PCPA Theaterfest proudly announces
a Remarkable and Ambitious
2010-2011 Season
Peter Pan – The 39 Steps – Pride and Prejudice - Hairspray
The Two Gentlemen of Verona – My Fairytale – Caroline, or Change

Next season will be like no other embarked upon by PCPA Theaterfest. It will include an exclusive American premiere by Stephen Schwartz, the romance and comedy of Jane Austen, the thrills (and yes, laughs) of Alfred Hitchcock, the poetry of William Shakespeare, the ever youthful fantasy from James M. Barrie, and the new award winning musical from Tony Kushner. It’s a season to delight and dazzle the senses, and you won’t want to miss one single moment of all the exhilaration which only PCPA and live theatre can deliver!

Artistic Director Mark Booher said this will be a season to remember for years to come, “The season of plays that we will undertake is, perhaps, without recent precedent.  It is ambitious.  Some might say overly ambitious.  But it is the unique disposition of the artist to respond to times of hardship with immense creativity, to step forward with boldness and ingenuity when most might take a step back and, as a result, I believe it’s going to be positively amazing!”

Beginning with the holiday show, the high flying fantasy, Peter Pan, will swoop down over the Marian Theatre stage November 4 through December 23, 2010. Grand adventures await on your journey to J.M. Barrie’s Neverland – “it’s not on any chart, you must find it with your heart.”  Fly away from London with the boy who doesn’t want to grow up.  Join the Lost Boys and the Darling children as they battle the sinister Captain Hook and his pirate crew, befriend Tiger Lily and her tribe, and re-awaken your belief in fairies.  This musical masterwork, with orchestrations from the recent Broadway revival, includes the favorites - "Never Never Land," "I Won't Grow Up" and "I'm Flying."  Peter Pan will delight the immortal child in all of us!

Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps has been re-envisioned into a marvelous mystery romp for the stage. Think juicy spy novel meets Monty Python. Whether you take a plane, train or automobile, cling to your seat as four actors play 150 characters in this hilarious Tony award winning thriller.  Your suave hero Richard Hannay is pursued across the country in a manhunt with international portents.  This delicious farce has kept audiences rolling on Broadway with ingenious comic staging and Hitchcock’s special brand of romance, intrigue and espionage. The 39 Steps will play the Marian Theatre February 10 – March 6, 2011 and June 16 – July 3, 2011 in the Solvang Festival Theater.

InterPlay: The Stage Between, a festival of new plays presented in a play reading format in the Severson Theatre, Santa Maria February 25 – March 6, 2011. Titles to be announced.

Come spy through the parlor window into the lives of the Bennet sisters when Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice opens April 14, 2011 in the Marian Theatre and plays through May 8, 2011. You’ll have a ball entering Jane Austen’s world of desperate spinsters, determined bachelors, nosy neighbors, embarrassing relatives, and a smarmy cad or two.  Mrs. Bennet is in hot pursuit of husbands for each of her five daughters. The wisest of them, the willful and witty Elizabeth, is taunted and tantalized by the disciplined, dashing aristocrat Mr. Darcy. Can they overcome their mutual pride and prejudice? Take a turn in this classic courtship dance and see if “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” 

Say good morning to 1962 Baltimore where everything is bigger than life!  Tracy Turnblad may not have a Barbie-doll figure, but the size of her irrepressible heart is matched only by the volume of her irresistible hair.  Hairspray will play in the Marian Theatre June 16 – July 2, 2011, then July 8 – 31, 2011 in the Solvang Festival Theater, and Tracy Turnblad is going to twist and turn the teenage television dance program, The Corny Collins Show, on its ear.  This plus-size musical features fan favorites like “Good Morning Baltimore,” “I’m a Big Girl Now” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat.”  You’ll laugh your socks off when Tracy and friends dance rings around the establishment and bring color to TV’s age of black and white.  With her one-of-a-kind mom Edna as her agent, she finds a no-tease way to make a Link with love and be crowned Miss Teenage Hairspray!

Jane Austen isn’t the only one who allows us to laugh at the folly of young lovers. That’s precisely the premise of Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona playing July 15 – 30, 2011 in Santa Maria’s Marian Theatre then August 5 – 21, 2011 in the Solvang Festival Theater. Shakespeare is simple:  In Verona… Proteus and Valentine are best friends.  Proteus adores Julia.  Julia is heavenly.  Valentine goes to Milan.  Valentine loves Silvia.  Silvia is a goddess.  Proteus visits Valentine.  Proteus pines after Silvia.  Julia is bereft.  Valentine is betrayed.  Silvia is baffled.  Proteus is a schmuck.  And they all live happily ever after. Come laugh and have a simply wonderful time.

