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In 2008 the GCTC once again put on The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is based on a book written by Barbara Robinson in 1972. It tells the story of six delinquent children surnamed Herdman. They go to church for the first time after being told that the church offers snacks. Despite protests from other church members, the Herdmans are given roles in the Sunday school’s Christmas play, in which they tell the Christmas story in a nonconventional fashion.
In 2008, the GCTC produced Driving Miss Daisy as part of their Reader’s Theatre program. A special thank you to Lyles Station Historic Preservation Corporation for allowing us to use their school for our performance. And thanks to Stanley and Mary Alice Madison for all their hard work.
The place is the Deep South, the time 1948, just prior to the civil rights upheaval in the United States. Having recently demolished another car, Daisy Wertham, a rich, crusty and sharp-tongued widow of 72, is informed by her businessman 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 favorably impressed with his employer’s patronizing tone and, he believes, her latent prejudice. But, in a series of absorbing, revealing scenes, spanning 25 years and filled with warm humor and glinting insights, 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. — which her son declines to attend because it might be bad for business. As the play ends Hoke has a final visit with Miss Daisy, now 97 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 both of them have come to realize that they have more in common than they ever believed possible—and times and circumstances would ever allow them to publicly admit.
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The Odd Couple is a 1965 Broadway play by Neil Simon, followed by a successful film and television series, as well as other derivative works and spin offs, many featuring one or more of the same actors. The plot concerns two mismatched roommates, one neat and uptight, the other more easygoing but slovenly.
In 2008 the Gibson County Theatre Company once again put on a variety show at the Golden Heritage Days Festival.
The Alley Cats introduce Berlioz, Marie, Toulouse and their mother Duchess – the richest cats in all of Paris. When the Aristocats’ beloved owner Madame announces that she has left them all of her money, Edgar, the family butler, becomes very jealous. While the Aristocats practice singing Edgar warms some milk. After they fall asleep, Edgar takes the Aristocats out into the country and leaves them in a ditch.
As the Aristocats wake up, lost and alone, Napoleon and his pack of Country Dogs chase Edgar away. An Alley Cat named O’Malley discovers the Aristocats (Thomas O’Malley Cat), who are surprised to find him friendly. Despite the protests of the other Alley Cats, O’Malley agrees to help the Aristocats find their way home to Madame. Napoleon and the Dogs find the Cats and chase them. When Marie falls into a river, O’Malley dives in to save her, only to be saved himself by a pair of Geese, Abigail and Amelia (The Gabble Girls). The whole gang waddles back to the city. more…
Chicago is a Kander and Ebb musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice, and the concept of the “celebrity criminal”. The musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins about actual criminals and crimes she had reported on.
In the third installment of the Simply Spectacular Showcase, GCTC took the show on the road, performing at the Golden Heritage Days Festival in Princeton, IN.
The story takes place in a tropical jungle where people are conspicuously absent. But one day Bagheera the Panther discovers a baby in the wreck of a boat. Feeling pity on the child, Bagheera takes him to be raised with the wolves. Ten years later, the child has grown into Mowgli. Mowgli discovers that his life is in danger because of the return to the area of Shere Khan the Tiger, whose hatred of humans is such that Mowgli faces certain death if discovered. Bagheera agrees to transport Mowgli to the human village, where he will be safe from Shere Khan. Along the way to the village, night falls and Mowgli and Bagheera almost succumb to the man-eating snake Kaa. Escaping Kaa’s coils, they run into the lock-step military elephant band of Colonel Hathi. Afterward, Mowgli, who doesn’t want to be sent to the human village, runs away from Bagheera and meets up with the fun-loving Baloo the Bear. With both Bagheera and Baloo to protect him, Mowgli is saved from several more life-threatening situations — including a barber-shop quartet of vultures, the crazed King Louie of the Apes, and Shere Khan himself — before making it to the village of humans.
Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters’ performance as the Witch, and Joanna Gleason’s portrayal of the Baker’s Wife, brought acclaim to the production during its original Broadway run. Into the Woods won several Tony Awards, including Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason), in a year dominated by The Phantom of the Opera. The musical has been produced many times, with a 1988 national tour, a 1990 West End production, a 1991 television production, a 1997 tenth anniversary concert, a 2002 Los Angeles production and a 2002 Broadway revival.[1] It was later loosely adapted into the hip-hop dance musical, Into the Hoods.
Inspired by Bruno Bettelheim’s 1976 book, The Uses of Enchantment, the musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and follows them further to explore the consequences of the characters’ wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from the stories of Little Red Ridinghood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella, tied together by a more original story involving a Baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family, most likely taken from the original story of Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm. It also includes references to several other well-known tales.
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. That’s where two young surgeons, Duke and Hawkeye end up during the Korean War. There is no plot as such, but instead a series of episodes during which they put their stamp on the camp including a football game against a larger unit with thousands riding on it, a trip to Tokyo to operate on a congressman’s son and play a little golf, and finding out if the head nurse is a natural blonde.
The production as held in the PCHS Auditorium, with attendance exceeding 650.