Gloucester Stage Company, in its 29th season, will present five plays this summer and premiere a new play-reading series on Sunday nights.
Artistic director Eric Engel, in his second season heading the East Main Street theater, announced Gloucester Stage's 2008 season this week.
"This year," Engel said, "we continue to exercise our commitment to developing new work through our Play Reading series — four plays from four distinctly different writers, including our own Israel Horovitz."
Horovitz, founder of the Stage Company, retired as artistic director in 2006.
This summer's plays will feature the return of nationally recognized and accomplished actresses Lindsay Crouse and Nancy E. Carroll, both Cape Ann residents.
Crouse, who has appeared in movies, including "Slapshot," "The Verdict," "House of Games," "Prefontaine" and "The Insider," was nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in "Places in the Heart." She has also had recurring roles on several television series, including "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Law and Order," "Dragnet" and "Providence." Last summer, Crouse appeared at the Stage Company in "The Belle of Amherst" as Emily Dickinson.
Carroll, an Elliot Norton Award-winner from Rockport, has appeared in several plays at Gloucester Stage Company over the years, including "My Old Lady" in 2005 and "Collected Stories" in 2004.
"With a season of engaging plays ranging from delightful to chilling to thought-provoking, we hope to inspire a summer of entertainment and exploration," Engel said.
The plays scheduled for this summer are:
r "Billy Bishop Goes to War" by John Gray and Eric Peterson, from June 5 to 22. This play, set to music, traces Billy Bishop's extraordinary journey, following the heroic World War II fighter pilot down in the trenches, up to the skies, through the halls of Buckingham Palace, and inside the human spirit as he attempts to reconcile his love of flying with the horrors of war.
r "The Enigma Variations" by Eric Emanuel Schmitt, translated by Jeremy Sams, from June 26 to July 13. The play follows journalist Erik Larsen as he is offered an unprecedented interview with Abel Znorko, the larger-than-life author and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
r "Going to St. Ives" by Lee Blessing, from July 17 to Aug. 3. The lives of two powerful women, an affluent English doctor and the mother of an African dictator become irrevocably intertwined in "Going to St. Ives," a juxtaposition of black and white, order and chaos, heroism and hell. The play will star Crouse and Elliot Norton Award-winner Jacqui Parker.
r "Doubt" by John Patrick Shanley, from Aug. 7 to 24. "Doubt" is a morality play about events that may or may not have taken place in a 1964 Bronx convent and refectory. The play features Carroll.
r "The Woman in Black, A Ghost Play" adapted by Stephen Mallatratt from the book by Susan Hill, from Aug. 28 to Sept. 14. This ghost play takes theater-goers on a journey to the secret-filled marshes of Nine Lives Causeway with a lawyer harboring a wrenching fear and an actor hired to help him exorcise his tale.
The Stage Company generally has performances Wednesdays through Sundays, with matinees on Saturdays. Tickets are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors and students. For further information, performance schedule for each play and to purchase tickets, call the Gloucester Stage box office at 978-281-4433 or visit www.gloucesterstage.org. The theater is located at 267 East Main St. in East Gloucester.
The new play reading series will be held Sunday nights at 7. Each reading will be followed by a discussion with the artists and the audience.
The schedule of the reading series will be:
r July 6 — "The Threshing Floor," written and performed by James Ijames. Based on the life and ideas of American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin and directed by Scott Edmiston. Ijames' performance in Gloucester Stage's "Ponies" was acclaimed as one of the best of the 2007 season.
r July 27 — "Sow and Weep" by Nitzan Halperin. A Palestinian law student and an Israeli peace activist must decide how to honor their families, their culture and their own beliefs in this intimate and unconventional exploration of the middle-east conflict. Directed by Judy Braha and featuring Carroll and Anne Gottlieb.
r Aug. 17 — "The Hotel Plays" by Israel Horovitz. Six new postage-stamp plays, all with Horovitz's trademark blend of comedy and drama. Directed by Horovitz and featuring Ted Reinstein of WCVB TV's "Chronicle." Reinstein starred in the world premiere of Horovitz's hit play, "North Shore Fish," in 1986, the first play produced in Gloucester Stage's current home.
r Sept. 7 — "His Master's Voice" by Frederic Kimball. A family tries everything, including a beautiful Romanian cellist, to lure their engineer father out of his basement laboratory. Culture, religion and science collide in this poignant family comedy directed by David Wheeler and featuring his son, Lewis Wheeler.
The suggested donation for each reading is $20. For reservations, contact the Gloucester Stage box office at 978-281-4433 or visit www.gloucesterstage.org.
