DRACULA
(Musical)

Performances: 
September 29-Oct 2;
October 6-9; October 13-16, 2011
Season Tickets Available soon

Book of Days
By Missouri Playwright Lanford Wilson

Performances: 
November 3-6; 10-13; 17-20, 2011
Season Tickets Available soon

A community theatre in a small Missouri town is rehearsing George Bernard Shaws's Joan of Arc. Ruth plays the lead, is the bookkeeper for a cheese factory and a member of the local fundamentalist church. Her boss, the owner of the cheese plant, is killed one stormy night and everyone in town accepts that it is a hunting accident.  But Ruth has doubts.  As rehearsals continue, the influence of the fearless Joan of Arc drives Ruth to seek the truth at any cost. This is a murder mystery, a comedy, an exploration of human nature and a portrait of a woman discovering unsuspected strengths and depths in her own nature. This is an excellelnt story by a Missourian who is one of our best playwrights.

Performances: 
January 12-15; 19-22, 2012
Season Tickets Available soon

This comedy stars Becky, a happily married woman in her forties working at a car dealership. She soon meets Walter Flood, a wealthy widower. As the relationship develops between them, Becky is increasingly reluctant to tell Walter that her husband Joe is alive and well. To add complexity to madness, Walter’s daughter becomes engaged to Becky’s son. Becky decides to take a long drive.

Description from the playwright:
"Have you ever been tempted to flee your own life?  Becky Foster is caught in middle age, middle management  and in a middling marriage-- with no prospects for change on the horizon.  Then one night a socially inept and grief-struck millionaire stumbles into the car dealership where Becky works.  Becky is offered nothing short of a new life...and the audience is offered a chance to ride shotgun in a way that most plays wouldn't dare.  BECKY'S NEW CAR is a thoroughly original comedy with serious overtones, a devious and delightful romp down the road not taken."

CEC Stage II Production:
Bent
By Martin Sherman

Performances: 
March 8-11; 15-18, 2012
Season Tickets Available soon

Bent, by Martin Sherman, was first staged off-Broadway in 1978 and portrays the experiences of homosexuals in the Holocaust.  The main character, Max, is forced from his hedonistic lifestyle in 1934 Berlin and into the brutality and horror of a Nazi camp as a result of Hitler’s persecution of homosexuals.  In the camp Max learns that homosexuals, identified by a pink triangle, are considered the lowest of those held in captivity and he does whatever he must to survive.  Max meets Horst, another gay prisoner, and a relationship begins between them in stark contrast to the violence of the work camp.   

This groundbreaking play addresses an element of the Holocaust that had been virtually ignored prior to 1978 and forces it into the light in a way that is “shattering, hypnotic , and gripping”. (Rex Reed) 
“The open sound of dismay that washed across the auditorium on the night I saw Bent was one I have never quite heard before – belief, disbelief, shock and half-understanding all mixed together.” Walter Kerr, The New York Times