The announcement was low-key, but the buzz is in the air as St. Albert Dinner Theatre prepares for its upcoming 2023-24 season.
Approaching its 12th season, the niche community theatre’s lineup aims to provide a tasty buffet and an evening chock full of laughs. Over the River and Through the Woods launches in November. Once into the New Year, Nana’s Naughty Knickers turns gloomy February into a giggle fest. The season wraps up with the slapstick-laced Lend Me a Tenor in April.
“We’re very excited about introducing a higher calibre of plays this season and we’re very thankful for everyone’s support this past year. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without the massive support we received,” said board president Donna Beeston.
Playwright Joe DiPietro’s situational comedy Over the River and Through the Woods invites audiences to step into the home of the Cristiano family. Nick is a modern professional living in New York City. But every Sunday he visits both sets of Italian-American grandparents in New Jersey for a family meal.
Everyone is loud, loving and affectionate. But Nick is single, and the grandparents would like to see him married and raising a family. The elderly matchmakers even invite a lovely nurse, Caitlin O’Hare, for Sunday dinner. But they are unaware Nick has been offered a job across the country.
“This play is not so much about ethnicity as it is about family and how relationships develop. It’s about how families get together and interact. I even see things from my own family in this play,” Beeston said.
The theatre troupe’s biggest show of season is Katherine DiSavino’s Nana’s Naughty Knickers with nine characters ranging from a naïve cop and belligerent landlord to a saucy dominatrix and a ditsy best friend.
Set in a rent-controlled apartment, Bridget, a young law student, is set to spend the summer with her favourite grandma, who is 83 years old. When Bridget stumbles into the senior’s hidden room, she discovers Nana is secretly running a business of handmade sexy lingerie for the 60-plus crowd.
“We’ve been wanting to do this play for quite a while. It was brought to us by one of our members,” Beeston said. “Everybody sees a little bit of themselves in it, and the interactions are hilarious.”
The final production is Ken Ludwig’s slapstick farce Lend Me Tenor. Winner of nine Tony Awards, it follows the misadventures of a Tito Morelli, a world-famous Italian tenor who arrives at the Cleveland Grand Opera Company to sing the lead role in Pagliacci.
After arriving at his hotel, Tito takes a double dose of medicine to relax and falls into such a dormant state he is presumed dead. Throw in a hot-headed Italian wife, a girl with a crush on Tito, a bellboy with dreams of singing opera, mistaken identities and door slamming, and it is the perfect recipe for comedic disaster.
Tickets for a three-show subscription package go on sale Saturday, July 1. Tickets are normally $65; however, early bird sales receive a 20 per cent discount. Single ticket sales go sale Thursday, Aug. 31. Call 780-222-0101 or online at www.stalberttheatre.com.
