It was hard to believe, back when I was sitting in my basement dreaming up Traveling Players, that we would ever reach a 25th season. Looking back over all of our students, most of whom are now adults, and watching them find their way gives me enormous pride. I have memories of over 200 brilliant productions that we have mounted over the last quarter century and performed near and far – anywhere a purple bus can take us!
While we are not quite ready to open registration (that should happen next week!), I am very pleased to announce our 25th anniversary season!
This winter, PLAY is the thing! Our winter season invites you to play pretend, go on an adventure, launch your best attack in a battle of wits, and trick the trickster.
Our youngest actors (grades 3-6) will perform Wiley and the Hairy Man, an Appalachian folktale about a young boy who must overcome his fear when he comes face to face with a terrifying swamp monster – and tries to outwit him!
In The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, our middle school actors (grades 6-8) will tell the touching toy story of Edward Tulane, a porcelain rabbit who gets lost at sea and embarks on a 20-year odyssey to find himself and return home.
Our high schoolers (grades 9 – 12) bring to life a Shakespearean sitcom featuring some of the bard’s most beloved characters – Falstaff in his battle of wits against the sharp Merry Wives of Windsor.
You can catch all these shows around town – we’re going on tour!
But wait – there’s more!
To celebrate this community that we love so much, this summer we are exploring all the different aspects of love – unrequited love, dehydrated love, love that is lost, and love that is found.
Our Mythology Ensemble (grades 4-6) will kick off our summer with Persephone. Judith Walsh White, Traveling Players playwright-in-residence, has adapted the myth to tell a story about finding common ground – and protecting the ground we walk on.
Carlo Gozzi’s Love for Three Oranges is a ridiculous farce about a topsy-turvy kingdom and dehydrated fruit. It was also the very first play that Thespian Ensemble (grades 6-8) director, Morgan Shotwell, performed in as a camper at Traveling Players in 2007, and she is so excited to share it with our students in this anniversary year!
Once again, our Comedy Ensembles (grades 6-8 and 8-12) will delight you with original Improvised Comedies – made up on the spot with suggestions from you, our audience, never to be seen before or again! We have a 2-week option for our Thespians (grades 6-8) and a 3-week option for our High schoolers (grades 8-12). Both will perform multiple times – on tour via purple bus!
As You Like It is the quintessential Traveling Players Shakespearean play. It is about young people who go into the woods and come back transformed – more confident and sure of themselves than when they left. It was the first Shakespearean play we ever performed (back in 2003!), and we are overjoyed to bring it back to our Shakespeare Ensemble (grades 8-12) in honor of our 25th anniversary.
Finally, our most advanced high school students will tour Shakespeare’s towering tragedy, King Lear. Family dysfunction reverberates into the fracturing of a family, then a country, and then into two wars. But beneath all the betrayal and cruelty, heartbreaking love and loyalty remain.
Auditions and registration for all of our upcoming productions will open in the next week. We can’t wait to see your actors on our stages and you in our audiences as we celebrate 25 years of Traveling Players.
Warmly,
Jeanne Harrison
Founder & Producing Artistic Director
