The Arts

APRIL 1 — MAY 8

MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION
By George Bernard Shaw

Shaw's controversial attack on society's hypocrisy. Young Vivie Warren, emancipated, intelligent and self sufficient is astounded to learn her mother rose from poverty to riches through prostitution -- and also that she is now part owner and operator of a chain of brothels. Mrs. Warren ably justifies her past, attacking a hypocritical society that rewards vice and oppresses virtue. She states poverty and the society that fosters poverty are the real villains and that life in a brothel is preferable to life in a 19th century factory. Vivie, respecting her mother's courage, accepts her past but not her present. She cuts herself off from her mother and, rejecting all suitors, throws herself into the independent life of a career woman.

JUNE 3 — JULY 10

THE SPITFIRE GRILL (A MUSICAL)
Music and Book by James Valcq
Lyrics and Book by Fred Alley
Based on the film by Lee David Zlotoff

A feisty parolee follows her dreams, based on a page from an old travel book, to a small town in Wisconsin and finds a place for herself working at Hannah's Spitfire Grill. It is for sale but there are no takers for the only eatery in the depressed town, so newcomer Percy suggests to Hannah that she raffle it off. Entry fees are one hundred dollars and the best essay on why you want the grill wins. Soon, mail is arriving by the wheelbarrow full and things are definitely cookin' at the Spitfire Grill.

SEPTEMBER 2 — OCTOBER 9

VANYA AND SONIA AND MASHA AND SPIKE
By Christopher Durang

Middle-aged siblings Vanya and Sonia share a home in Bucks County, PA, where they bicker and complain about the circumstances of their lives. Suddenly, their movie-star sister, Masha, swoops in with her new boy toy, Spike. Old resentments flare up, eventually leading to threats to sell the house. Also on the scene are sassy maid Cassandra, who can predict the future, and a lovely young aspiring actress named Nina, whose prettiness somewhat worries the imperious Masha.

NOVEMBER 4 — DECEMBER 11

ON GOLDEN POND
By Earnest Thompson

This is the love story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the forty-eighth year. He is a retired professor, nearing eighty, with heart palpitations and a failing memory—but still as tart-tongued, observant and eager for life as ever. Ethel, ten years younger, and the perfect foil for Norman, delights in all the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the "grandchild" the elderly couple have longed for, and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him, he also learns some lessons about modern teenage awareness—and slang—in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, so does their brief idyll, and in the final, deeply moving moments of the play, Norman and Ethel are brought even closer together by the incidence of a mild heart attack. Time, they know, is now against them, but the years have been good and, perhaps, another summer on Golden Pond still awaits.