Starkville Community Theatre's 2016-2017 Season
The Cemetery Club
By Ivan Menchell
Directed by Sean Dyess
September 15- 18 and September 20-24, 2016
Three Jewish widows meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husband's graves. Ida is sweet tempered and ready to begin a new life, Lucille is a feisty embodiment of the girl who just wants to have fun, and Doris is priggish and judgmental, particularly when Sam the butcher enters the scene. He meets the widows while visiting his wife's grave. Doris and Lucille squash the budding romance between Sam and Ida. They are guilt stricken when this nearly breaks Ida's heart.
Urinetown
Music by Mark Hollmann, Lyrics by Mark Hollman and Greg Kotis
Directed by Thomas La Foe
November 10-13 and November 15-19, 2016
Winner of three Tony Awards, Urinetown is a hilarious musical satire of the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bureaucracy, corporate mismanagement, municipal politics and musical theatre itself! In a Gotham-like city, a terrible water shortage, caused by a 20-year drought, has led to a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The citizens must use public amenities, regulated by a single malevolent company that profits by charging admission for one of humanity's most basic needs. Amid the people, a hero decides he's had enough, and plans a revolution to lead them all to freedom!
Silent Sky
By Lauren Gunderson
Directed by Jo Durst
February 9-12 and February 14-18, 2017
When Henrietta Leavitt begins work at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, she isn’t allowed to touch a telescope or express an original idea. Instead, she joins a group of women “computers,” charting the stars for a renowned astronomer who calculates projects in “girl hours” and has no time for the women’s probing theories. As Henrietta attempts to measure the light and distance of stars, she must also take measure of her life on Earth, trying to balance her dedication to science with family obligations and the possibility of love. The true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt explores a woman’s place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women’s ideas were dismissed until men claimed credit for them.
Incorruptible
By Michael Hollinger
Directed by Diane Ellis and Brenda Mayo
April 6-9 and April 11-15, 2017
Welcome to Priseaux, France, c. 1250 A.D.: The river flooded again last week. The chandler's shop just burned to the ground. Nobody's heard of the wheelbarrow yet. And Ste. Foy, the patron of the local monastery, hasn't worked a miracle in 13 years. In other words, the Dark Ages still look pretty dark. All eyes turn to the Pope, whose promised visit will surely encourage other pilgrims to make the trek and restore the abbey to its former glory. That is, until a rival church claims to possess the relics of Ste. Foy – and “their” bones are working miracles. All seems lost until the destitute monks take a lesson from a larcenous one-eyed minstral, who teaches them an outrageous new way to pay old debts.
Season Extra - Fools
By Neil Simon
Directed by Karen Thead
May 23-May 27, 2017
Leon Tolchinsky is ecstatic. He's landed a terrific teaching job in an idyllic Russian hamlet. When he arrives he finds people sweeping dust from the stoops back into their houses and people milking upside down to get more cream. The town has been cursed with Chronic Stupidity for 200 years and Leon's job is to break the curse. No one tells him that if he stays over 24 hours and fails to break the curse, he too becomes Stupid. But, he has fallen in love with a girl so Stupid that she has only recently learned how to sit down.