Center Stage sets season schedule
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on August 19, 2013 1:46 PM
Good guys will fight the bad guys using swords, ghosts will try to get a man to change his ways and women will gossip at the beauty shop during Center Stage Theatre's 2013/14 season.
The group's 36th year of productions will start off with the well-known tale "Robin Hood" Sept. 20-22.
"We had a great reaction to 'The Three Musketeers' last year and while we have the experience in stage combat -- and it's a lot of work to do that stage combat -- we decided we'd attempt another sword show now rather than wait a few years down the line and having to relearn all that stuff for a new generation of people," CST president Vincent Bridgers said.
Coming Dec. 13-15 will be "A Christmas Carol," which was written by CST member Nathan Bradshaw.
"It's our sixth annual production of 'A Christmas Carol,'" Bridgers said.
"I'll be directing it this year. I assisted directing last year. And I got a lot of input from people who came and saw the show and from people who were in the show to meld it to what Goldsboro wants to have. Since we own the copyright, we can change it to whatever we want to."
The play has become a tradition in Goldsboro, and audience size has increased every year.
"It should be a lot of fun," Bridgers said. "And I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve for that one this year to make some big improvements over what we've done in the past. I'm looking at playing around with black lights with Marley this year."
Audience members will see Marley coming through fake walls and reaching through and coming out of a fireplace.
After the holidays, CST will turn to what goes on at a beauty shop with "Steel Magnolias" Feb. 14-16. Set in Chinquapin, La., the show centers around Truvy's beauty shop where all the ladies who are anybody go to have their hair done. Truvy dispenses shampoos and free advice to the diverse group of women.
"CST has performed this play twice before," Bridgers said. "But it's such a popular comedy, especially in the south. It's a fantastic show so we're bringing it back."
A bonus show, "The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged," will be performed Feb. 21-23. It's all 37 Shakespeare plays done in 93 minutes.
"It's excerpts from some shows and shortened versions of others," Bridgers said. "It's a lot of comedy. It's only a three-person show and it's three men. It will be a lot of fun. They do Hamlet in a minute, Hamlet in 30 seconds and Hamlet in 30 seconds backward. It's a lot of physical comedy."
Bridgers said the idea is to bring Shakespeare to a whole new generation.
"We're hoping to get a lot of younger people to come," he said.
The season finale will be "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" May 2-4.
"It's a crowd pleaser," Bridgers said. "It's very entertaining. It's the biblical story of Jesus with modernized music. There are a lot of very good tunes in the show that people will recognize."
Bridgers said CST tries to do shows the audience wants to see and the organization wants to do.
"We try to provide quality entertainment," he said.
Season tickets are $40 for adults and $35 for students, seniors, CST members and active duty and retired military.
Tickets to individual show range from $10 to $15.
There is once again this year the Christmas at the Paramount Package, which includes "A Christmas Carol," "The Nutcracker" and "Child of the Promise" all for a total of $30.
Tickets are available at the Paramount box office, by calling 919-584-8432 or going online to www.cstheatre.org or www.goldsboropara mount.com.
All shows will be at the Paramount Theatre, except for "Robin Hood," which will be at the Wayne County Museum.