From modern cult comedy to the classically familiar to the pomp and pageantry of a beloved Disney classic, the Garfield Center’s exciting 2023 season will provide audiences with all the feels we expect from live theatre.

The new season opens February 10, 2023, with Psycho Beach Party by Charles Busch. Performances will run weekends until February 26. An instant cult hit that resulted in its 2000 film version, imagine the fun of living in 1962 Malibu Beach, where we might rub elbows, surf and dance with Frankie and Annette at a beach party. Chicklet Forrest is your average tomboyish Gidget with one crazy secret: she is living with several hilarious split personalities. Meanwhile, dark and mysterious murders seem to be happening to the people around her and let’s just say her mother is a complete ‘drag.’ Her most dangerous personality is the vixen Ann Bowman, who loves to command the stage to get what she wants. A colorful array of supporting characters tackle everything from friendship to sexuality in a parody spoof that keeps the laughs coming. The comedy will be directed by Michael Moore.

Next up is Prescription: Murder by William Link & Richard L. Levinson. Performances will run weekends from April 14 through 30, 2023. With it’s characters and style providing the inspiration for the TV series Columbo, its theatrical predecessor Prescription: Murder tells the story of a brilliant psychiatrist and his mistress who hatch a plot to murder his neurotic, possessive wife. The execution of their plan and the creation of their perfect alibi depends on a bizarre impersonation. Lt. Columbo must engage the psychiatrist in a duel of wits until the doctor succeeds in having Columbo removed from the case. However, it is the mistress who proves to be the weak link that leads to a trap and a surprising climax! Nic Carter will direct the production.

Short Attention Span Theatre returns to the Garfield Stage on June 23 for yet another annual installment of trailblazing new short plays that always features a cast of lovable local GCA favorites. Typically premiering new 10 minute plays, many times by local playwrights, SAST is a local, well-loved tradition. Performances will run weekends through July 9, 2023. Mark Sullivan will once again produce SAST.

September brings us Kate Hamill’s critically lauded adaptation of Little Women, running weekends from September 22 through October 8, 2023.  The Wall Street Journal called it “an ingenious compassion of Alcott’s novel that is by turns funny and painfully poignant…it touched me to the heart.” The story brings fond familiarity: Jo March isn’t your typical Victorian lady. She’s indecorous and headstrong, and one day she’s going to be a great American novelist. As she and her sisters grow up in the middle of the Civil War, they strive to be brave, intelligent, and imaginative young women. But as adulthood approaches, each sister must negotiate her private ambitions with society’s expectations. In a war-torn world defined by gender, class, and personal tragedy, Jo March gives us her greatest story: that of the March sisters, four dreamers destined to be imperfect little women. The production will be directed by Hester Sachse.

And closing the season will be Disney’s Beauty and the Beast by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, with new songs by Alan Menken and Tim Rice. Running weekends from November 24 through December 10, 2023, step into the enchanted world of the Broadway and international sensation that has been produced in 37 countries worldwide. Based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature, the original Broadway production ran for over thirteen years and was nominated for nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The classic story tells of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is actually a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end and he will be transformed into his former self. But time is running out: if the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed for all eternity. With its wonderfully colorful characters and infectiously memorable songs, the Garfield Center’s production is sure to put a smile on your face, a song in your heart and an exclamation point on another wonderful season. Jennifer Kafka Smith will direct the production.

Tickets for the new season will not go on sale until after the start of the new year. For further information between now and then, check in on occasion at our website at www.garfieldcenter.org or our Facebook page.

The Garfield Center for the Arts has announced audition dates for their upcoming production of the Neil Simon comedy The Good Doctor. Auditions are set for Tuesday and Thursday, July 12th and14th, both starting at 5:30 PM, and Saturday, July 16th, starting at 1:30 PM. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script. Needed are at least 2 female and 3 male actors, but flexible casting involving a larger cast size is likely. Familiarity with the script is helpful but not necessary,

The original production of Neil Simon’s The Good Doctor opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Broadway in 1973 and featured a stellar cast including Christopher Plummer, Marsha Mason, Frances Sternhagen, René Auberjonois, and Barnard Hughes. The play was a departure for Simon from his usual living room-style comedy. He set out to celebrate the irony and droll humor of Anton Chekhov’s work by encapsulating the style within short sketches tied together by a narrator suffering from writer’s block. In one sketch, a feisty old woman storms a bank and upbraids the manager for his gout and lack of money. In another, a crafty seducer goes to work on a wedded woman, only to realize that the woman has been in command from the first overture. And let us not forget the classic tale of a man who offers to drown himself for three rubles. The portraits are affectionate, the humor is infectious, and the play is a lot of fun for its actors and audience.

