Well, folks, we had a great run with Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and also with Flies at the Well, our world premiere play about the trial of John Wallace, known to most everyone in town as the “Murder in Coweta County” story. So now we get to lighten the mood some with our next presentation, Sylvia, a comedy by A.R. Gurney.
The show concerns a certain stray dog named Sylvia, who spies a lonely, overworked man named Greg in Central Park and decides he will be her new “human.” Greg’s wife, Kate, however, is none too thrilled by her new housemate, and Sylvia and Kate go to war over Greg’s loyalty.
We have some newcomers to the NTC fold in the cast, most notably Megs Free as the wonderful Labradoodle, Sylvia, and Michelle Mason as Kate, the woman who is Sylvia’s rival for Greg’s affection. Both are incredibly funny, and we are proud to welcome them into the NTC family.
Meanwhile, back on Mainstage, the “students” representing the fictional “Putnam County” in our season finale, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee are hard at work, learning their word lists and remembering “I before E except after C”. The cast of this show is amazing and Putnam County looks to be one of the funniest musicals we’ve had on our stage in a while. As we all know, kids say the darnedest things, but these kids say those and more as they fight their way to being the champion speller of all of the county.
And summer is also our KidsCamp time! For six weeks, we host camp sessions for elementary school and middle school students. The elementary kids learn the basics of theatre over the six weeks, with a different theme each week, ending with a special performance on Friday afternoon that they help put together.
Our middle school camp, known as “NTC Backstage” is more concentrated, with two three-week sessions, each with a central theme, but the instructors take the students through the entire process of staging a show. The students will build their sets, help write their script, design their own costumes and make-up, and stage their show for the end of the session. We are so excited to watch another group of youngsters find their niche in the theatre.
Think that’s it for now, but stay tuned. We have N.I.T.W.I.T.S. to talk about, and the annual interactive murder mystery, too! Spoiler alert on the murder mystery – you might want to sharpen up your machetes and get a new bowstring for your crossbow… just saying…