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

The return of everyone’s favorite reservationist, a hilarious farce about a theatre not unlike Peterborough’s own, a wonderful "lost classic", one of the greatest American dramas, some hot and steamy jazz and blues, and the return of James Whitmore highlight the Peterborough Players 2004 season. The plays were announced at the Players Annual Meeting held February 14.

The season opens with FULLY COMMITTED, a comedy by Becky Mode, running June 16 - June 27. A reprise of one of the Players’ most often requested productions, this hit Off Broadway comedy warms the basement of Manhattan's trendiest, most impossible-to-get-into restaurant. In one frazzled day, reservationist and struggling actor Sam Peliczowski happens on a key to success. Since Kraig Swartz opened FULLY COMMITTED at the Players in 2001, his performance as a menu of 38 characters has won him Philadelphia's Best Actor Barrymore Award and Michigan's Thespie Award. The Monadnock Ledger said "FULLY COMMITTED is a terrific play, and the Players do a terrific job with it." FULLY COMMITTED is rated "PG," and is co-sponsored by Stop and Shop.

James Whitmore returns to the Players stage in Tom Coles’ comedy-drama ABOUT TIME, running from June 30 - July 18. The Tony Award-winning Whitmore (who also won a New Hampshire Theatre Award for his performance in the Players’ YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU in 2003) is joined by Carmen Decker (last seen in 2001’s COLLECTED STORIES) to play a surprising, mysterious married couple who have spent a lifetime together and will not go gently into the good night. New York Newsday said "humor is one of the essential factors in survival during the aging process, and I have just had several comfortable hours of laughter." ABOUT TIME, sponsored by Monadnock Paper Mills, is rated PG-13 and contains some adult language.

LAUGHING STOCK, a hilarious farce by Charles Morey, runs from July 21 - August 1. This rollicking farce takes place in a barn theatre before air-conditioning and padded seats (any similarities to the Players in the 1970’s are wholly intentional). LAUGHING STOCK soars as a farce in the tradition of NOISES OFF. Morey, former Artistic Director of the Players,
returns to direct his own hilarious comedy based on his many years of producing and directing for the Players. The Salt Lake City Weekly said "LAUGHING STOCK is ... wildly funny as a pure farce full of great comic types." LAUGHING STOCK is rated PG.

The "lost classic" THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL is next, running from August 4 - August 15. In this 1905 comedy by St. John Hankin, one of the most admired comic writers of the Edwardian era, a ne'er-do-well but charming son returns home from down under and turns his upwardly mobile family upside down. THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL was a smash hit at Canada's Shaw Festival for two summers running. According to TorontoStage.com, "the only thing wrong with THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL is the fact that this crisp and delightful narrative is rarely produced." THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL is rated PG.

COOKIN’ AT THE COOKERY, a musical by Marion J. Caffey, runs from August 18-September 5. Two-time Tony nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Ernestine Jackson and Janice Lorraine appear in this joyous musical biography of the legendary jazz and blues singer Alberta Hunter. Show Business Weekly said "the show is phenomenal. From the song selection, to the staging, to the dance numbers ... everything is executed with intelligence and careful precision." COOKIN’ AT THE COOKERY is rated PG-13, and is sponsored by Northern Bus Sales.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE closes the 2004 season, running September 8 - September 19. A drama of great tenderness, charm and beauty, THE GLASS MENAGERIE is one of the famous works of the modern theatre. Tennessee Williams’ classic memory play about a faded Southern belle, her dreamer son who seeks to escape, and her painfully withdrawn daughter established him among the major rank of 20th century playwrights. CurtainUp.com said "THE GLASS MENAGERIE may be more than fifty years old and set in a bygone world, but its story of people too fragile to deal with the cruel realities of their lives is timeless." THE GLASS MENAGERIE is rated
PG.

In addition, the Players’ Second Company of interns and apprentices will present two plays for children and families. Hans Christian Andersen’s NIGHTINGALE, adapted by John Urquhart and Rita Grossberg (who also wrote the script for the production of MARK TWAIN’S HUCKLEBERRY FINN presented in 2003), will be performed at 10:30 AM June 24 and 26, and July 2, 4, 8, 10, 15, 17, 23, 25, 29, and 31. In a tale adapted from Andersen’s "The Nightingale," a greedy Chinese emperor learns a difficult lesson about the consequences of thinking only for himself. Told through movement, music and audience participation, this beautiful and touching story’s lesson speaks to children of all ages. The second of the Second Company plays is to be announced, and will be performed at 2 PM August 21 and 22, 7 PM August 23, and 2 PM August 25 and 28.

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. The 2004 Media Sponsor is the Keene Sentinel.