The Garfield Center for the Arts in Chestertown is proud to announce its 2019 season of theatrical productions. Presented by the Garfield and directed by a group of talented local directors, this season offers a variety of shows – intense drama, holiday musical, a contemporary piece, a children’s classic and the summer theatre camps; MUSICAMP from July 8-12 and Playmakers from July 15-August 11.
The season opens February 8 with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, written by Edward Albee. Directed by Gil Rambach, the play centers around George, a professor at a small college, and his wife, Martha. They host a young couple for an evening of drinks, secrets and arguments. But underneath the edgy banter between both couples lurks an undercurrent of tragedy and despair. Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play, the performances run February 8-24.
In April, director Bryan Betley will present Where the Wild Things Are adapted by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze from the beloved children’s book by Maurice Sendak. Bring the whole family to see what happens when a boy named Max puts on his wolf suit and makes mischief of one kind and another from April 26-May 12.
Short Attention Span Theatre, the Garfield’s own ten-minute play festival, opens its fifteenth year in June. Produced by Mark Sullivan and Diane Landskroener, “SAST” runs from June 21 – July 7. An audience favorite, SAST features the local talents of dozens of directors, writers and actors, and is designed to hold your attention for Just. Long. Enough.
Next director Bonnie Hill brings the contemporary piece, Circle Mirror Transformation to the stage in August. Playwright Annie Baker weaves the tale of four lost New Englanders who enroll in a six-week-long community-center drama class. While they experiment with harmless games, hearts are quietly torn apart and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. A beautifully crafted diorama, a petri dish in which we see (with hilarious detail and clarity) the antic sadness of a motley quintet.
The show runs August 23-September 8.
Closing the 2019 season, director Jennifer Kafka Smith will bring the musical, Annie, to the Garfield stage from November 29 – December 15. With equal measures of pluck and positivity, little orphan Annie charms everyone’s hearts despite a next-to-nothing start in 1930s New York City. She is determined to find the parents who abandoned her years ago on the doorstep of an orphanage that is run by the cruel, embittered Miss Hannigan. With the help of the other girls in the orphanage, Annie escapes to the wondrous world of NYC. In a fun-filled adventure, Annie foils Miss Hannigan’s evil machinations and finds a new home and family in billionaire, Oliver Warbucks, his personal secretary, Grace Farrell, and a lovable mutt named Sandy.
The Garfield Center for the Arts is a non-profit organization whose mission is to invigorate the cultural life of our community by nurturing, celebrating and supporting arts and artists through performance and education. For more information on happenings at the theatre, sponsorship opportunities or tickets, please visit www.GarfieldCenter.org, or call the box office at 410 810 2060. The Garfield Center for the Arts at the Prince Theatre is located at 210 High Street, Chestertown, MD, 21620.
