new home. “We really had to consider what we can we do in this space,” Diehl said.
As a black box theater the stage set up can be oriented a number of different ways. “That really opened up, rather than closed off, the possibilities.”
In the family drama “August: Osage County” the set had the audience sitting within the home as the drama exploded. Lane Hakel has come up with another orientation for the upcoming musical “It Shoulda Been You.”
“The space amazing and flexible,” Diehl said. “It really looks different every time you walk in for a new show, which is what I love about it.”
Now that the scripts are selected, the next step is finding directors. Anyone interested should visit tinyurl.com/BSPDirect and complete the application process. Applications will be accepted until Friday, April 29 at 5 p.m.
