Contact: Keith Stevens, Managing Director
kstevens@peterboroughplayers.org
603-924-9344

A Pulitzer Prize winner, the best play written by one of the world's greatest playwrights, a hilarious show by one of America's leading comedians, and a world premiere musical highlight the Peterborough Players' 2002 season.

The Players opens its 69th season of professional theatre in grand style from June 26 through July 7 with FULL GALLOP, a comedy by Mark Hampton and Mary Louise Wilson. As editor of Harpers Bazaar and Vogue magazines, the incomparable Diana Vreeland stood at the center of American style for five decades. FULL GALLOP is an exhilarating and hilarious portrait of this remarkable woman at a turning point in her life. Fired from Vogue at a certain age, she re-invents herself, re-captures the country's imagination and charges full gallop into the future. This play is rated PG-13. The New Yorker called FULL GALLOP "a celebration of excess, energy, and the thrill of never looking back."

The 2000 Pulitzer Prize winner for Best Play, DINNER WITH FRIENDS, runs from July 10 through July 21. Playwright Donald Margulies, author of last season COLLECTED STORIES, serves up a brimming plateful of entertainment: yuppie satire, romantic comedy, sexy banter and insightful analysis. Its the story of two married couples who have been friends for years. When one couple breaks up, the fallout threatens to shatter not only the foursome's friendships, but also their perceptions of themselves. This brilliant play announced Margulies as one of Americas leading playwrights. This play is rated PG-13 and contains adult language and situations. The San Francisco Examiner called DINNER WITH FRIENDS "a breezy comedy of modern manners that turns poignant and deeply affecting by its end. Margulies touches chords that resonate with a deep affecting humanity."

The first great play of the 20th century, Anton Chekhov's classic comedy THE CHERRY ORCHARD, which runs from July 24 through August 4, is a humorous, passionate portrait of a disappearing way of life. In pre-Revolutionary Russia, a wonderfully eccentric, once well-to-do family faces the auction of their beloved estate. A former serf turned successful businessman offers them a way out, but will the family be able to overcome its elegant quirks to act in time? A premiere, vibrant translation by John Faro PiRoman reveals all the grace and humor of this masterpiece of the modern theatre. THE CHERRY ORCHARD is rated G.

What if the creator of WINNIE THE POOH had written a wonderfully adult comedy in the style of George Bernard Shaw? He did! And it took both the West End and Broadway by storm. A.A. Milne's MR. PIM PASSES BY runs from August 7 through August 18. The fumbling, bumbling Mr. Pim inadvertently turns the Marden household upside down and sets in motion a farcical chain of events that revolves around marriage, understanding, willingness to change, and the very definition of morality. After Mr. Pim delivers his bombshell, it is up to the elegant and imperturbable Olivia to set things right. New York Newsday said "MR. PIM PASSES BY was a hit of the London stage. It is easy to see why," and Martin's Guide to New York Theater said "go ahead and indulge yourself. Its nice to leave the theatre feeling perfectly happy." MR. PIM PASSES BY is rated G.

Imagine what would happen if at a bar in Paris in 1904 Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and a mysterious visitor meet and begin the 20th Century? PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE, which runs from August 21 through September 1, gives the audience that very unusual scenario. Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin) sets his hilarious story one year before Einstein published the special theory of relativity and four years before Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, and uses their chance meeting for what New York Magazine called "a poker-faced - and very funny - riff on the birth of the modern century." Vincent Canby of the New York Times said, "a very engaging shaggy dog of a comedy…(Martin's) manner is to so mix the sublime with the ridiculous that they can't be easily disentangled." PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE is rated PG-13.

One man, one woman, successful in different worlds, and approaching thirty - how do intimacy, love and need fit into two busy, young, modern urban lives? PEOPLE LIKE US, a world premiere musical which runs from September 4 through September 15, tells the story of high school sweethearts who find each other by chance on New Year's Eve. With music by perennial Players' favorite Todd Almond and book and lyrics by Almond and Artistic Director Gus Kaikkonen, PEOPLE LIKE US is the first world premiere on the Players' mainstage since 1984, and is rated PG-13.

The Peterborough Players operates under contracts with Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers, as well as the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC). The majority of actors in the subscription series of plays are members of Equity, and all of the directors in the series work under a SSDC contract.

In addition to the six plays in the subscription season, the Players' Second Company, comprised of interns and apprentices, will once again perform two plays suitable for children and families. The first, SNOW WHITE by Marjorie Sokoloff, is a Fractured Fairy Tales-style adaptation of the beloved children's classic. Snow White, all seven dwarves, the handsome prince, the not-quite-so-evil-but-certainly-misunderstood witch, a very sassy mirror, and a dancing chicken are all in this romp the whole family will love! SNOW WHITE is performed at 10:30 am July 5, 6, 12, 14, 18, 20, 26, 28, 30, and August 1 and 3. The second production by the Second Company, scheduled for 2:00 pm August 24 and 25 and 2:00 and 7:00 pm August 26, is LILLY'S PURPLE PLASTIC PURSE, an adaptation of Kevin Henkes' delightful children's books by Kevin Kling. Second Company plays are not part of any subscription package.

The Peterborough Players is sponsored in part by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Hampshire Humanities Council, the A. Erland and Hazel M. Goyette Memorial Fund, and the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Charitable Foundation.

Season subscriptions are now on sale at the Players Box Office. For reservations and further information, call (603) 924-7585.