Brecksville Theatre unveils 2019 lineup

by Kathleen Steele Gaivin

By popular demand, The Brecksville Theatre is back for the 2019 season.

“The stage in Brecksville’s historic Old Town Hall [49 Public Square] has certainly come to life over its inaugural year,” Managing Director Michele Bender said.

Bender said the theater has not only given Brecksville residents the opportunity to foster their own art, but has provided forums for the public to express their programming desires via a patron survey sent out last spring, community meetings and informal dialogue.

“With knowledge and positive attitudes, constant monitoring and evaluation, the 2019 season has been developed based upon community interest,” Bender said.

Although former artistic director Bruce Orendorf resigned last February, the shows will go on. Bender said the rest of the theater staff absorbed Orendorf’s responsibilities, and there are no plans to replace him.

The 2019 season will begin Feb. 8-17 with “Bright Ideas,” by local playwright Eric Coble, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and raised on the Navajo and Ute reservations in New Mexico and Colorado. He is a member of the Playwrights’ Unit of the Cleveland Play House.

The comedy follows two parents obsessed with getting their child into the best preschool. Beth Alane Gaiser and Robert Kowalewski will play the lead roles as the driven couple. Braelin Andrzejewski, Molly Clay, Jeanne Madison and Wesley Roj play supporting roles of the small cast.

Extra! Extra! “Newsies” will come to the Brecksville stage March 29-April 14. Set in turn-of-the century New York City, the comedy tells the tale of the real newsboy strike of 1899, which changed the way Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst compensated the rag-tag child employees of the newspaper business.

The spring series will continue May 17-18 with the theater’s traveling education series show, “Ivy & Bean the Musical,” based on the book by Annie Barrows. Two mischievous second-grade heroines – quiet, bookish Ivy and outgoing Bean – plot their antics onstage.

Brecksville Theatre will return Aug. 23-Sept. 2 with the Tennessee Williams classic melodrama “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Follow troubled Blanche as she leaves behind her life in small-town Mississippi and moves in with her sister Stella in post-World War II New Orleans.

Lively comedy mixed with upbeat music takes the stage Sept. 27-Oct. 13 as “Sister Act” comes to the community theater. Based on the film starring Whoopi Goldberg, the play portrays a woman hiding in a convent. She helps her fellow sisters find their voices as she rediscovers her own.

The performance year will draw to a close Nov. 1-17 with “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” The Herdmans are the worst kids the world has ever known. They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear and hit little kids. They have never heard the Christmas story. It is no surprise that when the Herdmans crash Sunday school and demand parts in the Christmas pageant, the whole town panics.

“For theater-goers and new visitors alike, be ready to fall in love with the thrill of live theater,” Bender said. “We are always looking for anyone who has any ideas for adult or children’s classes, camps or intensives.” Proposals can be submitted to admin@thebrecksvilletheatre.org. For more information about the upcoming season, visit thebrecksvilletheatre.org.

Featured image photo caption: The full cast of local playwright Eric Coble’s “Bright Ideas” rehearses. From l-r, Jeanne Madison, Wesley Rog, Molly Clay, Braelin Andrzewski, Beth Gaiser and Robert Kowalewski. Photo by J. Kananian