Salem Theatre Company announces season lineup

SALEM – The Salem Theatre Company has announced its lineup of Season 11 Main Stage productions, the company’s fourth full season in residence at the STC Theater, 90 Lafayette St.”We’re in the story business,” says John Fogle, Salem Theatre Company’s artistic director. “We’re messengers who bring tales of human trials, aspirations and idiocy. And we have all that and more in Season Eleven when we present three comedies and two dramas.”The season kicks off in September with “Salem’s Play,” Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, directed by Fogle. Winner of the Tony Award for best play, this exciting drama about the Puritan purge of witchcraft in old Salem is both a gripping historical play and a timely parable of our contemporary society.For the holidays, STC brings you A Tuna Christmas by Ed Howard, Joe Sears, Jaston Williams and directed by Salem State University Professor David Allen George. In this hilarious sequel to Greater Tuna, it’s Christmas in the third smallest town in Texas. Radio station OKKK news personalities Thurston Wheelis and Arles Struvie report on various Yuletide activities, including hot competition in the annual lawn display contest. In other news, voracious Joe Bob Lipsey’s production of “A Christmas Carol” is jeopardized by unpaid electric bills. A Tuna Christmas is a total delight for all seasons.Bernard Pomerance’s 1979 Tony Award winner for Best Play, The Elephant Man, takes the third slot in the season and will be directed by John Fogle. Based on the life of John Merrick, who lived in London during the late nineteenth century, The Elephant Man follows a horribly deformed young man, victim of rare skin and bone diseases, who has become the star freak attraction in traveling side-shows. Found abandoned and helpless, he is admitted to London’s prestigious Whitechapel Hospital and under the care of celebrated young physician Frederick Treves, Merrick is introduced to London society and slowly evolves from an object of pity to an urbane and witty favorite of the aristocracy and literati. Look for The Elephant Man in January 2014.The fourth play of the season is the 2006 Olivier Award winner for best comedy, Heroes, adapted by Tom Stoppard from the French play “Le Vent de Peupliers” by Gerald Sibleyras. Steve Rotolo, who directed STC’s All in the Timing last summer, will helm the production with production dates in March and April. The year is 1959. Three aging World War I veterans find themselves residing together in a military retirement home in the French countryside. They pass the time on their favorite isolated terrace – gossiping, joking, generally irritating one another – and dreaming of their “freedom.” Our three heroes (along with a statue of a dog!) set into motion an adventurous plan to escape…to Indochina…or at least to a picnic under the poplars on a nearby hill. Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of this French play is playful, bawdy, and heartbreakingly funny.The Season 11 finale, scheduled for May, is Willy Russell’s comedy Shirley Valentine, a Tony Award nominee for Best Play. Wondering what has happened to herself, now feeling stagnant and in a rut, Shirley Valentine finds herself regularly talking to the wall while preparing her husband’s chips and egg. When her best friend wins a trip-for-two to Greece, she packs her bags, leaves a note on the cupboard door in the kitchen, and heads for a fortnight of rest and relaxation. What she finds is romance and a new awareness of who she is and what her life can be. John Fogle directs.STC’s Individual ticket pricing for Season 11 is $10 for students, $20 for Seniors (aged 60 and above), and $25 for Adults. Patrons can save 15% off of these prices by investing in a Season Eleven Pass. 5-Play and 3-Play passes are available for both Adults and Seniors and can be purchased online at www.salemtheatre.com.