Dan's Papers - October 5, 2007 - The 23rd Season of the Hampton Theatre Company

The Hampton Theatre Company will begin its 23rd season this month at the Quogue Community Hall. Once again the company will present four plays over the course of the season, which runs from October to June. The plays, chosen by the company for the excellence of their writing, their commentary on the human condition and their power to resonate with and entertain theater audiences, run the gamut from gripping drama to sidesplitting comedy, and from famous to lesser known. The season opens on October 11 with John Patrick Shanley's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play, Doubt. A gripping story about the dangers of moral certainty in the wake of suspicion, and subsequent allegations, regarding a priest's relationship with a young student. Next, opening January 10, will be David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, a scalding and often comedic examination of cutthroat competition among real estate salesmen. By many considered Mamet's finest work and renowned for its exquisite use of language, Glengarry Glen Ross won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play runs through January 27. Opening March 27, the HTC will present The Oldest Living Graduate by Preston Jones, an extremely funny and touching tale about a lovable and cantankerous old Southern colonel whose spirit remains unbowed to the end. Preston Jones was an actor, director and playwright with the Dallas Theater Center who wrote The Oldest Living Graduate as part of the Texas Trilogy which made its way from Dallas to the Kennedy Center and finally to a successful run on Broadway in 1976. The HTC production runs through April 13. Finally, opening May 29 and running through June 15, we will present a hilarious backstage farce about an aging leading couple on tour in the provinces, Ken Ludwig's "Moon Over Buffalo."

The Hampton Theatre Company is now offering season subscriptions and taking reservations for Doubt with John Patrick Shanley's Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play Doubt, a Parable. The play, by the author of numerous plays but who is perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning screenplay for the movie Moonstruck.

Doubt has a cast of four actors. In the pivotal roles of accusing nun Sister Aloysius Beauvier and accused priest Father Brendan Flynn are Mary-Alyce Vienneau and Joe Pallister. Ms. Vienneau has appeared in numerous productions across the East End including The Price, The Heiress (in the role Cherry Jones would later play in the Broadway revival), The Rainmaker, A View From the Bridge and Steel Magnolias with the Hampton Theatre Company. In Doubt, she is playing the role that Cherry Jones earned raves for in the award-winning Broadway premiere of the play. Mr. Pallister appeared most recently in Sag Harbor in Brilliant Traces and has performed with the HTC in each of their Tennessee Williams productions, as Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire and as John Buchanan, Jr. in Summer and Smoke. Joining them are two newcomers to the HTC if not to the stage, Lauren Murray and Eve West. Ms. Murray plays the role of Sister James, a young nun torn between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn, and Ms. West plays Mrs. Muller, the mother of the child at the center of the dispute. Ms. West has appeared in several productions with the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor and played Ariel in The Tempest at Guild Hall. Michael Disher, well-known for his many years of teaching and directing at Southampton College, joins the HTC for the first time as the director of Doubt. Over his 30-year career he has directed, designed and/or choreographed over 150 productions including more than 40 at the college. The set of Doubt is by Peter Marbury with lighting by Sebastian Paczynski and costumes by Teresa Lebrun. Sarah Hunnewell produces. Doubt will be performed from October 11 through October 28 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $22 for adults, $20 for seniors (on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays) and $10 for students under 21. Group discounts and season subscriptions are available on request.