EVENING STAR PRODUCTIONS &
SOL CHILDREN THEATRE
ANNOUNCE THEIR
2016-2017 SEASON
From Samuel Beckett to Lewis Carroll:
Two popular Boca Raton theatre companies will offer audiences and actors of all ages an exciting mix of theatre
March 10, 2016:
BOCA RATON, FL: Although Evening Star Productions and Sol Children Theatre are just a bit more than midway through their third and fourteenth seasons, both companies – under the direction of founder and Artistic Director Rosalie Grant are deep into preparation for next years’ productions.
Evening Star Productions 2016-2017 season will begin with Gutenberg! The Musical! (September 15 – October 2, 2016), continue with See Rock City and Other Destinations (January 12 – 29, 2017), and conclude with Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (April 20 – May 7, 2017).
Sol Children Theatre will present Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol (adapted from the classic by Brian Way) (December 2 – 18, 2016), Once on this Island (June 9 – 25, 2017), and Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, adapted by Seth Trucks (August 11 – 27).
Rosalie Grant
“With Evening Star entering its fourth season and Sol Children it’s fifteenth, I found myself reevaluating who we are as a theatre company,” Grant explains. “Who do we serve on stage and in our seats, and what sort of theatre should we continue and/or begin to dish out? I started by re-reading every critical review we’ve received to gather those opinions, and compare notes with our patrons’ comments. I then took into consideration the very specific, not-easily-ignored logistics of our theatre, and finally added our Mission Statement as the umbrella everything must fall under. A concept formed, and from that concept our next season was born. Evening Star’s 2016-17 season consists of a regional premiere, an absurdist classic, challenging roles, small casts and brave directors. Sol Children’s season gets as many children and local adults on stage as possible in family-friendly beloved stories under skillful direction. Putting the two companies’ seasons together we’re giving local actors and our patrons an eclectic fair of three musicals and three straight plays – from contemporary to classic to absurd to fantasy. So my job as artistic director is done for now, and my wonderfully talented directors are waiting in the wings!”
Ben Sandomir will direct Gutenberg! The Musical! The show, about two aspiring playwrights who perform a backers’ audition for their new musical was nominated for an Outer Circle Award and a Drama Desk Award in 2007:
“The first challenge is to find two versatile actors, as they will be singing all the songs and playing all the roles,” says Sandomir. “The play is normally very barebones as these aspiring playwrights are not yet successful. This is where the fun of directing will come in. As a director and writer I’ve worked on many low and no budget productions. The smaller the budget the more creative you have to be. The juices are already flowing and I can’t wait to fully figure out what this means for Gutenberg! at Evening Star!”
“Ever since seeing a college production of See Rock City and Other Destinations a few years ago, I’ve been fascinated with the notion this musical offers,” the show’s director Geoffrey Short explains. “Traveling and relationships have more in common than might meet the eye. Whether you’re on a North Carolina highway or on a tour in Niagara Falls, exploration, discovery, getting lost and being found can happen on the road and in our personal lives too. See Rock City is a contemporary musical about connections missed and made at tourist destinations across America. When this show is presented in the intimate Evening Star theatre space I know it will create a very personal, funny and touching theatrical experience for our audiences.”
Rosalie Grant will direct Waiting for Godot herself. “Godot is a comedic director’s dream script,” she says. “It’s also the perfect vehicle for an ensemble experience. It’s a challenging piece to say the least … for actors, director and audience. Putting these three elements together guaranteed an exciting venture, and I’m excited to freshly imagine Beckett’s word play to bring the poetry, dreamscapes and nonsense to life through a cast of what will have to be very skillful actors.”
Sol Children Theatre’s first production of the 2016-2017 The Christmas Carol is perfectly timed to fit the spirit of the holiday season:
“With it paying homage to both a cherished story and treasured holiday, I’m thrilled to be directing this production,” director Christopher Mitchell explains. “Its eerie, spooky undertones and heartwarming ending will be great fun to play with next winter. Everyone loves a good ghost story and a great Christmas story. And with this show, you get both!
“Once On This Island is set in the Caribbean Sea one stormy night,” director James Skiba explains. “It contains elements of both Romeo and Juliet and the fairy tale The Little Mermaid. The story concerns a young peasant girl, TiMoune who is saved from a deadly storm by the gods on a tropical island, and who uses the power of love to bring together people of different social classes; it talks about society and the various classes and how we treat one another. In the end it is due to the young Ti Moune’s heart and her dedication to this true love that others begin to change and a seed is sown to make the world a better place where we all Live Once On This Island of Mother Earth in the hope that someday all of us might be able to truly love who ever we so choose. And that is why we tell the story.”
Evening Star Productions will continue its current season with the British Comedy Murdered to Death, which will run from April 14th through May 1st at Sol Theatre in Boca Raton. They are also teaming up with Infinite Abyss to present a ‘steam punk’ version of Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, which will run at the Abyss Theatre in Ft. Lauderdale from May 12 – 28. Rosalie Grant will direct both productions. From June 17 – 26 they will present The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised], and they’ll close out their season with a ground-breaking project directed and adapted by Seth Trucks – William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream from August 6 – 21.