If anyone interested in auditioning has additional questions, please send an email to the Director, Bonnie Hill, at her email address at [email protected] or to GCA Executive Director Steven Arnold at [email protected].

Comedy and laughter is the theme for this year’s edition of the Garfield Center’s annual Short Attention Span Theatre. Presenting a diverse set of short plays ranging from the outrageous to the hilarious, this year’s SAST received over 350 script submissions from playwrights across the country and internationally. SAST opens for live performances starting June 24th.

Directed by Nic Carter and written by Chicago-based playwright Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend, “Beast” is a comedy about the crone responsible for a prince’s transformation into the Beast revisiting her victim with an unnatural proposition in mind. Performing the play is Jen Friedman and Dominic Delcoco.

“Porcelain Seance” is directed by Mark Sullivan and is written by local playwright Rudy Schreiber. A stream-of-consciousness comedy that takes place in a public restroom stall, it tells the story of Reeco, a man who may or may not know the person in the stall next to him. Playing Reeco is Robert Walton and it has a special appearance by Dominic Delcoco.

“Precipice” is a comedy about a crisis-driven meeting on a window ledge between a man and woman as they realize things about themselves and each other. Directed by Jennifer Kafka Smith and written by Philadelphia-based playwright Alex Dremann, the play will be performed by Sharon Herz and Zac Ryan.

In the comedy “Science Friction; or, The Rapid Deconstruction of a Rational Mind,” directed by Melissa McGlynn and written by Florida-based Ken Preuss, a man returns from a trip to discover that his girlfriend has become so immersed in his science fiction collection that she has blurred the lines between fiction and reality. Performing in the piece is Adrienne Wrona and Zac Ryan.

“Stay Golden” is a warm and funny nod to pop culture familiarity. Written by Canadian playwright Jessica Moss and directed by Nic Carter, the play is about three middle-aged friends conspiring to find a way for their fourth friend to join them in living out their golden years together in Miami. The cast includes Simone Collins, Karen Hill, Beverly Hall Smith, Jennifer Kafka Smith and Gil Rambach.

Jen Friedman and Amanda Fry appear in “Taking Sum Lumps,” a comedy directed by John Mann and written by Florida’s Ken Preuss. When a woman breaks a mirror, an agent who dispenses bad luck has an offer: does she want 7 years of bad luck or will she take it in one lump sum?

Steven Arnold directs Chicago-based playwright David Lipschutz’s “Two Pigeons Talk About Sh*tting On People, And Then They Sh*t On People, A Love Story.” In the play, a couple of pigeons pause from “targeting” pedestrians on the sidewalk below to find love. Playing the pigeons are Amanda Fry and Dominic Delcoco.

“Why Did You Bother Killing the Sea Witch” is a comedy written by Florida-based playwright Jenna Jane and directed by Adrienne Wrona. In the aftermath of the Prince’s triumphant battle against the Sea Witch, the Mermaid’s plan for happily ever hits a snag when she realizes that she and the Prince’s want different things. The play will be performed by Brianna Johnson and Robert Walton.

Once again premiering original plays and featuring a large cast of local performers and directors, SAST is produced by Worton resident and GCA Board President Mark Sullivan.

Performances begin June 24th and run at 8 PM on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 PM on Sundays through July 10th. Tickets are $20.00 for general audiences and $10.00 for students and can be purchased online anytime at www.garfieldcenter.org or by calling the box office at 410-810-2060 Wednesdays through Fridays from 10 AM to 3 PM.

Just after midnight on a cold night in October, 1998, Matthew Shepard was strapped to a fence on the plains outside of Laramie, Wyoming, beaten and left to die. It wasn’t until 6 PM that day that he was found, still tied to the fence and clinging to life. He would ultimately succumb to the trauma five days later. His murder, funeral and the trial of his murderers became the center of a media circus due to both the reason for his murder and the insensitive and indecent picketing by Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church outside his funeral. Matthew Shepard was murdered because he was gay. His death brought incredible scrutiny to hate crimes, eventually making it one of two foundational 1998 events that caused Congress to pass the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in 2009.

In November, 1998 – four weeks after the murder – playwright Moises Kaufman and nine members of his Tectonic Theater Project traveled to Laramie to conduct interviews with townspeople along with witnesses and individuals related to the case. Over the next year and a half, they returned to Laramie several times to conduct over 200 interviews. The result of their work is a deeply moving and breathtaking theater collage that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable.