The American Premiere and PCPA Exclusive Production of
My Fairytale
A musical about Hans Christian Andersen
Original idea & concept by FLEMMING ENEVOLD
Music & Lyrics by STEPHEN SCHWARTZ
Book by Phillip LaZebnik
(with Flemming Enevold, Stephen Schwartz, Adam Price & Pierre Westerdahl)
Additional Music & Lyrics by James & Adam Price and The Safri Duo

This American premiere musical from Stephen Schwartz, the award-winning composer of Godspell, Pippin and Wicked, is perfect for the centennial celebration in 2011 of Solvang as a Danish-American community! 

From the darkened stage of the Royal National Theater in 1846, Hans Christian Andersen is launched on an epic adventure through the timeless landscape of his own imagination.  What he discovers there not only changes his life, but the world.   His life’s fairytale, illuminated by beauty and longing, was the genesis for some of the world’s most beloved stories.

My Fairytale was first produced by Flemming Enevold as Mit Eventyr, in 2005 as part of Denmark’s bi-centennial celebration of Andersen’s birth. This gorgeous new musical is both a delightful revelry in the stories from Andersen’s imagination, an enlightening journey into the soul of the artist, and heartfelt celebration of the wonderful influence of the Danish spirit on the world.

The exclusive engagement of My Fairytale will preview in Santa Maria’s Marian Theatre August 12 – 20, 2011, then open under the stars in the Solvang Festival Theater as part of Solvang’s centennial festivities on August 26, playing through September 25, 2011.

Stephen Schwartz career highlights
Stage and Film Credits: Wicked – Godspell – Pippin – Pocahontas - The Hunchback of Notre Dame - The Prince of Egypt – Enchanted - Children of Eden – Working - The Baker’s Wife.
See the associated press release for My Fairytale for more information at www.pcpa.org/myfairytalepr.html

To close the season, Caroline, or Change by Tony Kushner (Angels in America) will play September 1 – 18, 2011 in the Marian Theatre in Santa Maria. In 1963 Louisiana the world rumbles with change, marked by JFK’s assassination, a rising Civil Rights movement and escalation of the Vietnam War.  Caroline Thibodeaux, a divorced African American housemaid irons out a challenging dilemma – to accept loose coins from the pockets of the Gellman family’s laundry and buy her own children a better future or to stay awash in the memories and burdens of the past by returning the money and hanging on to her principles.  What is the price of integrity?  What will it take to keep the change?  Answers resound in the next generation - Emmie, her teenage daughter, and the young Jewish boy, Noah Gellman - who will help Caroline see how to ride the changing tide.  This Tony nominated score features and fuses great American musical styles – gospel, R&B, soul, blues; it swings with power and sings with pride.

Tickets for the 2010-2011 Season go on sale in October.

Still playing this 2010 Summer Season:

West Side Story
July 9 – 25 – Marian Theatre, Santa Maria
July 30 – August 22– Solvang Festival Theater

Songs For a New World
August 6 – 21 – Marian Theatre, Santa Maria
August 27 – September 12– Solvang Festival Theater

Invierno – World Premiere
August 27 – September 19 - Marian Theatre, Santa Maria

Visit www.pcpa.org for tickets and more information.

For the best seating, lowest prices, and exclusive privileges become a season ticket holder. Subscription packages start with as few as 4 plays, or see all 8 throughout the season for the ultimate theatre experience. Call the box office to receive a subscription brochure or email: boxoffice@pcpa.org.

Single tickets go on sale for the 2010 – 2011 season this October.
For tickets for the 2010 Summer Season, call 805-922-8313 between 1 and 7pm Wednesday through Sunday, or purchase single tickets for the current season online anytime at www.pcpa.org.
Information about Group Sales for 12 or more patrons may be obtained by contacting groups@pcpa.org or by calling 1-800-PCPA-123.
Now in its 46th season, PCPA Theaterfest is the Central Coast’s Resident Professional Theatre Company, and has infused the national theatre scene with thousands of trained actors and theatrical technicians over the years in its conservatory.

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The Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts (PCPA) of Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California supports a unique, fully-accredited vocational training program for aspiring actors and theatre technicians. PCPA is the only training program of its kind offered by a community college in the United States.