2025 Mainstage Season
Our 2025 Season
A Season of Give-and-Take
Everything is a negotiation. Everything is a little bit of give and take. – Lamman Rucker
Give-and-take [noun] 1 : the practice of making mutual concessions : compromise
2 : a usually good-natured exchange (as of ideas or comments)
Our lives are inherently transactional. We trade our labor, our resources, and our emotional investment in any circumstance. It is our response to the circumstances that begs an investigation, as our reaction often determines the next steps. What we hope to gain or inspire in others has everything to do with our offering.
It is vital to examine why we extend specific parts of ourselves and choose to hold other aspects in reserve. And, what do we make of what is laid at our feet versus what we submit for others to take?
This is a pathway towards compassion and understanding, and it is vital in any community that hopes to bring everyone together for the common good. In times such as ours, any example that can be made of considering others' experience and what we can add to improve everyone’s outcomes is a pursuit of the highest order.
In our 14th season, the Cloverdale Playhouse will explore themes of give-and-take. We know so many instances where the relationships and situations dramatized on our stage serve as parable, warning, or inspiration. We believe this is part of what theatre does best, and hope you will find in this upcoming season a broad and entertaining selection of those stories.
The Cloverdale Playhouse community would like to dedicate this season to the memory of our artistic collaborator, mentor, educator, director, accompanist, and dear friend, Randy Foster.
It’s 1929. Two ambitious visionaries race against each other to invent a device called “television.” Separated by two thousand miles, each knows that if he stops working, even for a moment, the other will gain the edge. Who will unlock the key to the greatest innovation of the 20th century: the ruthless media mogul or the self-taught Idaho farm boy?
“The most exciting new play on Broadway... a rousing theatrical experience.” – MTV News
"a firecracker of a play in a fittingly snap, crackle and pop production … the drama has among its many virtues the ability to make you think at the same time that it breaks your heart." – Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times
"vintage Sorkin and crackling prime-time theater . . . breezy and shrewd, smart-alecky and idealistic.” – Linda Winer, Newsday
Time Stands Still focuses on Sarah and James, a photojournalist and a foreign correspondent trying to find happiness in a world that seems to have gone crazy. Theirs is a partnership based on telling the toughest stories, and together, making a difference. But when their own story takes a sudden turn, the adventurous couple confronts the prospect of a more conventional life.
“Mr. Margulies is gifted at creating complex characters through wholly natural interaction, allowing the emotional layers, the long histories, the hidden kernels of conflict to emerge organically. Throughout, his dialogue crackles with bright wit and intelligence. Although TIME STANDS STILL is deceptively modest, consisting of a handful of conversations among just four characters, the range of feeling it explores is wide and deep.” —The New York Times.
“Can you be a dispassionate, uninvolved observer of horrific events, recording them for posterity and still keep a sense of right and wrong, not to mention your sanity? It’s one of several questions getting a workout in TIME STANDS STILL…Insightful writing, the work is smart, stylish, timely and layered with an intriguing seriousness that inspires discussion after the curtain comes down—a rarity these days.” —Associated Press.
Edward Tulane is an expensive toy rabbit made of china. He is loved by a little girl named Abilene, but Edward doesn’t care. He is vain and self-centered. He has no interest in anyone other than himself. On an ocean voyage, Edward is accidentally thrown overboard and sinks to the bottom of the sea. So begins his journey—a journey over which he has no control, for he is a toy rabbit. He can neither move nor speak. As years pass by, Edward meets many different people in many different situations: an older grieving couple who find comfort in Edward’s presence, a hobo and his dog who introduce Edward to a whole community of homeless wanderers, a farmer in need of a scarecrow, a sad little boy and his very ill sister, and finally a doll mender and an old doll who teach Edward an invaluable lesson. Through this miraculous journey, Edward learns what it is to love, what it is to lose that love, and how to find the courage to love again.
“So captivating—such an enchanting show for every age (whether you happen to be accompanied by children or not).” —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times
“Beautifully written story … far more profound exploration of human (and canine) loneliness than you find in most works for children.” —Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
“A testament to the (non)human spirit … an allegory of survival and hope.” —Chicago Reader
Without William Shakespeare, we wouldn’t have literary masterpieces like Romeo and Juliet. But without Henry Condell and John Heminges, we would have lost half of Shakespeare’s plays forever! After the death of their friend and mentor, the two actors are determined to compile the First Folio and preserve the words that shaped their lives. They’ll just have to borrow, beg, and band together to get it done. Amidst the noise and color of Elizabethan London, The Book Of Will finds an unforgettable true story of love, loss, and laughter, and sheds new light on a man you may think you know.
“THE BOOK OF WILL…unequivocally announces Gunderson as a playwright with whom to be reckoned. It is, quite frankly, one of the best plays I have ever seen. It will bring tears of both laughter and sorrow to all but the most jaded audience member’s eyes. It is, in a word, a triumph.” —Boulder Weekly (CO).
“[Gunderson] has peopled the stage with lively, historically based characters…She paints a vivid portrait of the times in language sometimes formal, sometimes poetic and often…contemporary…She also gives a real feel for theater life and what it means to be an actor; you sense this is a work of both scholarship and love…[THE BOOK OF WILL] serves as homage to those who sacrificed to make the first folio happen and to Shakespeare’s magnificent words.” —Westword (CO)
A sequel to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice set two years after the novel ends, Miss Bennet continues the story, only this time with bookish middle-sister Mary as its unlikely heroine. Mary is growing tired of her role as dutiful middle sister in the face of her siblings’ romantic escapades. When the family gathers for Christmas at Pemberley, an unexpected guest sparks Mary’s hopes for independence, an intellectual match, and possibly even love.
“Droll and delicious, MISS BENNET is a charming, confectionary celebration of fan favorite characters from Pride and Prejudice, multi-generationally honoring the legacy of Jane Austen’s humor, playfulness and wit in a warm-spirited holiday theatrical production.” —www.DCMetroTheaterArts.com.
“…a perfectly constructed love story…Given its fizzy comedy, sweet spirit and clean structure,
[MISS BENNET] seems destined to populate future holiday seasons…” —San Francisco Chronicle.
