Catskill’s Bridge Street Theatre is delighted to announce its 2018 line-up of plays – five magnificent and deeply human stories for audiences to savor between March and November.
Currently scheduled for BST’s third Mainstage Subscription Season are:
FRANKIE & JOHNNY IN THE CLAIRE DE LUNE by Terrence McNally (March 29-April 8)
A contemporary American classic and (with the possible exception of Lanford Wilson’s TALLEY’S FOLLY) probably the greatest romantic comedy of the latter half of the 20th Century. What begins as a one-night-stand between a short-order cook and a waitress becomes a tug-of-war between one who sees a future of endless love and adventure between them and one who is terrified of being hurt again, while a classical radio station plays some of the most beautiful music ever written in the background.
LENI by Sarah Greenman (May 17-27)
Hovering somewhere between life and death, Hitler’s chosen filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl (director of TRIUMPH OF THE WILL and OLYMPIA) confronts her younger self and the moral and artistic choices she made as the two attempt to create one final film to rationalize her life’s work and the uses to which it was put by a fascist regime. A searing and probing examination of narcissism, denial, and artistic responsibility starring Bridge Street Theatre favorite Roxanne Fay.
THE REVENGE OF THE SPACE PANDAS or BINKY RUDICH AND THE TWO-SPEED CLOCK by David Mamet (July 12-22)
A major community effort for the summer, mixing students, local artists, and professional performers. A play for children (and their adults) written by an American playwright far better known for his searing (and frequently profane) dramas. A boy scientist, his female sidekick, and a sheep named Bob find themselves transported to the planet Crestview, patrolled by an army of Space Pandas and ruled over by a preening narcissist named George Topax who’ll stop at nothing to become the only man in the Goose Nebula to possess a wool letterman’s sweater. Can a nearly-forgotten film star rescue the earthlings from being whacked out with a giant pumpkin? The suspense may kill you!
TBA (September 6-16)
We’re in negotiations to present the world premiere of a brilliant new drama with a young and magnificently diverse cast by a major American playwright. In the event that we’re unable to secure the performance rights, several potential replacements are waiting in the wings, including a revival of one of Kaliyuga Arts’ most successful pre-BST productions, a shattering neo-noir by another major name in the contemporary theatre pantheon, and a potential collaboration with the team that recently brought THE FRIDGE PLAYS to BST.
CASSE NOISETTE by Michael Whistler (November 8-18)
For the holidays, the world premiere of a play by Philadelphia-based playwright Michael Whistler. CASSE NOISETTE (The Nutcracker) juxtaposes the final years of the life of composer Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky with a contemporary story about a closeted midwestern high school teacher in love with Tchaikovsky’s music. Sugar Plum fairies and phone sex workers collide in this tale of finding the strength to be true to one’s self, no matter what the cost.
All performances in BST’s Mainstage Subscription Season take place Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30pm, with Sunday matinees at 2:00pm, at 44 West Bridge Street in the Village of Catskill, NY. Bridge Street is offering a full five-show subscription package for adults for only $100. Subscribers are also issued a membership card which entitles them to substantial discounts to virtually all other events held at the theatre, as well as special offers from local merchants. To purchase either a Subscription Package, visit Brown Paper Tickets.com or call them at 800-838-3006.
Advance tickets for individual shows are $22 and tickets are also available for purchase at the door on a space available basis for $25 prior to each performance. Tickets for Students ages 21 and under are always $10. Individual tickets for all shows will be available on January 1.
And there’s plenty more going on at Bridge Street Theatre throughout the year besides their five-play Mainstage Season. The year kicks off officially on Saturday, February 24 with a Gala Benefit, an afternoon soiree with consummate entertainer Charles Busch, performing MY KINDA ’60s. In this brilliant cabaret performance, Busch, accompanied by log-time musical director Tom Judson, revisits his childhood and adolescence in Manhattan, weaving personal stories with songs from that tumultuous decade.
Also scheduled during the year are a second edition of BST’s PERFORMATHON!, the return of BRIDGE STREET BELLY DANCE hosted by Francesca Avani, two performance events presented at Bridge Street by Lumberyard Contemporary Performing Arts while they await the completion of their new facility on Catskill’s Water Street (slated to open in 2019), a potential collaboration with the Stephen Petronio Company (now based at Crow’s Nest in near-by Cairo), and a new cabaret show called ENCORES! featuring Catskill’s beloved Flo Hayle, who will also helm a concert reading of a musical melodrama called TEN NIGHTS IN A BARROOM (starring vocalist Lex Gray in a role originally written for Ms. Hayle herself) and a production of Alfred Uhry’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning play DRIVING MISS DAISY.
“Our audiences have come to anticipate the unexpected any time they walk through our doors,” says John Sowle, Bridge Street Theatre’s Artistic and Managing Director. “As far as we’re concerned, theatre-going should always be an adventure, and the eclectic mix of programming we’re working on for 2018 is guaranteed to supply a heaping helping of that. We’d love to have you join us for what promises to be a wild ride this season!”
You can always find more information about everything coming up at Bridge Street Theatre by visiting BridgeSt.org, by looking in on the Bridge Street Theatre page onFacebook, or by calling the theater at (518) 943-3818.
Events at Bridge Street Theatre are supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and by Public Funds from the Greene County Legislature through the Cultural Fund administered in Greene County by the Greene County Council on the Arts.