All Evening Star Productions and Sol Children Theatre performances (other than The Rocky Horror Show) will take place at Sol Theatre in Boca Raton. Ticket prices for all productions are listed below; group rates are available for all shows. Tickets to all Evening Star Productions and Sol Children Theatre 2016-2017 productions will be on sale soon; tickets for both companies remaining 2015-2016 productions are on sale now and can be purchased at the Sol Theatre box office at 561-447-8829 or on line at www.eveningstarproductions.org or www.solchildren.org Sol Theatre is located at 3333 North Federal Highway in Boca Raton (33431).
The Rocky Horror Show will be presented at Abyss Theatre, 2304 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors, 33305.
For more information about Evening Star Productions and Sol Children Theatre, please contact Rosalie Grant at 561-447-8829 / info@eveningstarproductions.com or Carol Kassie at 561-445-9244 / ckassie@gmail.com .
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EVENING STAR PRODUCTIONS
2016-2017 Season
Gutenberg! The Musical!
September 15 – October 2, 2016
By Anthony King & Scott Brown
Directed by Ben Sandomir
Tickets: $25 / $10 for students
In this two-man musical spoof, a pair of aspiring playwrights perform a backers’ audition for their new project – a big, splashy musical about printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg. With an unending supply of enthusiasm, Bud and Doug sing all the songs and play all the parts in their crass historical epic, with the hope that one of the producers in attendance will give them a Broadway contract – fulfilling their ill-advised dreams.
See Rock City and Other Destinations
January 12 – 29, 2017
Music by Brad Alexander
Book & Lyrics by Adam Mathias
Directed by Geoffrey Short
Tickets: $25 / $10 for students
A wanderer believes his destiny is written on rooftops along the North Carolina Interstate. A young man yearns to connect with intelligent life in Roswell, New Mexico. A woman at the Alamo steps out of the shadow of her grandparents’ idealized romance to take a chance on love. Three estranged sisters cruise to Glacier Bay to scatter their father’s ashes. Two high school boys face unexpected fears in the Coney Island Spook House. A terrified bride-to-be ponders taking the leap… over Niagara Falls. With a book full of humor and humanity, and a score that incorporates pop, rock, folk and more, each story builds on the last to create a vivid travelogue of Americans learning to overcome their fears and expectations in order to connect.
Waiting for Godot
April 20 – May 7, 2017
By Samuel Beckett
Directed by Rosalie Grant
Tickets: $25 / $10 students
In Waiting for Godot, two wandering tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, wait by a lonely tree, to meet up with Mr. Godot, an enigmatic figure in a world where time, place and memory are blurred and meaning is where you find it. The tramps hope that Godot will change their lives for the better. Instead, two eccentric travelers arrive, one man on the end of the other’s rope. The results are both funny and dangerous in this existential masterpiece.
SOL CHILDREN THEATRE
2016-2017 Season
The Christmas Carol
December 2 – 18, 2016
By Charles Dickens/Adapted by Brian Way
Directed by Christopher Mitchell
Tickets: $15 / $10 juniors (11 and under)
This Baker best-seller is a straightforward, faithful, and theatrically stunning adaptation of the Dickens story. It has proven enormously popular in repertory, regional, school and community theatres.
Once on This Island, Jr.
June 9 – 25, 2017
Book and Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Directed by James Skiba
Tickets: $15 / $10 juniors (11 and under)
Adapted from the celebrated Broadway musical, with its poignant story of one small girl who finds love in a world of prejudice, and its catchy Caribbean-flavored score, Once on This Island, Jr. is a highly original theatrical adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s popular fairy tale, The Little Mermaid, and the Tony-nominated Broadway musical by the legendary writing team, Ahrens and Flaherty.
Alice in Wonderland
August 11 – 27, 2017
By Lewis Carroll
Adapted and directed by Seth Trucks
Tickets: $15 / $10 juniors (11 and under)
Alice will once again fall through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar anthropomorphic creatures. This classic fantasy will be adapted especially for Sol’s stage by actor/director/playwright Seth Trucks.
April 21 – May 7
“There are so many reasons I chose Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot for Evening Star’s fourth season … and why I chose to direct it,” she explains. “The primary reason is that Beckett’s genius lay in creating a work that still speaks to audiences, particularly in troubled times. Waiting for Godot seems to have a unique resonance during times of social and political crisis. As a modernist existential meditation it can at first appear bleak: “They give birth astride of a grave,” Pozzo says. “The light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.” It is funny yet poetic, and reveals humanity’s talents for stoicism, companionship, and keeping going. There is no drama more stripped down and essential than Godot, whose mysteries Beckett refused to elucidate beyond “the laughter and the tears”. I love the notion that after our Godot closes in another hundred years Vladimir and Estragon will still be on a stage somewhere – still waiting for Godot.”
“Since first discovering Waiting for Godot as a high school sophomore, I’ve been fascinated by the simple and profound message behind both what is said and what is left unsaid in this unsettling and timely work,” says Skye Whitcomb. “Its examination of the human experience, and its fierce critique of the mental and spiritual chains which bind us, make this work one that needs to be seen and read by anyone wishing to step beyond the banal and mundane.”
Carol Kassie 