Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker
Can a drama class change lives forever? Five people enroll in an adult creative drama class at a small town community center. Over the course of six weeks they are led through theater games and exercises into murky and dangerous psychological waters. By the end of the class, layers of emotional baggage are stripped off to reveal how truth and change can possibly “set the body and spirit free.”
Circle Mirror Transformation won the 2009 Obie Award for Best New American Play and garnered accolades Off Broadway and beyond.
Performances are September 19 – 22 & September 26 - 29, 2012
Preview performance on September 18
Kenan Theater, 7:30 p.m.
Broadway Comes to Peace: Back to Broadway
In a gala concert celebrating the our new BFA program in Musical Theatre, new Musical Theatre professor Jason Dula and his friends from New York City will perform in concert and teach master classes for musical theatre students.
Performance is October 26, 2012
Kenan Theater, 7:30 p.m.
Godspell
Book by John Michael Tebelak
Music by Stephen Schwartz
Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Based on The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Conceived and originally directed by John Michael Tebelak, with music and new lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, GODSPELL is one of the biggest off-Broadway and Broadway successes of all time.
Based on the Gospel According to St. Matthew, and featuring a sparkling score by Stephen Schwartz, GODSPELL boasts a string of well-loved songs, led by the international hit, "Day By Day." As the cast performs "Prepare Ye The Way Of The Lord," "Learn Your Lessons Well," "All For The Best," "All Good Gifts," "Turn Back, O Man" and "By My Side," the parables of Jesus Christ come humanly and hearteningly to life.
Performances are October 31 - November 3 & November 7 - 10, 2012
Preview performance on October 30
Leggett Theater, 7:30pm
Into the Woods
Book by James Lapine
Music by Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Based on Classic Fairy Tales
An ambivalent Cinderella? A blood-thirsty Little Red Ridinghood? A Prince Charming with a roving eye? A Witch...who raps? They're all among the cockeyed characters in James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's fractured fairy tale. When a Baker and his Wife learn they've been cursed with childlessness by the Witch next door, they embark on a quest for the special objects required to break the spell, swindling, lying to and stealing from Cinderella, Little Red, Rapunzel and Jack (the one who climbed the beanstalk). Everyone's wish is granted at the end of Act One, but the consequences of their actions return to haunt them later, with disastrous results. What begins a lively irreverent fantasy in the style of The Princess Bride becomes a moving lesson about community responsibility and the stories we tell our children.
Total enchantment. A spellbounding score, witty enough to make old stories fresh for adults, lovely enough to enchant youngsters." -Daily News
"Bewitching... dazzling... triumphant." -New York Post
"Non-stop pure pleasure. A ravishing explosion of color and melody and magic and laughter." -Time Magazine
Performances are February 13 - 16 & February 20 - 23, 2013
Preview performance on February 12
Leggett Theater, 7:30 p.m.
Raleigh's Village Idiots
Raleigh’s longstanding and highly respected comic improvisation company returns to William Peace University for the fourth year in a row to teach and perform alongside Peace students. Matthew Krevat directs.
Performances are March 14-16, 2013
Kenan Theater, 7:30 pm.
Stop Kiss by Diana Son
Winner of the GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Award (Outstanding New York production). Berilla Kerr Award (playwriting) for Diana Son.
“The play makes a stunning turn that is sure to fill and break your heart”, “irresistibly exciting -New York Times
Diana Son’s Stop Kiss is a sensitive, stirring and tender drama that explores our assumptions about love. It’s about two people discovering they have fallen in love when they least expected it and with someone they never imagined. In subtle, funny, tragic and intimate ways, Son show us how our lives can change in a moment with a single kiss.
Diana Son was born and raised in Dover, Delaware. She studied Dramatic Literature at New York University and received the Berilla Kerr Award for playwriting. Ms. Son was also nominated for the John Gassner Playwriting prize and is the recent recipient of an NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Grant with the Mark Taper Forum.
Stop Kiss premiered at The Public Theater on December 8th, 1998 and has been produced at over one hundred theatres throughout the U.S. and internationally. Stop Kiss won quite a few awards in the years following its premiere, including one from the GLAAD (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). Ms. Son's other plays include BOY, R.A.W. ('Cause I'm a Woman), and Fishes, and have been produced throughout the country. Her newest play, Satellites, premiered at the Public Theater in May 2006 starring Sandra Oh. She is currently a member of the Playwrights Unit in Residence at the Joseph Papp Public Theater.
Ms. Son is currently a writer/producer for the NBC series Law & Order: Criminal Intent and is an alumnus of New Dramatists. Some of her television writing credits include the following episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent: The War at Home (2006), story and teleplay; Tru Love (2006), story and teleplay; On Fire (2006), story and teleplay; Wasichu (2006), story and teleplay; Scared Crazy (2005), story and teleplay; Magnificat (2004), story; Great Barrier (2004), story; and Shrink-Wrapped (2004), story and teleplay.
Performances are April 8 – 13, 2013
Preview performance on April 7
Leggett Theater, 7:30 p.m.
BFA Showcase
William Peace Theatre's BFA students showcase the results of their yearlong training performing solos, duets, musical theatre and theatre scenes and monologues.
Performances are April 19-20, 2013
Leggett Theater, 7:30 p.m.
