Driving Miss Daisy

On Stage

July 16 – 24

Play by Alfred Uhry
Winner of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

THE STORY: The place is the Deep South, the time 1948, just prior to the civil rights movement. Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Werthan, a rich, sharp-tongued Jewish widow of seventy-two, is informed by her son, Boolie, that henceforth she must rely on the services of a chauffeur. The person he hires for the job is a thoughtful, unemployed black man, Hoke, whom Miss Daisy immediately regards with disdain and who, in turn, is not impressed with his employer’s patronizing tone and, he believes, her latent prejudice. But, in a series of absorbing scenes spanning twenty-five years, the two, despite their mutual differences, grow ever closer to, and more dependent on, each other, until, eventually, they become almost a couple. Slowly and steadily the dignified, good-natured Hoke breaks down the stern defenses of the ornery old lady, as she teaches him to read and write and, in a gesture of good will and shared concern, invites him to join her at a banquet in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. As the play ends Hoke has a final visit with Miss Daisy, now ninety-seven and confined to a nursing home, and while it is evident that a vestige of her fierce independence and sense of position still remain, it is also movingly clear that they have both come to realize they have more in common than they ever believed possible—and that times and circumstances would ever allow them to publicly admit

SPONSORED BY KING INDUSTRIES

All Shook Up

Kephart Mainstage (268)

June 11-26

All Shook Up is a musical comedy about young love and the fun of the 1950s, set to the music of early Elvis Presley.

SPONSORED BY THE BANK OF TESCOTT

Rumors

Kephart Mainstage (267)

April 12 – 21, 2010

At a large, tastefully-appointed Sneden’s Landing townhouse, the Deputy Mayor of New York has just shot himself. Though it’s only a flesh wound, Charlie Brock’s self-inflicted injury sets off a series of events causing four couples to experience a severe attack of farce.

As their tenth wedding anniversary party commences, Charlie lies bleeding in another room, and his wife Myra is nowhere in sight. The first guests, lawyer Ken Gorman and his wife Chris, scramble to get “the story” straight before the other guests arrive. As the confusions and miscommunications mount, the evening spins off into classic farcical hilarity.

SPONSORED BY KENNEDY AND COE, LLC., MOWERY CLINIC, AND BENNINGTON STATE BANK

City of Angels

Kephart Mainstage (266)

February 12 – 21, 2010

In the late 1940s, Stine, a bookish writer of detective stories, struggles to adapt his crime novel into a workable screenplay. As Stine tries to maintain some integrity in the backstabbing world of Hollywood, his protagonist, a hardboiled private eye named Stone, fights for survival in a city full of criminals and opportunists. In a clever design choice, the stories are told on a split stage: Stine’s world is in full color, while Stone’s appears in black and white. With wit, humor, and a fantastic Cy Coleman score, City of Angels captures the snappy dialogue of a Raymond Chandler novel and the glitzy showmanship of classic Hollywood; the result is a crowd-pleasing musical unlike any other.

SPONSORED BY PHILIPS

On Golden Pond

Kephart Mainstage (265)

January 8 – 23, 2010

This is the love story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the forty-eighth year. He is a retired professor, nearing eighty, with heart palpitations and a failing memory—but still as tart-tongued, observant, and eager for life as ever. Ethel, ten years younger, and the perfect foil for Norman, delights in all the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the “grandchild” the elderly couple have longed for, and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him, he also learns some lessons about modern teenage awareness—and slang—in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, so does their brief idyll, and in the final, deeply moving moments of the play, Norman and Ethel are brought even closer together by the incidence of a mild heart attack. Time, they know, is now against them, but the years have been good and, perhaps, another summer on Golden Pond still awaits.

SPONSORED BY COLDWELL BANKER AND WELLS FARGO ADVISORS

It’s a Wonderful Life

Kephart Mainstage (264.5)

December 4 – 13, 2009

It’s A Wonderful Life is a musical adaptation of Frank Capra’s masterpiece film. This is the saga of George Bailey, the Everyman from the small town of Bedford Falls, whose dreams of escape and adventure have been squashed by family obligations and civic duty, and whose guardian angel has to descend on Christmas Eve to save him from despair, and to remind him – by showing him what the world would have been like had he never been born – that he has had, after all, a wonderful life.

SPONSORED BY SAINT FRANCIS COMMUNITY SERVICES and BENNINGTON STATE BANK

Don’t Dress For Dinner

Kephart Mainstage (264)

October 23-November 2, 2009

Bernard is planning a romantic weekend with his chic Parisian mistress in his charming converted French farmhouse, whilst his wife, Jacqueline, is away. He has arranged for a cordon bleu cook to prepare gourmet delights, and has invited his best friend, Robert, along too to provide the alibi. It’s foolproof; what could possibly go wrong? Well… suppose Robert turns up not realizing quite why he has been invited. Suppose Robert and Jacqueline are secret lovers, and consequently determined that Jacqueline will NOT leave for the weekend. Suppose the cook has to pretend to be the mistress and the mistress can’t cook. Suppose everyone’s alibi gets confused with everyone else’s. An evening of hilarious confusion ensues as Bernard and Robert improvise at breakneck speed.

SPONSORED BY HAMPTON & ROYCE

The Sound of Music

Kephart Mainstage (263)

September, 2009

The final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein was destined to become the world’s most beloved musical. Featuring a trove of cherished songs, including “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” and the title number, The Sound of Music won the hearts of audiences worldwide, earning five Tony Awards and five Oscars. The inspirational story, based on the memoir of Maria Augusta Trapp, follows an ebullient postulate who serves as governess to the seven children of the imperious Captain von Trapp, bringing music and joy to the household. But as the forces of Nazism take hold of Austria, Maria and the entire von Trapp family must make a moral decision.

SPONSORED BY SUNFLOWER BANK