Nine plays are presented by of three of Charleston’s premier community theater groups (The Charleston Light Opera Guild, The Charleston Stage Company, and The Kanawha Players) in addition to six theater groups from throughout West Virginia.  The program spans three days and contains classic and cutting edge plays and musicals that promise even more variety and entertainment than the very successful 2002 premiere festival.  These performances will stimulate and enlighten theatergoers of all kinds with themes ranging from moral issues to romantic love, from the Garden of Eden to Bohemian Paris, or from legendary male comedians to female vocalists.

All performances are either one act in length or full-length play selections.   Three plays are presented each day and ticket prices for the Festival are $15 per day.  The box office (located at the Guild Theatre) opens on June 9, 2003 and is open every day except Sunday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.  The box office phone number is (304) 342-9312.  Tickets for all shows are sold as open seating (no assigned seats).  For more information on the Charleston Theatre Festival, call the box office or Nina Pasinetti at (304) 343-6015.

Special Theater Workshop

New York actress Susan Pilar conducts a special 3-hour theater workshop for Festival participants!  The workshop takes place on Saturday, June 21, 2003 at 10:00 AM.  (Note: There is a $10.00 fee per participant.)

Date

Performance

Presented By

Romance, Romance (Act I Only)

"The Little Comedy" of Act I takes place in Vienna, Austria in the late nineteenth-century.  It is the tale of a dashing aristocrat and a fiery woman who assume new identities in hopes of finding true love.

Original Production: Book and Lyrics by Barry Harman; Music by Keith Herrmann; Original Story by Arthur Schnitzler. 

For the Guild: Direction and Choreography by Nina Denton Pasinetti; Musical Direction and Piano Accompaniment by John Ellison.

Broadway Broads

Five entertaining female vocalists present an original musical revue featuring standard classics from Broadway's hits of yesterday and today.

The Diaries of Adam and Eve

A touching play propelled by moments of hilarity showing the competition and companionship between man and woman that has been going on since the beginning of time.  This is an adaptation of Mark Twain's creation story.

The Laramie Project

The play tries to make sense of the tragedy of Matthew Shepard's death.  (Recall from the headlines that Matthew Shepard was a 21 year old gay college student who, in 1998, was waylaid at a Laramie, Wyoming bar and then beaten, robbed, and left to die in a field.)

Picasso at the Lapin Agile

The award-winning hit comedy by Steve Martin revolves around an imaginary meeting in 1904 at a bohemian Paris bistro between a passionate Pablo Picasso and a fiery Albert Einstein.

Patient A

Playwright Lee Blessing tells the story of Kimberly Bergalis, whose life was cut short by AIDS, and the moral and social issues that arose because of her ordeal.

The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite

A comedic tale of three out-of-work loggers who set forth from a north woods bar on a misguided errand of mercy.  The play has been likened to The Three Stooges meet Fargo.

The Sunshine Boys

Neil Simon's hilarious story of two legendary comedians and their return to the stage after a lengthy hiatus from show business and each other.

Children of a Lesser God

The award-winning play is a love story about a speech teacher who falls for a beautiful, yet distant, deaf girl in a small New England school for the deaf and the obstacles that they face due to their differences.

BB&T

Bowles, Rice, McDavid, Graff, and Love PLLC

Ed and Susan Maier

Alan Pennington

Sarah Sullivan and Rick Brown

Tim Whitener

Wild and Wonderful West Virginia (West Virginia Division of Tourism)