2023 Pentacle Theatre Season, plus

Dear Patrons,

We’re back for another great season at Pentacle Theatre and I am so happy that you will be a part of it!

Thank you for supporting this amazing community theater. Your love of great drama, comedy and musicals is appreciated. With your support over the last two and a half years, we are once again able to present a full season.

We think you'll enjoy the variety of productions we have in store for you, ranging from classics like An Inspector Calls and The Crucible to newer works like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Whether it's a familiar title or a fresh take, you can count on creative, quality productions all year long.

One special thing about our 2023 season is the rescheduling of two 2020 productions that were canceled due to the pandemic: Shrek the Musical and Rabbit Hole.

And, as a fund raiser, we're bringing back Terra Nova to finish its prematurely closed 2022 run.

You can order your season tickets by using the form in this magazine, or by calling or visiting us at our beautiful new downtown location. We look forward to working with you to make your 2023 a year of great entertainment and community.

You, our fabulous patrons, donors and sponsors, keep Pentacle Theatre a Mid-Willamette Valley treasure. Thank you again for your continued support. Because of you, I think you'll agree that Pentacle is a wonderful place for community theater.

Sincerely, Lisa Joyce Executive Director

P.S. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to make your Pentacle Theatre experience a great one. Call me at (503) 485-4300.

Pentacle theatre 2023 season

SUBSCRIBER BENEFITS

• Savings: A season ticket is less expensive than our single seat price.

• Guaranteed seats: At every one of our 2023 season productions, you'll know where your seat is.

• Free exchanges: If you have a conflict for your regular performance date, we offer one free exchange per production.

• Knowing that you are supporting excellent community theater.

Pentacle theatre 2023 season

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS AND TO THE FOUNDATIONS AND PROGRAMS THAT HELPED US TO MAKE IT THROUGH THE PANDEMIC!

There are many ways to support Pentacle Theatre. Join others who believe that storytelling is vital to the human experience: pentacletheatre.org/ways-to-give/ Thank you!

In 'An Inspector Calls,' it's “as if Priestley was writing about the climate-change crisis about to engulf us all. It feels like he anticipated the march toward political extremes, the rise of smug complacency and the fall of personal moral obligation. Characters in this show have endless trouble seeing how their own biases impedes their readings of facts; there are versions of this occurring right now on our streets right outside this theater.”

AN INSPECTOR CALLS

JAN. 13 TO

FEB.

4 WRITTEN BY J.B. PRIESTLY DIRECTED BY ISAAC JOYCE-SHAW

Sponsored by the Family of Alice Mary Norton

At the Birlings' home in the industrial town of Brumley, Arthur Birling, a wealthy factory owner and local politician, celebrates his daughter Sheila's engagement to a rival magnate's son, Gerald Croft. Also in attendance are Arthur's wife Sybil and their son Eric (whose drinking problem the family discreetly ignores). Following dinner, Arthur lectures them on the importance of selfreliance and looking after one's own, and talks of the bright future that awaits

them (which, he believes, will include a place for himself on the next honors list).

The evening is interrupted by the arrival of Inspector Goole, who is investigating the suicide of a young woman named Eva Smith. Her diary, the Inspector explains, refers to members of the Birling family.

More relevant now than ever, this is a must-see for today's generation.

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, 2020

“Shrek, which draws from William Steig’s book about a lovable ogre and the DreamWorks animated movie that it inspired, is nonetheless a triumph of comic imagination with a heart as big and warm as Santa’s. It is the most ingeniously wacky, transcendently tasteless Broadway musical since 'The Producers,' and more familyfriendly …”

8 Pentacle theatre 2023 season

SHREK THE MUSICAL

MARCH 3 TO 25

MUSIC BY JEANINE TESORI

AND BOOK AND

LYRICS BY DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE DIRECTED BY ROBERT SALBERG Sponsored by the Davis Family

"Once upon a time, there was a little ogre named Shrek...." And thus begins the tale of an unlikely hero who finds himself on a life-changing journey alongside a wisecracking Donkey and a feisty princess who resists her rescue.

Throw in a shorttempered bad guy, a cookie with an attitude

and over a dozen other fairy tale misfits, and you've got the kind of mess that calls for a real hero. Luckily, there's one on hand... and his name is Shrek.

Musical fun for the whole family with a message we all need: beauty is more than skin deep.

Young Frankenstein, 2015

This is the kind of theater that gives the audience “a chance to feel, empathize and contemplate the limits of a person facing unfair circumstances.”

RABBIT HOLE

APRIL 21 TO MAY 13 WRITTEN BY DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE

DIRECTED BY JO DODGE Sponsored by the Paul C. & Robin E. Bower Family Trust

Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want, until a lifeshattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart. Rabbit Hole charts their bitter sweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day.

