2015-16

Belmont Community

Theatre

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Abbey Players

The 132nd since the founding of the College.

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Theatre Staff

About

Support. AP/BCT brings you unique entertainment experiences that are engaging, affordable and conveniently close to home. Your season ticket purchase includes admission to all 2015-2016 mainstage productions.

Participation. AP/BCT welcomes community volunteers of all ages, including students from other schools, to participate as actors, running crew, set builders, ushers and more. Call 704.461.6786 to learn how you can become a part of AP/BCT!

the Part you Can Play

, originally from Columbus, Ohio, holds a BFA from Kent State University, an MA from Bowling Green University, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth. Friendships within the Charlotte Shakespeare Company brought her to UNC Charlotte, where she taught acting and voice for four years before taking an Artistic Associateship at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte. During her 16 years there, she taught classes, directed productions, and acted on the Mainstage. Jill is now a full-time faculty member of Belmont Abbey College.

JILL BLOEDE

The Abbey Players began in 1883 as an academic theatre where Belmont Abbey College students and staff could learn and enjoy the craft of performance. With the addition of the Belmont Community Theatre in 1990, AP/BCT now unites the college community with local and regional performers and technicians for thought-provoking plays, stylish comedies, major musicals and an annual Shakespeare series.

About Abbey Players/Belmont Community Theatre

holds a BFA from UNC Charlotte and has worked at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte as resident sound designer for over a decade. He has also designed sets, lights and sound for virtually every theatre in the metropolitan Charlotte region, including designing and building every show in the Haid Theatre since 1995.

GARY SIVAK

, a native New Yorker, took his under-graduate degree from the University of Virginia and graduate degree from UNC Chapel Hill. He has been Director of Theatre at Belmont Abbey College since 1976, and has worked regionally as a director/actor at such companies as Charlotte Repertory Theatre, Theatre Charlotte and Actor’s Theatre. He created the Abbey’s Shakespeare Series as well as directing scores of productions during the past three decades.

SIMON DONOGHUE

Godspell

Kin

g Lear

The Lion in Winter

Angel Street

For reservations and information:

Call the Theatre Box Office at 704.461.6787 or go online and reserve your tickets at www.belmontabbeycollege.edu/theatre.

MARGARET PETREY SMITH, a Gaston County native, has joined the staff as our new Abbey Players Marketing Director. A graduate of St. Michael's and Gaston Day Schools, Margaret holds a BS is Theatre Arts Administration from Catawba College, and has worked in the non-profit professional theatre (LORT/AE) in Washington, DC (John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) and Baltimore (Center Stage, the State Theatre of Maryland) as well as volunteered for many non-profit community theaters.

I WILL SUPPORT AP/BCT AS A:

Member(one ticket to each production)

$40

Patron(two tickets to each production)

$75

Sponsor(four tickets to each production)

$140

Benefactor(six tickets to each production)

$200

Corporate(twenty tickets to each production)

$500

____ New Member _____ Returning Member

*Please provide if you want to receive performance reminders and notices of other arts events at Belmont Abbey College. Your email address will not be shared with any other organizations.

Please forward this form with your payment to:

AP/BCT Membership

HAID THEATRE100 Belmont-Mt. Holly Road

Belmont, NC 28012

Name ________________________________________

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Christmas at the Abbey

The beloved Abbey Players tradition returns! An evening of music and festive readings to celebrate the season! For many members of our audience, this has become the official start of their holidays. Join us again, or for the very first time. Seating is limited, so be sure to make your reservations early.

DIRECTED BY SIMON DONOGHUE & SETH KANE

December 5

WINGSby Arthur Kopit

September 24, 25, 26, 30 October 1, 2

DIRECTED BY SIMON DONOGHUE

Emily Stilson, 70-years old and a celebrated former aviatrix and stunt pilot, suffers a stroke and is plunged into a world of disorientation and grief. Memories flood in between painful attempts to re-learn the basic functions of everyday life. Aided by a dedicated young therapist, Emily’s flights of memory and emotion create an evocative portrait of the ability of the human spirit to renew and survive.

At first, the Sycamores seem mad. But it is not long before we realize that if they are mad—the rest of the world is madder. In contrast to these delightful people are the unhappy Kirbys. The plot shows how Tony, attractive young son of the Kirbys, falls in love with Alice Sycamore and brings his parents to dine at the Sycamore home on the wrong evening. The shock sustained by the Kirbys, who are invited to eat cheap food, shows Alice that marriage with Tony is out of the question. The Sycamores, though sympathetic to Alice, find it hard to realize her point of view. Meanwhile, Tony, who knows the Sycamores are right and his own people wrong, will not give her up. In the end, Mr. Kirby is converted to the happy madness of the Sycamores during a visit by an ex-Grand Duchess earning her living as a waitress. No mention has been made of the strange activities of certain members of the household engaged in the manufacture of fireworks; nor of the printing press set up in the parlor; nor of Rheba, the maid, and her friend Donald; nor of Grandpa’s comment to the tax collector that he doesn’t believe in the income tax.

One of the most popular and successful comedies of modern times.

You Can’t Take It With You by George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart

November 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21

DIRECTED BY JILL BLOEDE

“The most distinguished work of this season.” - The New York Times

January 23

FACILITATED BY LINDSEY FOLEY

At 8:00 p.m. on January 23, playwrights will be locked into the Haid Theatre and handed a photographic “prompt” for inspiration. Their goal? To complete a one-act play by 8:00 a.m. on January 24th! By 9:00 that morning the plays are in the hands of directors and actors, and by 8:00 that night, they’re on the Haid stage. This annual event has become an Abbey Players tradition, and is completely in the hands of our students. If you are interested in participating as an actor, technician, director or writer, please come on out for it—it’s a guaranteed blast!

THE NINTH ANNUAL 24-HOUR THEATRE PROJECT

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS by Howard Ashman (book/lyrics)and Alan Menken (music)

April 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23

DIRECTED BY JILL BLOEDE

MUSIC DIRECTED BY JIM EDDINGS

A deviously delicious Broadway and Hollywood sci-fi smash musical, Little Shop Of Horrors has devoured the hearts of theatre goers for over 30 years. Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, and Aladdin) are the creative geniuses behind what has become one of the most popular shows in the world.

The meek floral assistant, Seymour Krelborn, stumbles across a new breed of plant he names “Audrey II” – after his coworker crush. This R&B-singing carnivore promises unending fame and fortune to the down and out Krelborn as long as he keeps feeding it – BLOOD. Over time, though, Seymour discovers Audrey II’s out of this world origins and intent towards global domination!

The name Joan of Arc conjures so many different women that people still

argue about her nearly six hundred years after her execution. For the Catholic Church, she is a saint and martyr; the French hold her as a national hero; military historians study her tactics. In her own day, Joan was regarded as a witch, a heretic and one called by God to save her country. Jean Anouilh’s brilliant play about Joan’s life and trial is a theatrical tour-de-force that helped ensure the young Julie Harris’ stardom. As her trial unfolds, the audience sees Joan as she herself does, as her life is told in a series of vignettes that help us understand how a simple, unlettered peasant girl became one of the towering historical figures of all time.

THE LARK by Jean Anouilh

February 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27

DIRECTED BY SIMON DONOGHUE

THE LARK Join us today for a season of

exceptional performancesat the

HAID THEATRE and

Belmont Community

Theatre

Abbey Players

2015-16 Season

All performances begin promptly at 8:00 p.m.

For reservations and information:

Call the Theatre Box Office at 704.461.6787 or go online and reserve your tickets at

www.belmontabbeycollege.edu/theatre.