“The Laramie Project” premiered at The Ricketson Theatre by the Denver Center Theatre Company in February, 2000. Additional professional productions followed, both in the United States and worldwide, along with productions by high schools, colleges, and community theaters across the country. Like they did with Mathew’s funeral, members of Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church picketed various productions of the play with anti-gay chants and signs.

Directing “The Laramie Project” is Charles Michael Moore, whose past directorial credits include productions of “Beautiful Thing,” “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” and “The Fantasticks.” Hope Dorman is the production’s Stage Manager, Butch Clark is the Lighting Designer, Nic Carter is the Sound Designer, Melissa Walters is the Costumer, the set is designed by Charles Michael Moore and Butch Clark, props are designed and assembled by the Charles Michael Moore with assistance from Melissa Walters and the cast, digital scenic projections are designed by Steven Arnold, and Francoise Sullivan oversees the program and marketing graphics.

The Director has assembled a cast of immensely talented local actors, each of whom play multiple roles in the play. They are Eddie Vance, Debra R. McGuire, Adrienne Wrona, Frank Wirmusky, Dylan Lyles, Dan Guidice, Gale L. Drenning, Brianna Lyn Johnson, Tom Dorman and Stephanie Aston-Jones.

The show’s main sponsor is PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Mid-Shore Maryland. “Friend-of-the-GCA” Sponsors are Zelda’s, and Jayne and Paul Heckles. Individual donor “Angel” sponsors are Ellen Angelo, Stephanie and Gary Aston-Jones, Susan Bella, Kathy Boyle, Sue Dick, Maureen and Timothy McNeil, Mary Jane Reichart, and Mary Sayres.

“The Laramie Project” opens April 22 and runs through May 8, with Friday and Saturday shows starting at 8 PM and Sunday shows starting at 2 PM. Tickets may be purchased online at www.garfieldcenter.org or by calling the Garfield Center at 410-810-2060 during regular Box Office hours on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 10 AM to 3 PM.

The Garfield Center for the Arts has opened its annual call for play and musical titles for production consideration. Suggestions and proposals can be made by Directors who would like to present a play or musical in the 2023 season as well as by interested community members, patrons of the Garfield Center and arts participants. All proposals must be received by the Garfield Center by the end of the day on Friday, May 6, 2022.

For submissions from directors, the Garfield Center Programming Committee asks for specific information. Directors should submit a list containing multiple titles (at least 3, no more than 10), giving title, playwright, casting requirements and a synopsis for each proposed title. For each title, directors should state how many total weeks of rehearsal would be needed prior to opening (including dress rehearsal week). If the royalty company that owns the rights for submitted titles is known, directors should include that information. Directors should also explain, per title, why a specific title would make for a successful production at the Garfield Center and for the Eastern Shore community.

Accompanying their list of title submissions, directors must submit their bio and a resume of past theatrical experience along with their 2023 calendar year availability for consideration for the 2023 season.

The GCA Programming Committee is also developing an institutional list of titles that do not have current directorial interest but would be considered good titles for future production. Any community members, patrons and participants who would like to suggest titles for the institutional list is encouraged to do so. For institutional list submissions, multiple title suggestions are welcome, but there is no requirement to give more than a single suggestion. Also, addressing why a title would be a good fit for the GCA and how it would engage the Eastern Shore community is helpful.

Detailed information on submitting a proposal is also available on the GCA web site at https://garfieldcenter.org/directors/.

Anyone wishing to submit titles should compile their proposals into a single list and email it to [email protected]. Once received, submissions will be acknowledged with a response email. Directors will be informed of the final selections once the Programming Committee has chosen the season.

About The Garfield Center for the Arts at the Prince Theatre: Located at 210 High Street in the Arts & Entertainment District of historic Chestertown, Maryland, the Garfield Center for the Arts’ mission is to invigorate the cultural life of its community by nurturing, celebrating and supporting arts and artists through performance and education. Since its inception in 2002, the GCA has enjoyed success in various community endeavors, including producing top of the line theatrical and musical productions such as The Play That Goes Wrong, Shrek the Musical, Clue On Stage, Annie the Musical, Short Attention Span Theatre, The 39 Steps, Sweeney Todd, Animal Crackers and Miracle on 34th Street. The Garfield also provides quality and enriching educational experiences in the arts for children and adults, such as Playmakers’ Summer Camp, the Hedgelawn multi-cultural performance series, Open Mic Nights, Live Playwrights’ Society, and collaborations with Kent County Schools via Spring and Fall Educational Outreach Programs. Both the theatre, and the foundation that calls it home, are recognized and valued as a unique community center for the arts on the Upper Eastern Shore. To learn more about the GCA, visit www.garfieldcenter.org or like the GCA on Facebook.

Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields’ hilarious play of mayhem, mishaps and a disastrous opening night for a company of hapless amateur actors opens the season for the Garfield Center for the Arts. The Play That Goes Wrong is the brainchild of London’s Mischief Theatre Company. Starting as a one-act play in a small theatre space in 2012, it gradually became reworked into a full length play before opening on London’s West End in 2014. Its huge success prompted other Mischief works around their usual theme – what can go wrong will go wrong – with Peter Pan Goes Wrong and TV’s The Goes Wrong Show.

The Play That Goes Wrong depicts a troupe of luckless actors trying to get through the opening night of their play, Murder at Haversham Manor, even as everything around them – the set, the lights, special effects, line deliveries, etc. – go awry in monumentally hysterical ways. And yet, these poor souls, ill-equipped as they are to appropriately deal with the mayhem, somehow press on in an attempt to get to the finish line. Characters are knocked out cold, crew members are pressed into understudy duties, props and furniture are forced to become something they’re not, and the set may or may not remain standing by the end of the performance. The Play That Goes Wrong opened on Broadway in 2017 and has been performed in over 35 countries across 6 continents, winning multiple Olivier, Tony and Drama Desk Awards.

The cast has had their work cut out for them, as the challenge is playing a character who is also playing a character in the play-within-the-play. Melissa McGlynn plays Tish, the acting troupe’s sound and lights technician (and reluctant understudy to their leading lady). Playing Chris, the Director of Murder at Haversham Manor who also plays Inspector Carter within it, is Patrick Pearce. Playing Annie, the troupe’s stage manager and also another reluctant understudy to the leading lady, is Adrienne Wrona. Zac Ryan plays Robert, whose role in Murder at Haversham Manor is Thomas. Shannon Whitaker plays Sandra, who plays Florence in Murder. J.W. Ruth plays Max, who plays Cecil in Murder. Playing Jonathan, whose role in Murder is as the deceased Charles Haversham, is Nic Carter. Bob Walton plays Dennis whose role in Murder is the Butler, Perkins. Rounding out the cast is the troupe’s “crew” who have way more on their hands both onstage and off than usual. Crew cast members are Jordan Dixon and Eddie Dorman.

Directing The Play That Goes Wrong is Garfield Center for the Arts’ Executive Director Steven Arnold. He also designed the set along with the GCA’s Technical Director Butch Clark. Butch Clark is also lighting designer and head of the construction crew, which includes Stu Gray and Jeff Russell. The Stage Manager is Allegra Fass. Costumes are by Barbi Bedell. The Sound Operator is Speedy Christopher. Props are overseen by Steven Arnold, Jennifer Kafka Smith and Allegra Fass. Beverly Hall Smith is the Scenic Painter, Jullie Gill is the dialect coach and Francoise Sullivan oversees marketing and the Playbill.

This hilarious comedy opens Friday, February 18th and runs weekends through March 6th. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM. For everyone’s protection, the Garfield Center’s mask requirement remains in place for all audience members, House volunteers and Concessions and Box Office volunteers. For tickets, you may purchase online at www.garfieldcenter.org or by calling the Box Office on Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays, 10 AM to 3 PM, at 410-810-2060.

The Garfield Center for the Arts has finished planning for its first full slate of theatrical productions since 2019. The 2022 season will feature two comedies, a thought-provoking and well-timed drama, a big, splashy, family-friendly musical and the return of everyone’s favorite annual short play festival.

Starting off the 2022 season with a bang will be The Play That Goes Wrong, an outrageous comedy by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields. The production will be directed by GCA’s Executive Director Steven Arnold. Performances will run weekends from February 11 through February 27, 2022. A smash hit farce and worlwide phenomenon, welcome to opening night of the Cornley University Drama Society’s newest production, “The Murder at Haversham Manor,” where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. On the surface, this seems to be a 1920s whodunit. But the play is really about the actors attempting to perform it, because in this laugh-a-minute comedy, featuring an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, falling set pieces and actors who trip over everything (including their lines), absolutely everything that can go wrong in the performance does, indeed, go wrong. The accident-prone thespians will attempt to battle against all odds to make it through to their final curtain call, with hilarious consequences along the way! Part Noises Off, part Monty Python, this Olivier Award–winning comedy is guaranteed to leave audiences in stitches!