This production was two weeks away from moving into our auditorium when COVID shut down theaters across the world. We welcome back members of the 2020 cast in this touching exploration of loss and how we process grief.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 2017

A play for all time: “The tragedy of 'The Crucible' is the everlasting conflict between people so fanatically wedded to this orthodoxy that they could not cope with the evidence of their senses.”

~Arthur Miller

THE CRUCIBLE

JUNE 9 TO JULY 1

WRITTEN BY ARTHUR MILLER DIRECTED BY SETH ALLEN

As written by Arthur Miller, The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 during the Salem witch trials. The play is a fictionalized version of the trials and tells the story of a group of young Salem women who falsely accuse other villagers of witchcraft. The accusations and ensuing trials push the village into a hysteria which results in the arrest of 200 villagers and the deaths of 19. Miller wrote the play

as an allegory, revealing the political and moral parallels between the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy trials of his own time.

Pentacle Theatre will expand this allegory by setting this production at the flashpoint of the American cultural revolution in the early 1960s.

“This smartly written and insightful play offers hope and love in the end, even if things aren’t perfect. And how we see and respond to that journey to love and hope and second chances sort of tells us more about ourselves and how we see the world …”

Pentacle theatre 2023 season

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME

AUG. 11 TO SEPT. 2

WRITTEN BY SIMON STEPHENS BASED ON THE NOVEL BY MARK HADDON DIRECTED BY DEBBIE NEEL Sponsored by Duchess & The Munchkin

15-year-old Christopher has an extraordinary brain: He is exceptional at mathematics but illequipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched, and he distrusts strangers. Now it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher stands

beside his neighbor’s dead dog, Wellington. Finding himself under suspicion, Christopher is determined to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington, and he carefully records each fact of the crime. But his detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a thrilling journey that upturns his world.

The Cake, 2020

“Despite the high body count, this delightful show will lift the hearts of all those who’ve been pining for what sometimes seems a lost art form: musicals that match streams of memorable melody with fizzily witty turns of phrase. Bloodlust hasn’t sung so sweetly, or provided so much theatrical fun, since 'Sweeney Todd' first wielded his razor with gusto many a long year ago.”

~The New York Times

A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER

OCT. 29 TO NOV. 21 BOOK AND LYRICS

AND LYRICS

BY ROBERT L.

BY STEVEN LUTVAK.

BY LORIANN SCHMIDT

AND

Monty Navarro, a penniless clerk, is informed after the death of his mother that he is ninth in line to inherit the earldom of Highhurst, controlled by the wealthy D’Ysquith banking family. Monty’s attempts to take his rightful place in the family are thwarted right from the top, so Monty decides to woo his way into the family starting

at the bottom. Monty climbs the ladder rung by rung through a series of hilarious misfortunes and “happy” accidents. Meanwhile, Monty is trying to court moneyminded Sibella Hallward —until he finds himself drawn to young Phoebe D’Ysquith. How will all these convoluted story lines come together?

Spamalot, 2017

FREEDMAN

MUSIC

DIRECTED

Sponsored by David Hackleman & Stephanie Schoap in memory of Deb Hackleman and Mike Schoap.

“I propose putting your rational mind into sleep mode, the better to savor tickling images of orderinverting bizarreness, straight out of Dada, in which suddenly nothing is in its customary place or being used for its customary purpose. There's a wild, redeeming poetry in such anarchy.”

~The Daily Beast

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG

NOV.

17 TO DEC. 9

WRITTEN BY HENRY LEWIS, JONATHAN SAYER, AND HENRY SHIELDS

DIRECTED BY SUSAN SCHOAPS

Sponsored by the Friends & Family of Lyndsey Fields Houser

Welcome to opening night of The Murder at Haversham Manor, where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. With an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines). (Think Noises Off.)

Noises Off, 2017

SPECIAL FUND RAISER

TERRA NOVA

FEB. 9, 10 & 11, WRITTEN BY TED TALLY, DIRECTED BY

Sponsored by Route 99 Restaurant, Brooks, OR

Our 2022 production of Terra Nova closed early due to a medical emergency in the cast The cast and crew is back to complete their run with only three performances on Feb. 9, 10 & 11 as a special fund raiser.

Terra Nova is a fascinating and hauntingly beautiful play about the ill-fated

British Antarctic Expedition, led by Capt. Robert Falcon Scott.

Terra Nova is based on historical facts and the diaries, notes and film found with the bodies of the final three members of the Scott Expedition. The stark beauty of the Antarctic setting combined with poetic

SCOTT RAMP

writing and the gritty drama of the true story makes Terra Nova a compelling and moving evening of theater.

Order your tickets online for these added performances.

(Tickets to Terra Nova are not included in the season ticket package.)

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COME VISIT US

Our bright and shiny new downtown location is open to you. Come take a tour of our ticket office and rehearsal space. Don't forget to give yourself time to visit our beautiful Pentacle Theatre history museum.

Featured exhibits highlight the wide variety of productions we have mounted for more than 68 years. Displays of set models and costume pieces give a look at the ingenuity and vision of our designers.