X*ACT Announces 2010/2011 Schedule

Xenia Area Community Theater Season 2010/2011 Schedule:

Barefoot in the Park (a comedy) by Neil Simon        Sept. 17, 18, 24, 25, 26
 This light comedy follows the lives of newlyweds Paul, a buttoned-down straight-arrow lawyer, and Corie Bratter, an effervescent free spirit, as they adjust to married life in a tiny Greenwich Village apartment. Aside from the five-flight climb and the hole in their skylight, the Bratters must also contend with eccentric neighbors.  A plot to get her mother together with Mr. Velasco goes awry and even casts doubt on the viability of the Bratters' new marriage, as Corie tries unsuccessfully to loosen Paul up. All ends well, however. 
        
Verdict (a murder mystery) by Agatha Christie            Nov. 5, 6, 12, 13, 14
Set in 1938, Karl Hendryk, a brilliant professor, with his wife and her cousin, have all fled Nazi persecution in their country to a new life in England. The professor is contentedly ensconced in a British university, where he is respected by students and faculty alike. His wife, Anya, an invalid suffering from a progressively debilitating disease, bitterly regrets having been forced to leave her home and her friends. Her cousin and close friend, Lisa Koletzky, has moved with them to care for Anya and to manage the professor's home. Karl and Lisa have suppressed feelings for each other, and the melodrama is further enriched by a young rich student, Helen Rollander, who takes on private lessons with the professor and by the gossip of the vicious housekeeper.
             
Bad Year for Tomatoes(a comedy) by John Patrick    Jan. 14, 15, 21, 22, 23
A hilarious success dealing with the very funny misfortunes of a famous television actress who seeks to "get away from it all".  Myra Marlowe leases a house in the tiny New England hamlet of Beaver Haven and settles down to write her autobiography.  In order to deal with her nosy neighbors and gain some privacy, Myra invents a mad, homicidal sister—who is kept locked in an upstairs room, but who occasionally escapes long enough to scare off uninvited visitors. Complications result when the local handyman develops an affection for "Sister Sadie" (really Myra in a fright wig). Announcing that her imaginary sibling has suddenly gone off to Boston brings on the sheriff and the suspicion of murder! These uproarious doings will keep audiences laughing right up to the final curtain, and then some.
               
Close Ties(a drama) by Elizabeth Diggs                April 8, 9, 15, 16, 17    
A warm-hearted, funny and eloquently written family drama which blends humor and compassion as it comes to grips with the problem of how best to provide for the family's aging, and perhaps senile, matriarch.
 Three generations of the Whitaker/Frye family have gathered in the summer home in the Berkshire Mountains.  While concerned with family ties, and the tensions, misunderstandings and good-natured bickering which arise from such closeness, the ultimate focus of the play is on Josephine, the  family matriarch, who is edging into senility and, in the family's view, must no longer be allowed to live alone. It is the resolution of this problem, which so many must face in today's world, that provides the very believable—and deeply moving—conclusion of this most human and genuinely affecting play.
              
Harvey (a comedy)  by Mary Chase                        June 3, 4, 10, 11, 12
 The popular tale of Elwood P. Dowd and his imaginary friend, Harvey, a six-and-a-half-foot rabbit.  When his sister Veta tries to have him committed to a sanitarium to spare her  family from embarrassment, Veta herself is mistakenly assumed to be on the verge of lunacy.  It seems that the mild-mannered Elwood's delusion has a strange influence on everyone.  
 
AUDITIONS:
Barefoot in the Park           July 12, 13
Verdict                               August 30, 31
Bad Year for Tomatoes     Nov. 8, 9
Close Ties                       Jan. 31, Feb. 1
Harvey                              March 28, 29