Coinciding with Chestertown’s Pride Festival is The Laramie Project, written by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. The production will be directed by Charles Michael Moore. Performances will run weekends from April 22 through May 8, 2022. The play is a deeply moving portrait of Matthew Shepard, Laramie, Wyoming and a terrible crime that made an indelible mark on the American psyche. Playwright Moisés Kaufman and fellow members of the Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie over the course of a year and a half, in the aftermath of Shepard’s beating and during the trial of the two young men accused of killing Shepard. They conducted more than 200 interviews with the people of the town, and the result is a breathtaking collage that explores the depths to which humanity can sink and the heights of compassion of which we are capable.

Everyone’s favorite cherished theatre tradition, Short Attention Span Theatre, continues with weekend performances from June 24 through July 10, 2022. Frequently featuring new works by local playwrights, SAST is the Eastern Shore’s premiere short play festival featuring eight ten-minute plays that never fail to entertain our audience while promising to hold their attention for “Just. Long. Enough.”

In September, the GCA will present the Broadway comedy hit The Good Doctor. Written by Neil Simon and directed by Bonnie Hill, it is a funny and clever marriage between Simon’s snappy dialogue and the sometimes outrageous, sometimes wistful, often ironic works of Anton Chekhov. The stories are droll, the portraits affectionate, the humor infectious, and the fun unending. In one sketch, a government clerk over-apologizes and has a nervous breakdown after accidentally sneezing on a general during a night out at the opera. In another sketch, a crafty seducer goes to work on a wedded woman, only to realize that the woman has been in command from the first overture. And then there’s the visit to the chair of a frighteningly overzealous Dentist. And let us not forget the classic tale of a man who offers to drown himself for three rubles. It’s a modern take on the essence of Chekov – sometimes absurd, sometimes melancholy, but always incredibly engaging. The Good Doctor runs September 16 through October 2, 2022.

Closing the season in an absolutely spectacular way, GCA’s good friend Jen Friedman will take up the directing mantle as we bring the glory and pageantry of the hit musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to the stage. Written by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, the show features a smash hit score, which includes the memorable songs Close Every Door and Any Dream Will Do. Told entirely through song with the help of a Narrator, the musical follows preferred son Joseph who, after being sold into slavery by his brothers, ingratiates himself with Egyptian noble Potiphar but ends up in jail after refusing the amorous advances of Potiphar’s wife. While imprisoned, Joseph discovers his ability to interpret dreams, and he soon finds himself in front of the mighty but troubled, Elvis-inspired, Pharaoh. Joseph’s solution to Egypt’s famine elevates him to Pharaoh’s right-hand man and reunites him with his family. This family-friendly event, which will have you singing and tapping your feet long after its final curtain, runs weekends from December 2 through 18, 2022.

Additional information can be found on the Garfield Center for the Arts’ website at www.garfieldcenter.org. Tickets will go on sale starting in January, 2022.

Like so many other businesses and arts organizations, the pandemic had a strong impact on the Garfield Center for the Arts’ operations and income. Despite the building being shuttered to the public, its staff kept up a very busy, weekly schedule of online public entertainment offerings in the form of GCTV – a series of Wednesday night concerts, theatrical presentations, improv, movie nights and other programs. GCTV is presented for free via the GCA’s Facebook and YouTube pages. Recently, the GCA also put up its first online ticketed event with a video production of this year’s Short Attention Span Theatre. It was greatly successful both artistically and in the revenue it generated. More ticketed events are planned.

This shift to an online presence was done with both the Garfield Center’s desire to continue its programming in some fashion, but also with community engagement in mind. Turning these efforts over into a revenue-generating process was slowed only by the necessary learning curve of producing entertainment for the camera instead of for the stage. The lack of continuing revenue has been difficult on the organization, so an emergency appeal letter went out over the summer to ask the community for help.

The Garfield Center is thrilled to announce that its appeal successfully raised $7,725.00 from area donors. The funds were matched by a Garfield Center benefactor, bringing the total to $15,450.00 in total donations.

The Garfield Center for the Arts extended its deepest thanks and appreciation to our Chestertown and Kent County community, and our supporters abroad, who continue to help us be a part of our area’s thriving cultural and arts entertainment scene.