2011-12 Mainstage Season
For ticketing information, reservations, and directions to our theatres, please contact the Cornell College Box Office.
The Cripple of Inishmaan
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Ron Clark
A co-production with Riverside Theatre
Kimmel Theatre
October 20, 21, 22 at 7:30 p.m.
October 23 at 2:00 p.m.
In 1934, the people of Inishmaan, a small island off the coast of Ireland, discover a movie is about to be made on the neighboring island . Cripple Billy, whose favorite pass-time has been gazing at cows and yearning for a girl who wants no part of him, dreams of stardom. Billy is determined to cross the sea and audition. His pluck and determination excite his rumor-starved community. THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN is a merciless, cruelly funny and provocative play by contemporary Ireland's most successful playwright.
COMPANY
Book by George Furth
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed by Jim Van Valen
Musical Direction by Janelle Lauer
Kimmel Theatre
December 9, 10, 16, 17 at 7:30 p.m.
December 11, 18 at 2 p.m.
A breakthrough Broadway musical-comedy first produced in 1970, COMPANY remains fresh, acerbic, and original today. With the clashing sounds and pulsing rhythms of New York City underscoring this landmark show, it is considered by many to have inaugurated the modern era of musical theatre. COMPANY follows bachelor Robert on the night of his 35th birthday as he contemplates his unmarried state. The musical’s themes of marriage and commitment, friendship and loneliness, safety and vulnerability -- all lead Robert on a journey of self-examination where he is confronted by the "good and crazy people" that surround his life. An honest, witty, sophisticated look at the many facets and complications that make up relationships, COMPANY is as contemporary and relevant as ever, featuring a brilliant and energetic score by Stephen Sondheim.
In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play
By Sarah Ruhl
Directed by Saffron Henke
Kimmel Theatre
February 17, 18, 24, 25 at 7:30 p.m.
February 26 at 2:00 p.m.
A 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony nominee for Best Play, Sarah Ruhl's provocative and sometimes tender comedy is set in the 1880s -- a time when doctors believed that "hysterical" women (and men) could be treated with vibrators, and electricity was a brand new technology. The play finds a Victorian-era doctor in New York championing the effects of this new electronic device, while in the adjoining room, the doctor's wife is yearning for a different kind of intimacy. IN THE NEXT ROOM or THE VIBRATOR PLAY is a sex comedy with a head on its shoulders and a heart on its sleeve.
Defying Gravity
By Jane Anderson
Directed by Jody Hovland
Kimmel Theatre
April 20, 21, 27, 28 at 7:30 p.m.
April 29 at 2:00 p.m.
An exploration of our need to reach beyond ourselves and dare the universe, Defying Gravity interweaves the 1986 Challenger explosion with our ageless fascination with space and its conquest. The playwright draws parallels with painter Claude Monet's artistic quest, the zest of the teacher selected to be the first civilian astronaut, the perspectives of her grieving daughter, the aspirations of elderly tourists who drive their Winnebago to Florida to watch the space shot, the guilt felt by a NASA mechanic, and his girlfriend's fear of heights.