Circle Theatre announces 2008 season

by Shawn Parikh

The new year marks Circle Theatre's 27th anniversary season which will be full of "music, romance and laughter." Their lineup will include five new plays, a staged reading (in conjunction with More Life: the Art & Science of AIDS festival), a High School Playwriting Project, its annual Tony Award/Party Fundraiser, and the arrival of a resident company that will independently produce two plays during off times in Circle’s calendar.

Season tickets are now available for sale through the box office for $110 each, and you can call 817-877-3040 for further information. Here are the five shows Circle Theatre will be staging in 2008:

• Five Course Love by Gregg Coffin, from February 7 – March 15. Five dates. Five restaurants. One chance at love. This delicious new show mixes heaping portions of music, comedy and romance into a tasty theatrical entree! Three actors portray fifteen characters whose amorous meetings at different restaurants are played out in musical styles that match each cuisine.
• Chesapeake by Lee Blessing, from May 29 – June 28. Three words: Art, Politics and Dogs. Anyone who finds each word intriguing on its own, and the three irresistible together, will be delighted by this story about a struggle between an up-and-coming performance artist, a conservative southern politician and a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.
• Unnecessary Farce by Paul Slade Smith, from July 24 – August 23. Two cops. Three crooks. Eight doors. Go! Deadly bagpipes, a bumbling mayor, incompetent cops, and a series of crooks all converge in a hotel room where a repressed accountant is about to trap an embezzler. To crack the case, the cops must overcome their fear of the dark, guns, enclosed spaces, and the opposite sex.
• Dex and Julie Sittin' in a Tree by Bruce Graham, from September 18 – October 18. Two college sweethearts, twenty-five years later. When a celebrity lawyer, collects an award from his alma mater, he stays at the secluded home of a former girlfriend. Memories are rich and things heat up fast. Filled with surprising twists, this sexy, engaging, two-actor tour-de-force is a must for anyone who has fantasized about a different outcome with a former love.
• A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant. Book, Music and Lyrics by Kyle Jarrow, from a concept by Alex Timbers, from November 20 – December 20. Eight children tell the story of the one and only L. Ron Hubbard! A jubilant cast of children tells the story of Scientology in pageantry and song. Portraying Tom Cruise, Xenu, the intergalactic ruler, and a dancing brain, among others, this Obie Award-winning play retells the story of Scientology against the candy-colored backdrop of a traditional nativity play.