2014-2015 Season

The action of these basically-unrelated four playlets occurs sequentially in a Beverly Hills hotel. The first hotel guest is a New York magazine writer, joined by her ex-husband; they have a discussion (a quarrel? a brawl?) about which of them will have custody of their daughter for the next six months. The next guest is a Philadelphia man who's already having his challenges with a drunken room guest before his wife arrives to complicate things still further. The third story brings a British film star to LA as an Academy Award nominee whose husband offers inadequate comfort when she loses. And finally, two Chicago couples wrap up a disastrous shared vacation. Classic Neil Simon comedic mayhem in the midst of domestic disasters!

Three Jewish widows meet once a month for tea before going to visit their husbands' graves. Ida is sweet tempered and ready to begin a new life; Lucille is a feisty embodiment of the girl who just wants to have fun; and Doris is prim and a bit judgmental. Sam the butcher meets the widows while visiting his wife's grave and seems to be shyly smitten with Ida, but Doris and Lucille thwart the budding romance to protect Ida from disappointment. They are guilt stricken when this nearly breaks Ida's heart, but all is resolved happily in the end.

Christmas Eve: 1898. The streets of New York City bustle with activity as a light snow begins to fall...one almost overlooks the ragged little girl huddled by the steps of the picturesque mansion. With the help of her grandmother, Lizzie dreams of the things that might be possible were she to dare enter the majestic house and encounter the seemingly happy family within. This condensed retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's classic will inspire your holiday spirit with a heartwarming story of one little girl's triumph over despair.

Along with the play, and adding to the spirit of the holiday, local music groups will take the stage for programs of songs and compositions of the season.

Two original plays, selected by committee from submissions received from Central Ohio playwrights, are presented in a readers theatre format during one winter weekend.

Curtain Players provides the playing space, rehearsal space, and very basic stage lighting, with the selected playwrights taking creative license with directors and actors of their choosing to bring their stories to life.

Emily Turner's Girl in Progress is described as a warm, funny, touching, and poignant story about the determined optimism of a young woman who struggles coming to terms with a variety of disappointments in and with a life that is extraordinarily ordinary. Girl in Progress will be staged at 8 pm Thursday, January 15 and Saturday, January 17.
Michael Parsons penned Sumner Falls in which a family deals with such as issues as economic problems, infertility, and midlife crisis, all complicated by the arrival of Uncle James, just released from prison after serving 30 years for murdering his wife. (And then the weird stuff happens.) Sumner Falls will be presented at 8 PM Friday, January 16 and at 6 PM (note the earlier time) Sunday , January 18.

Based on a true story, this play focuses on an average housewife in 1961 Cold War London and how her life of unravels when her best friend is accused of being a spy. Barbara and Bob Jackson are a typical English couple, living in the suburbs with their daughter Julie. They enjoy a friendship with their outgoing Canadian neighbors, Helen and Tom Kroger ‐ until suddenly one day a British intelligence agent arrives and seeks the Jacksons' cooperation in investigating the Krogers, who are suspected of being undercover Soviet agents. Bob and Barbara struggle over how much to cooperate with British intelligence, knowing that their friends could soon be charged with espionage. Barbara, especially, is greatly torn between her duty of friendship vs her duty to Queen and country.

Maggie ("The Cat") and her husband Brick Pollitt (an aging football hero) have a turbulent relationship. We find them visiting with Brick's family at Big Daddy's estate. Big Daddy has just been diagnosed with cancer but he and Big Mama are unaware of it because his doctors and family have conspired to conceal this information. His relatives attempt to present themselves in the best possible light, each hoping to receive their proper share of Big Daddy's enormous wealth in his will. Maggie, through wit and beauty, has escaped a childhood of desperate poverty to marry into the wealthy Pollitt family; ever since the suicide of his friend Skipper, though, Brick has neglected his wife and is indifferent about the disposition of the family fortune. This is a story of greed and deception within a patriarchal Southern family.

Elwood P. Dowd is an affable man who claims to have an unseen friend Harvey, a six-foot, three-and-one-half-inch tall anthropomorphic rabbit. Elwood introduces the invisible Harvey to everyone he meets. His social-climbing sister, Veta, decides to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her and her daughter Myrtle Mae from future embarrassment. When they arrive at the sanitarium, the young, handsome, and flirtatious Dr. Sanderson mistakenly commits Veta instead of Elwood. Gentle comedic mayhem ensues. Eventually, Elwood is found and admitted to the hospital. A cab driver who has become involved in the proceedings objects on the grounds that the medication they're about to give Elwood will make him a "perfectly normal human being ‐ and you know what bastards they are!" Veta realizes she'd rather have Elwood as he's always been ‐ carefree and kind ‐ even if it means living with Harvey.