Downtown is certainly the place to get your dose of stage lights, and The Weekend Theater just confirmed it with its newly announced 2024-2025 season.
“Laugh. Cry. Think. Act.” is the mantra of the intimate community theater that’s brought conversation-starting pieces to the public since 1991. This season continues that tradition with works ranging from Shakespeare to Stephen King, and just about everything in between.
Without further ado, here’s The Weekend Theater’s 2024-2025 season lineup:
“Julius Caesar”
July 19 – Aug. 4
The Ides of March, they are come. As Caesar’s power grows with the people, so does the jealousy of those closest. Brutus — the closest friend and confidante to Caesar — joins a conspiracy formed by Cassius to assassinate Caesar and save Rome from tyranny. But power coveted does not equal power gained, and violence begets violence. This production will see the conspirators and tyrants as women, pit against each other in the arena of power.
“Psycho Beach Party”
Aug. 31 – Sept. 15
Chicklet Forrest, a teenage tomboy, desperately wants to be part of the surf crowd on Malibu Beach in 1962. One thing getting in her way is her unfortunate tendency towards split personalities. Among them is a Black checkout girl, an elderly radio talk show hostess, a male model named Steve and the accounting firm of Edelman and Edelman. Her most dangerous alter ego is a sexually voracious vixen named Ann Bowman who has nothing less than world domination on her mind.
“Extremities”
Oct. 11-27
Marjorie is home alone when Raul enters through her unlocked door and attempts to attack and rape her. The tables turn when Marjorie is able to subdue Raul and keep him tied up in her fireplace. When Terry and Patricia, Marjorie’s roommates, come home, they are shocked and begin discussing how to handle the situation: Call the police, or take matters into their own hands?
“Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge”
Dec. 6-15
In this outrageously funny parody of Dickens’ Christmas classic, award-winning playwright Christopher Durang focuses on one of “A Christmas Carol’s” most insignificant characters, Bob Cratchit’s wife. Between her 21 children, her useless blob of a husband and that whiney Tiny Tim, Mrs. Cratchit has had enough.
“How Black Mothers Say I Love You”
Jan. 17 – Feb. 2
Hard-working Daphne left her two young daughters in Jamaica for six years to create a better life for them in America. Now, 30 years Iater, proud and private, Daphne is relying on church and her nearby dutiful daughter to face a health crisis. But when feisty activist Claudette arrives unexpectedly from far away to help out, her arrival stirs up the buried past, family ghosts and the burning desire for unconditional love before it’s too late.
“God of Carnage”
March 21 – April 4
A playground altercation between 11-year-old boys brings together two sets of Brooklyn parents for a meeting to resolve the matter. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses, and the rum flows, tensions emerge and the gloves come off, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.
“Carrie”
May 2-18
Carrie White is a teenage outcast who longs to fit in. At school, she’s bullied by the popular crowd, and virtually invisible to everyone else. At home, she’s dominated by her loving but cruelly controlling mother. What none of them know is that Carrie’s just discovered she’s got a special power, and if pushed too far, she’s not afraid to use it.
“A New Brain”
June 6-22
By the Tony Award-winning authors of “Falsettos,” here is an energetic, sardonic, often comical musical about a composer during a medical emergency. Gordon collapses into his lunch and awakes in the hospital, surrounded by his maritime-enthusiast lover, his mother, a co-worker, the doctor, and the nurses. Reluctantly, he had been composing a song for a children’s television show that features a frog, Mr. Bungee, and the specter of this large green character and the unfinished work haunts him throughout his medical ordeal.
(Show descriptions provided by The Weekend Theater.)
Ticket sales and audition info have yet to be announced, but are coming soon. Learn more about The Weekend Theater on its website, and follow along on Facebook and Instagram for the latest.