
SEASON 2023
Evening Main Stage Shows
DATES: Every Friday and Saturday, from JULY 29th to AUGUST 19th , 2023
TIX: At door, General Admission, PAY WHAT YOU CAN DONATION
TIME: 6pm House Open for 1st come, 1st served seating and pre show picnicking,
6:30-8 pm Performance
LOCATION:
SUN: At our beautiful GAZEBO HILL AMPITHEATRE (behind the Ice Rink In Waterville Valley Town Square)
RAIN: DREAM THEATRE at The Snowy Owl Inn (adjacent to WV Town Square)


Sugar-Coated Shakespeare Family Matinees
The candy-coated romp with the Bard at its’ center!
DATES: Saturday Aug 1st and 8th (a different show each day)
TIX: Cost of admission-FREE
TIME: 2:30-3pm
LOCATION: Town Square Center (in front of the gazebo)
SUGAR-COATED SHAKESPEARE FAMILY MATINEES
Two person teams of actors play all the parts/characters from Shakespeare and other classical poetry, songs and stories in an audience-interactive comedy shows based around common themes (like “Famous villains in literature”).
EVENING MAINSTAGE SHOWS
(subject to change)
In revolving repertory through-out the season
Check back here for details closer to the season
I HATE HAMLET by Seth Rudnick
A hysterically funny modern-day farce that skewers and pokes satirical fun atwhether classical theater is relevant in modern day Hollywood. The play centersaround a young actor who has just earned fame and fortune on a television showand is apprehensive about returning to New York, where he has been forced to usehis new-found fame to play Hamlet in the prestigious Shakespeare in Central Parkfestival. His pushy realtor has rented him an apartment once inhabited by JohnBarrymore, whom many consider having played one of the greatest Hamlets inhistory. A sequence of plot devices brings the ghost of John Barrymore back to theapartment wherein the hard-drinking, womanizing, conceited old actor schools theyoung actor on playing the part—all to hilarious effect. Add to the mix a rich,Ophelia-obsessed actress girlfriend, a greedy NYC realtor, a self-absorbed vacuousHollywood producer and an aged agent with a romantic secret and this is a familyfriendly madcap romp for all ages.


“THE WATERVILLE SPOON RIVER VALLEY PROJECT”
A world premiere musical workshop production created by PLAYAH Theatre Group
An immersive, life-affirming, graveyard musical
Based on the writings of Edgar Lee Masters, with additional material provided by Audrey Adams
Featuring the songs of Stephen Foster, revitalized traditional folk, hymn and spiritual music and original pieces created by critically-lauded composers Dan Connors and Camille Garro
"Is your soul alive? Then let it feed!" exclaims one of the characters in Spoon River Anthology, written in 1915 by Edgar Lee Masters. This classic work is a collection of short free-verse poems that collectively narrate the epitaphs of the dearly-departed residents of Spoon River, now buried in the cemetery on the hill. Set in post-Civil War America, the aim of the poems was to demystify rural and small-town American life and debunk any notion that it was always white picket fence “quaint” or “simple”. As the citizens provide elegiac accounts of their lives, loves, losses, and manner of death, many of the poems contain cross-references that create an unabashedly candid tapestry of a complex and nuanced community. Masters’ language gives the story of each of these lives a compelling urgency, no matter how rich or common.
Partnering with the Historical Society to include monologues created for some of the storied denizens from Waterville Valley’s historic past, as well as musicians from the Fiddlehead Field Youth String Orchestra and with new music and songs created just for this production, we will breathe new life into this time-honored work. Despite its inclusion of a few bleak accounts of some of the more bittersweet aspects of life, our workshop production of the musical version we are creating will be a “feel-good” celebration that encourages our audiences to “gather their rosebuds (or daisies) while they may”. Unlike the late denizens of Spoon River, who realize all too well that the life they left behind is the only one they’re getting, the performers who portray them—a mix of adult professional actors, community members and kids—will be reincarnated many times as they play multiple characters; via changes of accents and costumes.
Our memento mori musical (literal translation, “remember you must die”) will be a journey into a rich, vibrant, immersive, musical celebration of LIFE!
“The Letters” Series: DEAR LIAR by Jerome Kilty
Hot on the heels of last summer’s smash hit production of LOVE LETTERS, Donna Devlin and Sean Ward return to our “Letters Series” in “Dear Liar”, this time to portray two of the most famous people in theatrical history: This epistolary romance is based upon the enthralling 40-year correspondence between Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw and his muse, the legendary English actress, Beatrice Stella Campbell (known to all as Mrs. Patrick Campbell or “Mrs. Pat”). Taken solely from the letters that hurtled between the pair, they chronicle the intriguing and beguiling relationship between two fascinating and head-strong legendary personalities. “Stella” and “Joey” – as the actress fondly called Shaw – are constantly at odds with one another, chiding, wounding, obstinate, cheeky, rude and even downright foolish; and yet, this verbal warfare never diminished their passionate affection (and devoted regard) for one another. “Mrs. Pat” created the role of Eliza Doolittle in Shaw’s “Pygmalion” (the source material for both the musical “My Fair Lady” and the movie “Pretty Woman”) in a role that Shaw wrote just for her. Shaw’s and Campbell’s “love affair on paper” remains deeply moving and resonates with a wit, verbal acumen and witty insight that only could be devised by one of history’s greatest theatrical pairings.
NOTE: Other Shows may be added. Keep checking in to see what will be on offer!
ALSO! BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR SPECIAL EVENTS: Based on our “had to turn people away” popular concert series from last year, look here for special guest star pop up concerts, sip and paint hootenanny nights and other special events to be announced closer to (and during) our season