Next Year's Playbill
2008 - 2009

Cast : 7 men and 6 women, various ages.

The play is set in a small community theatre between the first rehearsal and first performance of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera.

The plot revolves around a local widower who starts with a one-line part and ends up in the lead role. There are levels of interest to the play: the Beggar’s Opera itself, the trials of the theatre group attempting to produce the show, and a subplot involving a local land developer.

Cast: 3 men, 2 women playing 20 roles in total. Two of the actors play a single role each, two men of about 40 yrs. The others play various characters of various ages.

This is a Canadian Governor General’s Award winning play (1994). The play is set in many locations and we don’t always know where we are. It is a surreal exploration of our concern with fear and paranoia.

The story concerns Frank, an unremarkable man, and paranoid Walker who attempt to avoid each other at all costs in all sorts of situations which arise in the course of the play.

The title refers to a rundown hotel run by two older women, one of whom vehemently dislikes strangers, but where the story begins and concludes.

A large crew is needed to manipulate the puppets in this story of a king who is afraid of the dentist.

This show features large, almost life-size puppets and a moral story to appeal to all ages. Originally written in Polish, this play has a European fairy tale quality that promises lots of opportunity for audience involvement and fantasy situations.

This show will be directed by Village Theatre's resident puppeteer, Marie Franek.