New season to open at Little Theatre of Tuscarawas County

Little Theatre of Tuscarawas County will present a season of eight productions, a variety show, a children’s workshop, an annual membership meeting and an anniversary celebration for local audiences this year. Three musicals, a drama and four lighter pieces have been chosen.

The season will begin with the fall musical, “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown,” directed by Jared Sparks-Lee. Charles Schulz’s famous comic strip explores life through the eyes of Charlie Brown and his friends in the Peanuts gang. Musical numbers include “My Blanket and Me,” “The Kite,” “The Baseball Game,” “Little Known Facts,” “Suppertime” and “Happiness.” Production dates are Oct. 6, 7, 8, 13, 15, 20 and 22.

The Christmas holidays will bring “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” directed by Lisa Sommers. This perennial at the theater presents a couple struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant and being faced with casting the Herdman kids — probably the most inventively awful kids in history. Mayhem occurs when the Herdmans collide with the Christmas story head on. Productions will run Dec. 1, 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10.

“Scotland Road,” directed by Don Irven, will be the Winter Black Box production running Jan. 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 and 14. In the last decade of the 20th century, a beautiful young woman in 19th-century clothing is found floating on an iceberg in the middle of the North Atlantic. When rescued, she says only one word, “Titanic.” She is taken to an isolated spot on the coast of Maine for interrogation in order to prove she is a fake. Much drama ensues before the final outcome proves it one way or the other.

The winter musical, “Tuck Everlasting,” directed by Joe Compton, is based on the children’s classic by Natalie Babbitt. Eleven-year-old Winnie Foster yearns for a life of adventure beyond her white picket fence, but when she becomes unexpectedly entwined with the Tuck family, she gets more than she could have imagined. When she learns of the magic behind the Tucks’ unending youth, she must fight to protect their secret from those who would do anything for a chance at eternal life. “Tuck Everlasting” will run Feb. 16, 17, 18, 23, 24 and 25 and March 1, 2 and 3.

A new world-premiere original production, “Being of Sound Mind,” written by local resident Richard Parker and directed by G. Shawn Clay, will be presented March 15, 16 and 17. Set in a lawyer’s office at the reading of a will, the play is a romp with nonstop guffaws as a frustrated attorney tries his best to keep the proceedings proceeding because the family of the dearly departed cannot seem to get it together.

Bart Herman will direct the spring show, “Dear Ruth.” Using the name of her elder sister, a young girl carries on a romantic correspondence with an overseas soldier. When the soldier returns, he finds his distant lover is already engaged, but through a series of complications and plot twists, the elder sister becomes entirely convinced her original engagement was a mistake and decides, at the very end, to marry the soldier anyway. Production dates are April 26, 27 and 28 and May 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and 12.

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” directed by Mary Maxwell, will run June 28, 29 and 30 and July 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14. Based on the Victor Hugo novel and featuring songs from the Disney animated feature, the production begins as the bells of Notre Dame sound through the famed cathedral in 15th-century Paris. Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer, observes all of Paris reveling in the Feast of Fools. As he, Capt. Phoebus and Frollo vie for the attentions of Esmeralda, Quasimodo must figure a way to save them all.

Ending the season with more laughter, the Summer Black Box production, “The Outsider,” directed by Pat Potter, will run Aug. 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24 and 25. Ned Newley doesn’t even want to be governor. He’s terrified of public speaking, his poll numbers are impressively bad and he seems destined to fail. He might be the worst candidate to ever run for office. This comedy skewers politics and celebrates democracy.

Audition dates for the shows will be announced. Call 330-308-6400 for more information.

Little Theatre of Tuscarawas County is located at 466 Carrie Ave. NW in New Philadelphia.