Ennis Public Theatre announces 2008-2009 season

by Shawn Parikh

Ennis Public Theatre is about to kick off their newest season this week with Crimes of the Heart, and they have jsut released the lineup for the next year:

• Crimes of the Heart, by Beth Henley. From August 1 - August 24. This season opens with Crimes of the Heart, by Beth Henley, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. This is an irreverent, warm-hearted portrayal of three very different sisters struggling to make sense of their lives. They reunite in their hometown of Hazlehurst, Mississippi triggering a hilarious mix of conflicts, crises and revelations. This story of a family's troubles is true to life in that levity and tragedy live side by side. In the end, these three women learn to greet the tragic, absurd twists of fate with courage, love and the ultimate saving grace of laughter.
• Wait Until Dark, by Arthur Penn. Dates TBD. The mystery thriller’s heroine is Suzy Hendrix, a blind Greenwich Village housewife who becomes the target of thugs searching for hidden heroin. Efforts to convince Suzy her spouse has been implicated in the crime culminate in a riveting final scene when Suzy employs senses sharpened by her blindness. After seven previews, the Broadway production directed, by Arthur Penn opened on February 2, 1966 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre where it ran for the next eleven months. Its run ended after 374 performances. The cast included Lee Remick, who was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play.
• A Christmas Story, by Jean Shepherd. Dates TBD. Adapted for the stage by Phillip Grecian. Nine year old Ralphie Parker is obsessed with getting a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas and will go to almost any length to get it. Nostalgia and a laugh a minute make this a Christmas season must!
• Dearly Departed, by David and Jessie Jones. Dates TBD. A drop dead funny play – Dearly Departed makes it clear that there is more to living than dying in the Bible Belt than you can shake a corn dog at! Set somewhere south of the Mason Dixon line, this play tells the story of father Turpin’s funeral and its aftermath, not to mention the dizzying array of crazies who are attached to him. Audiences who enjoyed the comic mayhem of the great two person, multi-character play, Greater Tuna, should also enjoy this delightful visit with the collection of dysfunctional Southern-fried eccentrics in Dearly Departed. The intimate ensemble of players will attempt to bring the backwoods comedy a level of humanity while never shortchanging the hilarity of Jones farcical script.
• Damn Yankees, book by George Abbott and Douglass Wallop and music and lyrics by Richard Waller and Jerry Ross. Dates TBD. This musical is a comedy retelling of the story of Faust legend set during the 1950’s in Washington, D.C., during a time when the New York Yankees dominated Major League Baseball. The musical based on Wallop’s novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant. Damn Yankees ran for 1,019 performances in its original 1955 Broadway production.
• Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander, by Preston Jones. Dates TBD. Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander is a lot of names for a lot of twist and turns that a life can take. The play, the middle of Preston Jones’ Texas Trilogy, introduces the title character as a different age, 10 years apart as the acts change. Thus, we see Lu Ann at pivotal stages of her life, and although the action takes place in a small Texas town, her disappointments, trials and triumphs are close to being universal. Sharing Lu Ann’s journey will provide the audience with a heartfelt experience and a few hearty laughs.