To start the season, we will revisit the works of Alan Ayckbourn, author of our immensely popular production of Communicating Doors. This time instead of traveling through time, we will visit the same time as seen in three different rooms, all of which get their own play! The Norman Conquests – which includes Table Manners, Round and Round the Garden and Living Together – revolve around Norman a charming library assistant, and the women in his life. Each play stands on its own, however, the fun is in seeing the entire trilogy as each play reveals unique secrets, surprising answers and loads of laughs. Directed by Artistic Director Sean Murray and Francis Gercke, The Norman Conquests will run in rep with the same six actors from July 28th through November 2nd, 2010.

For the holiday season, we are very happy to announce our fifth annual production of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, adapted by Joe Landry. Each year, Cygnet audiences delight in this wintertime tradition. Tom Andrew will return with his San Diego Critics Circle Award winning performance as George Bailey, and the brilliant Scott Paulson will once again infuse the evening with his live, old-fashioned Foley sound effects ‘orchestra’. For Cygnet, the holidays wouldn’t be the holidays without the fictitious “WCYG Theatre of the Air” and the classic Frank Capra story in a “live” 1940’s radio broadcast filled with music and the beloved characters of Bedford Falls. It’s a Wonderful Life runs November 26th through December 31st, 2010.

We are incredibly honored and excited to begin 2011 with the World Premiere of The Commons by Stephen Metcalfe (author of the screenplay Jacknife, based on his off-Broadway play Strange Snow). Our staged reading of this powerful work, which focuses on a retired school teacher, his wife and the threatening of their beloved home, received overwhelming response and will now receive its premiere production with the same cast. Jim Winker and Associate Artistic Director Francis Gercke headline this moving, electrifying production. The Commons will play January 20th through February 20th, 2011.

In the Spring, we invite you into the Kit Kat Club as we explore the world of Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret! Set in the tumultuous city of Berlin, just before Hitler’s rise to power, and based on Christopher Isherwood’s “Berlin Stories”, Cabaret introduces the interlocking stories of cabaret singer, Sally Bowles; the American writer, Cliff who takes her in and the other local denizens of a quickly changing society. Sean Murray directs the dark, daring and provocative musical that won 8 Tony Awards and includes the musical numbers Willkommen, Mein Herr and Maybe This Time?. Production dates for Cabaret are March 17th through May 15th, 2011.

We will close our season at Cygnet with the Pulitzer Prize winning Our Town by Thornton Wilder. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town stunned its audience when it was first presented for its audacious, almost avant garde simplicity. Director Sean Murray, picks up from there and brings a contemporary sensibility to the staging of one of the most beautiful and moving plays ever written. Playwright Thornton Wilder (The Matchmaker) explores the essence of life and living by focusing both on the minutia of daily life’s routines and necessities as well as the larger place mankind holds on the cosmic plane of our universe. The always surprising Our Town, with its sparse, lofty stage and 23-member cast promises to take us on an exploration of our humanity. Performances for Our Town will run June 9 through July 10, 2011.

We certainly hope you will join us for our eighth go-around and look forward to seeing you at the Old Town Theatre.