There is silence in the New Minowa Players (NMP) building where there is usually constant activity. The cheers, laughter, and applause will return as conditions in the community change and it is deemed appropriate to be back safely together. The NMP Board of Directors is tentatively announcing the upcoming season.
New Minowa Players values the community’s investment in live theatre and is committed to the health of the community, the actors, crew members, and audiences. As audition times approach for each of the season’s shows, the NMP Board will advise directors if it is safe to host auditions, have rehearsals, and perform the upcoming scheduled show.
The Young People’s Production, scheduled for August, will be “Little Shop of Horrors”, directed by Indigo Fish and Hallie Johnson. Called a “horror comedy rock musical”, the show has music by Alan Menken and lyrics and book by Howard Ashman. The story follows a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. New Minowa Players’ Young People’s Production features actors junior high through college age.
The Children’s Show, scheduled for October, will be a locally written script based on the Kenneth Graham book “The Wind in the Willows”. Script for the New Minowa Players production is by Rick Scheffert, with music and lyrics by Sheryl Scheffert. Rick Scheffert will direct. The story follows the adventures of Mole, Rat, Badger, Toad, and their friends. The Children’s Show features actors in kindergarten through eighth grade.
The November Creative Venture will be the musical “The Last Five Years”, by Jason Robert Brown, directed by David Mendez.This is an emotionally powerful and intimate musical about two New Yorkers in their twenties who fall in and out of love over the course of five years. The show’s unconventional structure consists of Cathy, the woman, telling her story backwards while Jamie, the man, tells his story chronologically; the two characters only meet once, at their wedding in the middle of the show.
“Matilda” will be the January 2021 family show. Based on the Roald Dahl story, “Matilda” is a little girl with astonishing wit, intelligence and psychokinetic powers. She’s unloved by her cruel parents but impresses her schoolteacher, the highly lovable Miss Honey. Over the course of her first term at school, Matilda and Miss Honey have a profound effect on each other’s lives.
April 2021 is the rescheduled date for “The Crucible”, originally scheduled for April 2020. Based on the story of the Salem, Massachusetts witch trials of the 1690s, “The Crucible” examines what happens when a “civilized” community succumbs to mass hysteria. Themes of judgement, reputation, truth, individuality, revenge, intolerance, and good vs. evil thread through this classic play by Arthur Miller.
“Disney’s The Little Mermaid” becomes the 2021 Summer Musical, rescheduled from June 2020. Based on one of Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved stories and the classic animated film, “Disney’s The Little Mermaid” is a hauntingly beautiful love story. Ariel, King Triton’s youngest daughter, wishes to pursue the human Prince Eric in the world above, bargaining with the evil sea witch, Ursula, to trade her tail for legs. Ariel seeks help from her colorful friends, Flounder the fish, Scuttle the seagull, and Sebastian the crab, to restore order under the sea.
The NMP board is approaching the new season cautiously keeping in mind current legal and health recommendations. Auditions, rehearsals, and performances will happen in a safe environment as New Minowa Players comes through this long intermission.