MUSICAL COMEDY  ♫                                                                                   Dale Skerhutt, Director

Six students try to spell their way toward first prize and a chance to compete in Washington .  This delightful mix of small-town spelling bees is interspersed with a blend of musical numbers that tell the stories of the finalists. Spelling Bee is set in a middle school gym during a competition among brainy kids vying for a big, shiny trophy attesting to the winner's smarts and powers of memorization. Simultaneously goofy and sweet, Spelling Bee is just edgy enough that this tenderhearted romp through a kid’s world is a hoot for grown-ups.

                     Leaving Iowa

SENTIMENTAL COMEDY                                                           Terry L. Wiesner, Director                                      

Dad, a history teacher, will have nothing to do with tourist traps like the Dells, so the plan is to visit Hannibal , Mo. , and the kids have been duly outfitted with copies of Mark Twain's short stories in preparation. The siblings' bonds—and their dysfunctions—are classic, as is the husband and wife relationship, with Mom exploding only when she finally takes over at the wheel and is hounded beyond endurance. Dad's steely resistance to hype,  along with his thriftiness, bullheadedness and propensity for taking the wrong turn, make him a sort of Don Quixote of the heartland.

                  Chicago, the musical                                                                         August 3-August 13

MUSICAL DRAMA   ♫                                                                                           Chuck Hoenes, Director

This Roaring ‘20s musical is a satire on corruption of the criminal justice system and the "celebrity criminal."  In late 1920s Chicago, a vaudevillian named Velma Kelly murders both her husband and her sister, and chorus girl Roxie Hart murders her lover. Roxie is arrested and sent to the women's cell block inhabited by Velma and other murderesses. The block is presided over by a corrupt matron, whose system of mutual aid suits her clientele. She has helped Velma become the media's top murderer-of-the-week and is acting as a booking agent for Velma's big return to vaudeville. Thus, Velma is not happy to see Roxie, who is stealing her limelight and her lawyer.

                      The comedy Amorous Ambassador                                        August 24-September 3 

When the new American Ambassador to Great Britain tells his family he is going to play golf in Scotland , his wife and daughter announce weekend plans of their own. Their newly hired butler watches stoically as each family member leaves and secretly returns for a romantic rendezvous in the empty house. When the ambassador's secretary and the captain of Marine Corps Embassy Security arrive in the wake of a bomb threat, the embassy is sealed off—with hilarious result s.