Parkland Theatre Announces 2023-2024 Season Lineup
Musicals, Drama, Shakespeare in '23-'24 Show Lineup
Parkland College Theatre announces its 2023-2024 performance calendar. Season tickets will be available starting in July.
"Mac Beth" by Erica Schmidt, adapted from William Shakespeare
Seven students from an all-girls prep school gather in an abandoned lot to "perform" Macbeth. As they do, things take a very surprising turn. Schmidt, who has a lot of experience staging and adapting Shakespeare, has created a slick, smart, youthful, brash, streamlined (90 minutes, no intermission) telling that shines a light on the lives of young women as well as the seemingly ubiquitous violence in America's school culture.
- Performances run September 28–30, October 1, 6, 7, 8.
Creature Double Feature!
"10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse" by Don Zolidis: an Actors' Studio Production
It's the end of the world and hordes of rampaging zombies are about to kill you. What do you do? Try your hand at kung fu against the undead? Attempt to reason with creatures that would rather eat brains than use them? Turn to this handy and hilarious guide to survive the apocalypse! (Hint: sacrifice the weak is step number one.)
"Zombie Prom" by John Dempsey, Music by Dana Rowe
This girl-loves-ghoul rock 'n' roll Off Broadway musical is set in the atomic 1950s at Enrico Fermi High, where the law is laid down by a zany, tyrannical principal. Pretty senior Toffee has fallen for the class bad boy. Family pressure forces her to end the romance, and he charges off on his motorcycle to the nuclear waste dump. He returns glowing and determined to reclaim Toffee's heart. He still wants to graduate, but most of all he wants to take Toffee to the prom. The principal orders him to drop dead while a scandal reporter seizes on him as the freak du jour. History comes to his rescue while a tuneful selection of original songs in the style of 50s hits keeps the action rocking across the stage.
- Performances run November 9–12 and 17–19.
"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" by Tom Stoppard
Acclaimed as a modern dramatic masterpiece, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is the fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm's-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare's play. In Tom Stoppard's best-known work, this Shakespearean Laurel and Hardy finally get a chance to take the lead role, but do so in a world where echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, where reality and illusion intermix, and where fate leads our two heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.
- Performances run February 15–18 and 23–25.
"Silent Sky" by Lauren Gunderson: an Actors’ Studio production
When Henrietta Leavitt begins work at the Harvard Observatory in the early 1900s, she isn't allowed to touch a telescope or express an original idea. Instead, she joins a group of women "computers," charting the stars for a renowned astronomer who calculates projects in "girl hours" and has no time for the women's probing theories. As Henrietta, in her free time, attempts to measure the light and distance of stars, she must also take measure of her life on Earth, trying to balance her dedication to science with family obligations and the possibility of love. The true story of 19th-century astronomer Henrietta Leavitt explores a woman's place in society during a time of immense scientific discoveries, when women's ideas were dismissed until men claimed credit for them. Social progress, like scientific progress, can be hard to see when one is trapped among earthly complications; Henrietta Leavitt and her female peers believe in both, and their dedication changed the way we understand both the heavens and Earth.
- Presented at the Staerkel Planetarium! Performances run March 7–10.
"Little Shop of Horrors" by Howard Ashman, Music by Alan Menken
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 foul-mouthed, 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!
- Performances run April 11–13, 19–21, and 26–28.
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