Idaho Repertory Theatre 2010 Summer Season

June 28 - August 1, 2010
University of Idaho Indoor & Outdoor Hartung Theaters
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin

Produced in collaboration with Coeur D’Alene Summer Theatre, this Tony Award-winning musical comedy, six young people in the throes of puberty, overseen by grown-ups who barely managed to escape childhood themselves, learn that winning isn’t everything and that losing doesn’t necessarily make you a loser.

With adult actors portraying awkward junior high school spelling bee contestants, this hilarious tale of overachievers’ angst chronicles the experience of six outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime! Featuring amusing songs such as “My Friend the Dictionary,” “Magic Foot,” and “I Always Come In Second,” 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will bring back many of those endearing memories of adolescence. For this quirky yet charming cast of outsiders, the spelling bee is the one place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time.
(PG-13)


As You Like It
by William Shakespeare

In this symmetrical Shakespeare, life and love are echoed in art. It is a true pastoral love story, played out, under the Palouse stars. In the story, Duke Senior has been banished to the Forest of Arden by his tyrannous Brother, Fredrick. Rosalind, Senior’s daughter, remains at court with her cousin Celia where she falls in love at first sight with Orlando. Fearing Rosalind’s gentle power over people and her rekindled passion for her father’s banishment, Duke Fredrick banishes her as well. In disguise as a boy, along with Celia and Touchstone, the court clown, they journey to Arden.

Orlando fearing the malice of his brother also flees to the forest. Rosalind and Orlando meet again, this time with freedom to discover their true selves. It is this pursuit of love, of perfection, and of beauty that leads us on. This essence is a rapture that settles upon the conclusion of this play and suggests that rare and true love is that love which sustains us even though “summers lease hath all too short a date”.
(PG-13)


The Dining Room
by A.R. Gurney

This comedy of manners is set in the dining room of a typical well-to-do household, the place where the family assembled daily for breakfast and dinner and for any and all special occasions. Creating a veritable mosaic of interrelated scenes, actors change roles, personalities and ages as they portray a wide variety of characters, from little boys to stern grandfathers, and from giggling teenage girls to Irish housemaids.

Each vignette introduces a new set of people and events; a father lectures his son on grammar and politics; a boy returns from boarding school to discover his mother’s infidelity; a senile grandmother doesn’t recognize her own sons at Christmas dinner; and a daughter, her marriage in shambles, pleads futilely to return home. Dovetailing swiftly and smoothly, the scenes coalesce, ultimately, into a theatrical experience of exceptional range, compassionate humor and abundant humanity.
(PG-13)


You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown
Book, Music and Lyrics by Clark Gesner

A touching and comical look at “an average day in the life of Charlie Brown” - a day made up of little moments picked from all the days of Charlie Brown, from Valentine’s Day to the baseball season, from wild optimism to utter despair, all mixed in with the lives of his friends (both human and non-human) and strung together on the string of a single day, from bright uncertain morning to hopeful starlit evening.

This heartwarming musical portrays some of the most memorable scenes and characters from Charles M. Schulz’s “Peanuts” comic strip such as spirited Lucy and her sensitive musician boyfriend Schroeder, Linus and his beloved blanket, sweet and innocent Patty, and the always-entertaining and fantastical thoughts of Charlie Brown’s dog, Snoopy. Featuring such songs as “My Blanket and Me,” “The Kite,” “The Doctor is In,” “Red Baron,” and “Glee Club Rehearsal,” Charlie Brown is sure to be a hit for the “young at heart” regardless of their physical age!
(G)