Tag Archives: drama

The Diary of Anne Frank

A drama by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett

Directed by Sondra Learn
Produced by Chuck Learn

The inspiring World War II story of a Jewish family in hiding.

We bring you this remarkable stage adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary some sixty years after it was first produced on Broadway, and seventy years after the heartbreaking events of 1943 in that legendary attic in Amsterdam during World War II. Enter into the world of Otto and Edith Frank and their family as they strive to maintain a normal life in hiding while the spectre of death lurks only metres away in the Nazi occupied streets below them.

February 7-9*, 14-16*, 20-22 2014
*matinee 2:00 PM

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Suddenly Last Summer

A drama by Tennessee Williams

Directed by Tom Mackan
Produced by Michelle Spanik
Designed by Dani Podetz

Aging Louisiana aristocrat, Violet Venables, plots to silence her traumatized niece Catharine Holly from sullying the family’s honour with her mad tale of the death of cousin Sebastian.

Theatre Burlington’s history of success in Festival-quality plays is lengthy and this enduring tragic drama from Williams’ rich mine of writing will be no exception. As with everything he writes, the truth of the human condition, its troubled relationships, is explored with Williams’ unforgiving honesty and, of course, his famous observant wit. Characters come to brilliant reality and remain lasting in our memories. Performances soar, the stage takes on a life of its own as the aging Louisiana aristocrat, Violet Venables, plots to silence her traumatized niece Catharine Holly from sullying the family’s honour with her mad tale of the death of cousin Sebastian.

It is from this play that the memorable 1959 film, starring Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Montgomery Clift was adapted.

“This short, passionate, intense play combines realism and fantasy, offers suspense and deadly conflict, and contains some of the playwright’s most lyrical dialogue.”
– Theatre Reviews: Drama-logue

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The Miracle Worker

By William Gibson

Directed by Sondra Learn
Produced by Chuck Learn

Who can forget the huge way we were involved as audiences in the 1960s story of Annie Sullivan and the child Helen Keller, together forging an inspiring story of trial and success in 19th century America. A Burlington production with area talent is long overdue, and audiences will be fully rewarded by this immensely challenging play. A must see for the season, to be sure!

Production Dates: April 15-16, 21-23, 28-30 2011

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The Subject was Roses

By Frank D. Gilroy

Directed by Dia Frid
Produced by Michelle Spanik

1964 Pulitzer Prize Play and winner of two Tony Awards, the play is still a persuasive story of a small family after WW2. John and Nettie come to terms with their returning son, whose values and life style are at odds with the familiar ways of their pre-war days. In scenes tender and moving, witty and funny, sharp and incisive, this small and nuclear family seeks to come together in a changing America. Neither sad nor tragic, this is just a wonderfully written story of life and getting along.

Production Dates: September 17-18, 23-25, 30 October 1-2 2010

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Breaking the Code

By Hugh Whitemore
Based on the book Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges

Directed by Tom Mackan
Produced by Michelle Spanik

An exceptional biographical drama about a man who broke too many codes. The eccentric genius Alan Turing played a major role in winning World War II; he broke the complex German code called Enigma, enabling allied forces to foresee German manoeuvres. Since his work was classified top secret for years after the war, no one knew how much was owed to him when he was convicted of breaking another code, one that today would hardly be worth reporting. Turing, who was also the first to conceive of computers, was hounded by overly zealous law enforcement and convicted of a “criminal act”. This play is about who he was, what happened to him and why.

“Powerful, riveting drama.”
– N.Y. Daily News.

“Elegant and poignant.”
– Time Magazine

Production Dates: February 5-6, 11-14*, 18-20 2010
*matinee 2:00 pm

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Copenhagen

A drama by Michael Frayn

Directed by Tom Mackan
Produced by Michelle Spanik

A dramatic account of the meeting in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, in December 1941 between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg during the Nazi occupation of Denmark and Norway. Both Bohr and Heisenberg were famous physicists. Bohr was half Jewish. Heisenberg had been his young protégé. By the 1930s they had become friends and colleagues. Margrethe Bohr was Bohr’s wife, well-educated, mother to his six children, and his assistant in his professional work.

Winner of 2000 Tony Award: Best Broadway Play
Outer Circle Critics Award: Outstanding Broadway Play
New York Drama Critics’ Award: Best Foreign Play

Production Dates: January 30-31, February 5-6-7-8*-12-13-14 2009
*matinee 2:00 pm

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Born Yesterday

By Garson Kanin

Directed by Dia Frid
Produced by Michelle Spanik

The story of junkyard tycoon Harry Brock, who, as the play opens, is checking into a luxury hotel suite where he intends to stay as long as it takes to buy himself a Senator. Accompanying Harry are his cousin-cum-manservant, Eddie, his schyster attorney, Ed Devery, and his longtime cutie pie, a dim-witted doll named Billie Dawn. Besides her obvious recreational value, Billie is useful because she unwittingly serves as a front for Harry’s shady shenanigans, but she’s also embarrassingly ignorant and uncouth. When Paul Verrall, a nosy young reporter for the New Republic, comes sniffing around for a story, Harry puts him off the trail by putting him on the payroll as Billie’s private tutor. In the process of smoothing out the ex-chorus girl’s considerable rough edges, Paul falls hard for Billie and before long, Billie’s eyes are opened, not only to Harry’s dirty deeds, but also to the exhilaration of discovering that she’s got a brain and thanks to Paul, she’s learning how to use it.

Production Dates: February 1-2, 7-10*, 14-16 2008

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Crimes of the Heart

By Beth Henley

Directed by Vincenzo Guerriero
Produced by Chuck Learn

The scene is Hazlehurst, Mississippi, where the three Magrath sisters have gathered to await news of the family patriarch, their grandfather, who is living out his last hours in the local hospital. Lenny, the oldest sister, is unmarried at thirty and facing diminishing marital prospects; Meg, the middle sister, who quickly outgrew Hazlehurst, is back after a failed singing career on the West Coast; while Babe, the youngest, is out on bail after having shot her husband in the stomach. Their troubles, grave and yet, somehow, hilarious, are highlighted by their priggish cousin, Chick, and by the awkward young lawyer who tries to keep Babe out of jail while helpless not to fall in love with her. In the end the play is the story of how its young characters escape the past to seize the future…but the telling is so true and touching and consistently hilarious that it will linger in the mind long after the curtain has descended.

Production Dates: September 14-15, 20-22, 27-29 2007

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Geometry in Venice

A drama by Michael Mackenzie

Directed by Tom Mackan
Produced by Michelle Spanik

A finely crafted play set in Venice in 1880. A young Canadian grad is hired to tutor the son of an outwardly aristocratic family.

Performance Dates: February 2-3, 8-11*, 15-17 2007
*matinee 2:00 pm

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Love Letters

A performance piece by A.R. Gurney

Directed by Yo Mustafa
Produced by Inez Hayes

Tracing the lifelong correspondence of the staid, dutiful lawyer Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and the lively, unstable artist Melissa Gardner, the story of their bittersweet relationship gradually unfolds from what is written — and what is left unsaid — in their letters.

Production Dates: September 16-17, 22-24, 29-30 October 1 2005

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