WCP season tickets are a great value and make wonderful gifts.
The 2018-19 Season includes FOUR shows AND our annual Dinner Theatre.
We've changed things up this season and are starting with our dinner theatre just in time for Halloween. Blithe Spirit is set at the house of writer, Charles Condomine, and his wife, Ruth. One evening, Charles invites local eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to hold a seance at his house. He asks along his friends, Dr. and Mrs. Bradman, intending to gather character inspiration from Madame Arcati for his latest book. Despite initially thinking the seance has been a failure, it soon becomes clear that Madame Arcati has unwittingly brought back Charles’ first wife, Elvira, to haunt him. Once in his house, Elvira is unable to leave and, as she cannot be seen or heard by Ruth, she causes all kinds of mischievous trouble between the married couple. When Elvira unwittingly causes Ruth’s death in her attempts to bring Charles over to be with her, Charles becomes haunted by both of his now-deceased wives. Frustrated by their odd situation, the threesome call on Madame Arcati once more to send Elvira and Ruth back to the other side. Intensely funny and character-driven, Blithe Spirit combines farce, emotion, and wit to great effect. Showing October 5 - October 20, 2018 ADVANCED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED.
Our Christmas show this year is The Charitable Sisterhood Christmas Spectacular. Christmas, 1977, is only three weeks away, and the ladies of the Charitable Sisterhood are preparing for Second Trinity Church's annual Christmas Spectacular … but they're having trouble staying focused on their preparations because there's a criminal on the loose—someone has stolen the baby Jesus figure from his place in Second Trinity's nativity scene. Sisterhood leader Bea Littleton is certain that the culprit is her longtime rival, Lucille Orton, from First Salvation (a place of extremely strict beliefs just up the road). Bea and the other sisterhood members decide that they need help getting to the bottom of things, and they call in honorary member and private investigator Janet Murchison to delve more deeply into things and see if she can determine who the perpetrator is. By show time, Janet is starting to think she knows exactly who is guilty of what … but the truth can't be revealed until the end of the Spectacular. As a result, we watch from both onstage and backstage, as the sisterhood performs sacred songs and satirical skits (after all, where else does Santa meet the Wise Men at the manger?). The fun doesn't let up until the hilarious revelation at the show's climax, which leaves the audience and the sisterhood filled with the very best spirit of the Christmas season.
A great Valentine's date, Almost, Maine. A woman carries her heart, broken into nineteen pieces, in a small paper bag. A man shrinks to half his former size, after losing hope in love. A couple keep the love they have given each other in large red bags, or compress the mass into the size of a diamond. These playful and surreal experiences are commonplace in the world of John Cariani’s Almost, Maine, where on one deeply cold and magical Midwinter Night, the citizens of Almost -- not organized enough for a town, too populated for a wilderness -- experience the life-altering power of the human heart. Relationships end, begin, or change beyond recognition, as strangers become friends, friends become lovers, and lovers turn into strangers. Propelled by the mystical energy of the aurora borealis and populated with characters who are humorous, plain-spoken, thoughtful, and sincere, Almost, Maine is a series of loosely connected tales about love, each with a compelling couple at its center, each with its own touch of sorcery.
Our fourth show, Steel Magnolias. The action is set in Truvy's beauty salon in Chinquapin, Louisiana, where all the ladies who are "anybody" come to have their hair done. Helped by her eager new assistant, Annelle (who is not sure whether or not she is still married), the outspoken, wise-cracking Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the town's rich curmudgeon, Ouiser, ("I'm not crazy, I've just been in a bad mood for forty years"); an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, who has a raging sweet tooth; and the local social leader, M'Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby (the prettiest girl in town), is about to marry a "good ole boy." Filled with hilarious repartee and not a few acerbic but humorously revealing verbal collisions, the play moves toward tragedy when, in the second act, the spunky Shelby (who is a diabetic) risks pregnancy and forfeits her life. The sudden realization of their mortality affects the others, but also draws on the underlying strength—and love—which give the play, and its characters, the special quality to make them truly touching, funny and marvelously amiable company in good times and bad.
Our final show of the 2018-19 season is A Thirties Affair. Know-it-all Pauline tries to match up her divorced friend Carla with Jason, a friend of her husband, and happily discovers they both love old movies from the 1930s. But Jason and Carla, burned by previous relationships, resist Pauline's efforts to kindle a romance. Resentful at being thrown together, they put on a big show of actively disliking each other. Their dramatic argument succeeds in chastening Pauline while confirming the objections of her husband, Henry, who had been against the whole idea. Secretly, however, Jason and Carla begin dating. Then Carla's ex-husband, Daniel, a bit of a stuffed shirt, returns from an around-the-world journey of self-discovery and complicates everything by wanting to reconcile. At first, Carla staunchly resists him, but she finds herself drawn back by old feelings and ends up defending Daniel from Jason's verbal barbs. As Carla wavers in her affections, Jason retaliates by taking up with Cindy, a ditzy young actress who appeared in one of the silly commercials he wrote. Jealousy and mutual accusations drive Jason and Carla further apart as the two movie lovers struggle to find a way to their own happy ending.