Mama Mamie's Departure
By: James Rasheed
Directed by: Betsy Bisson
Sponsored by: Carolina First
October 12 - October 28, 2006
The world premiere production of James Rasheed's new comedy. The setting is Mama Mamie's family home on the coast of South Carolina in the middle of a hot summer morning in July. On that morning at approximately 3:10, Mama Mamie, the family's 100 year old Matriarch, has passed on.
During this most solemn of occasions, Mamie's two daughters and her daughter-in-law have come together to prepare for her funeral. And like most "close" Southern families, they are preparing to fight it out. The gloves are off and there is no time for tears. These aren't your golden girls. And nothing comes between a sister and her long awaited inheritance. Lord help that poor man from the funeral home as he enters the battlefield.
Written by the award-winning author of this season's hit, Professional Skepticism, and starring Shirley Sarlin.
Greetings!
By: Tom Dudzick
Directed by: Chip Egan
November 30 - December 16, 2006
A miraculous holiday comedy that has played to rave reviews across the country.
"A comic jewel ... Stunning and touching ... A joyful holiday lift."
NY Newsday
"A loving holiday wonder ... Deserves a shelf life long after Christmas"
NY Post
"Glows with ... warmhearted emotion"
AP
"Hilarious"
New Yorker
I Am My Own Wife
By: Doug Wright
Directed by: Brian Haimbach
January 11 - January 27, 2007
Starring J. Michael Craig
Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Winner of the 2004 Tony for Best Play
Based on a true story, and inspired by interviews conducted by the playwright over several years, I Am My Own Wife tells the fascinating tale of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a German transvestite who managed to survive both the Nazi onslaught and the repressive East German Communist regime.
"I Am My Own Wife is the most stirring new work to appear on Broadway this fall ... both moving and intellectually absorbing."
NY Times
Quilting the Sun
By: Grace Cavalieri
Directed by: Carrie Ann Collins
February 22 - March 10, 2007
Sponsored in part by donations from Scott & Stringfellow and the Gannett Foundation
Centre Stage is proud to present the world premiere of this outstanding work by nationally renowned poet and author, Grace Cavalieri. This play was inspired by a magnificent quilt made by former slave Harriet Powers. Although little is known of Power's life, we know that she sold her quilt to Jennie Smith, a white schoolteacher in Athens, Georgia for five dollars. Today, that quilt is in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Harriet Powers is thought to be a genius in folk art and her story quilts combine African myth and Christian Bible stories in a technique using appliqué work, traced to Power's antecedents in West Africa. Ms. Cavalieri, winner of the Pen-Fiction Story Award, the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, The Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry Grant, and The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Medal, among others, will be in Greenville for the production.
Moonlight and Magnolias
By: Ron Hutchinson
Directed by: Benjamin P. Robinson
April 5 - April 28, 2007
1939 Hollywood is abuzz. Legendary producer David O. Selznick has shut down production of his new epic, Gone With The Wind. The screenplay just doesn't work. While fending off the film's stars, gossip columnists and his own father-in-law, Selznick sends for famed screenwriter Ben Hecht and pulls director Victor Fleming from the set of The Wizard Of Oz. He locks the doors, pulls the shades and over five days the three men fashion a screenplay that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful and beloved films of all time.
Guided Tour
By: Peter Snoad
Directed by: Peter Jaye
June 7-16, 2007
Peter Snoad's 4-character play, Guided Tour, is the story of Joe Bell, whose popular tours of the Gilded Age mansion Elmwood Hall in Rhode Island came to an abrupt end when the mansion burned down 14 years ago. We meet Bell in prison where he's still serving time for allegedly destroying the local landmark. Is Bell insane or a victim of Civil Rights era conspiracy? Susanna Hatch, a young law student, interviews Bell, renowned for his remarkably learned showmanship, in an attempt to clear his name. Her conversations with Bell, interspersed with poignant and sometimes haunting flashbacks, explore emotional terrain dangerous to both of them and reveal the terrible price Bell might have paid for love, loyalty and silence.
Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story
By: Alan Janes & Rob Bettison
Directed by: Betsy Bisson & Gene Krcelic
July 19 - August 18, 2007
What can we say? The Buddy Holly Story is back by popular demand, starring Will Ragland.
"... a solid triumph with Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story that had audiences dancing in the aisles and screaming for more. This shining example of what theatre can be in the life of a community transcends the notion that the performing arts are a mere diversion. During the run of this play - and for weeks afterwards - it seemed like everywhere we went, people wanted to talk about Buddy Holly. Not bad for a guy who died 46 years ago. Fueling the mania was Will Ragland in the performance of a lifetime as the bespectacled rocker from Lubbock, Texas who really did change the world of music. We thought this combination of play and actor would rack up a bunch of votes, but it was a landslide for Will Ragland and Centre Stage's Buddy Holly.
Rave on!"
The Beat, Best of the Beat, November 8, 2005
