The Bay Players 2011/2012

In and amidst all of the companies that form the local theatre scene, it can often be easy to forget about one of the greater Milwaukee area’s longest-running theatre traditions. Having staged its first production in March of 1951, The Bay Players have been around for over 60 years now. The company’s 2011-2012 season will be without a musical, which is a disappointment for director Ray Bradford, but the community theatre group does have three shows on the upcoming  season. The company doesn't often call a whole lot of attention to itself, but the new season looks like retro-chic fun.

Here’s a look:

Leading Ladies—Opens September 30^th. It’s a comedy by Ken Ludwig that was recently staged by the Sunset Playhouse n Elm Grove—a fun farcical comedy set somewhere in the heart of the 20^th century. It’s a retro-comedy which debuted relatively recently for a mid-century farce. The plot concerns a couple of Shakespearian actors who try their hands at the art of a con as they pretend to be a couple of relatives of a wealthy woman on her death bed.

Wrong Window—Opens January 9^th. From the author of Love, Sex and the I.R.S. comes a slapstick farce based on the film work of Alfred Hitchcock. Much like the comic stage adaptation of The 39 Steps, Wrong Window uses the framework of a single film (in this case Rear Window) to spoof a great many Hitchcock films including The Birds, Vertigo, Psycho and North By Northwest.

The Wisdom Of Eve—Opens March 30^th. An actress once told fellow actress and writer Mary Orr about letting a female fan work for her as an assistant. Evidently it was a mistake. Orr wrote a story about it that appeared in a 1946 issue of Cosmopolitan. The story got turned into the film All About Eve. After the film adaptation was released, the short story was turned into a distinctly different stage play written by Orr and her husband—playwright Reginald Denham. Sounds interesting.

For more information, call 414-299-9040 or visit the Bay Players online.