'VANYA AND SONIA', GODSPELL, THE OTHER PLACE and More Set for Trustus Theatre's 30th Season

Trustus Theatre announced their 30th Anniversary season to a standing-room crowd at Tapps Arts Center on June 5th, 2014. Managing Director Larry Hembree and Artistic Director Dewey Scott-Wiley revealed the shows coming to the Thigpen Main Stage and Richard and Debbie Cohn Side Door Theatre in the 2014/2015 Season. This season is celebration of the tenants that have made Trustus the premiere professional theatre in Columbia: producing diverse modern theatre and original works with the highest quality casts.

Trustus Theatre is located at 520 Lady Street, behind the Gervais St. Publix. Parking is available on Lady St. and on Pulaski St. The Main Stage entrance is located on the Publix side of the building.

For more information or reservations call the box office Tuesdays through Saturdays 1-6 pm at 803-254-9732. Visit www.trustus.org for all show information and season information.

Trustus Theatre's 30th Anniversary Season:

THE THIGPEN MAINSTAGE:

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

Sept 12, 2014 - Sept 27, 2014

A play by Christopher Durang

Directed by Jim O'Connor

Vanya and Sonia have never left the confines of their childhood home in Bucks County, PA, while their sister Masha has been gallivanting around the world as a successful actress. A surprise visit from Masha and her 20-something boy toy, Spike, throws the normally quiet household into utter upheaval as its residents and visitors get swept up in an intoxicating mixture of lust, rivalry, regret, and the sudden possibility of escape. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a hilarious adaptation of Chekhov themes (that doesn't require familiarity with Chekhov).

AWARDS:

2013 Tony Award for Best Play - 2013 Drama Desk Award for Best Play - 2013 Outer Critic's Award for Best New Broadway Play

A Christmas Carol

Nov 21, 2014 - Dec 20, 2014

Based on the novel by Charles Dickens, A new adaptation by Patrick Barlow

Directed by Chad Henderson

Our popular holiday offering from last season returns! You'll be entranced as five actors perform all the characters of Charles Dickens' classic story and create a live musical score on stage in a re-imagined production that had audiences and critics raving. Ebenezer scrooge is a wealthy miser who has neither love for humankind nor any holiday cheer. His clerk Bob Cratchit works in a cold corner of the office just to make ends meet for his family, especially his ailing son Tiny Tim. When Scrooge is visited by his deceased business partner Jacob Marley, a night of haunts begins as spirits take Scrooge to the past, present, and future in an attempt to show him the good in humanity and charity.

In the Red and Brown Water

Jan 23, 2015 - Feb 7, 2015

A Play by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Directed by Chad Henderson

In the Red and Brown Water is the first in a trilogy called "The Brother/Sister Plays" and is an unexpected story that charts a young girl's thrust into womanhood. Oya yearns to leave her hometown in Louisiana and become a track star, however she gives up an opportunity to be a college athlete in order to stay with her loving mother. She marries a mechanic named Ogun, but her old love Shango returns to the United States from the Middle East. With many around her standing in her way, how far will the fast and beautiful Oya go to make a mark in the world? This beautifully poetic script and inventive production will be one-of-a-kind experience for Columbia audiences.

Godspell

Mar 27, 2015 - Apr 11, 2015

Based on the Gospel of Saint Matthew with Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and Book by John-Michael Tebelak

Directed by Dewey Scott Wiley

Based on the Gospel According to St. Matthew, a small group of people help Jesus Christ tell different parables by using a wide variety of games, storytelling techniques, and hefty dose of comic timing. An eclectic blend of songs ranging in style from pop to vaudeville is employed as the story of Jesus's life dances across the stage. Dissolving hauntingly into the Last Supper and the Crucifixion, Jesus's messages of kindness, tolerance, and love come vibrantly to life.

AWARDS:

1977 Tony Award Nominee for Best Original Score - 1971 Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Composer - 1971 Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Lyricist

Other Desert Cities

May 8, 2015 - May 23, 2015

A play by Jon Robin Baitz

Directed by Jim Thigpen

OTHER DESERT CITIES is the story of a once promising novelist, who returns home after a six year absence to celebrate Christmas in Palm Springs with her parents, (former leading Republicans) and her eccentric liberal aunt. When the novelist announces she is about to publish a memoir focusing on an explosive chapter in the family's history, the holiday reunion is thrown into turmoil as the family struggles to come to terms with their past. In this family, secrets are everything. You'll be on the edge of your seat as their mystery unfolds.

AWARDS:

2012 Tony Award Nominee for Best Play -- 2012 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama

Dreamgirls

Jun 26, 2015 - Aug 1, 2015

Book and Lyrics by Tom Eyen and Music by Henry Krieger

Directed by Terrance Henderson

The time is the 1960s, and singers Effie, Lorrell, and Deena are about to find out just what it's like to have their wildest dreams come true. Discovered at a local talent show by ambitious manager Curtis Taylor Jr., the trio known as "the Dreamettes" is soon offered the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of opening for popular singer James "Thunder" Early. Subsequently molded into an unstoppable hit machine by Taylor and propelled into the spotlight as "the Dreams," the girls quickly find their bid for the big time taking priority over personal friendship as Taylor edges out the ultra-talented Effie so that the more beautiful Deena can become the face of the group. Now, as the crossover act continues to dominate the airwaves, the small-town girls with big-city dreams slowly begin to realize that the true cost of fame may be higher than any of them ever anticipated.

AWARDS:

1982 Drama Desk Award for Best Book -1982 Tony Award for Best Book -

1983 Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album

New Playwrights' Festival Winner

Aug 21, 2015 - Aug 29, 2015

THE RICHARD & DEBBIE COHN TRUSTUS SIDE DOORE THEATRE:

The Other Place

Oct 17, 2014 - Nov 1, 2014 or Oct 24, 2014 - Nov 8, 2014

A play by Sharr White

Directed by Jim O'Connor

Juliana Smithton is a successful neurologist whose life seems to be coming unhinged. Her husband has filed for divorce, her daughter has eloped with a much older man and her own health is in jeopardy. Piece by piece, a mystery unfolds as fact blurs with fiction, past collides with present and the elusive truth about Juliana boils to the surface.

Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays

Jan 3, 2015 - Jan 17, 2015

A collection of plays by Mo Gaffney, Jordan Harrison, Moisés Kaufman, Neil LaBute, Wendy MacLeod, José Rivera, Paul Rudnick, and Doug Wright, Conceived by Brian Shnipper

Directed by Elena Martínez-Vidal

Two little words, and suddenly your whole world changes. An A-list lineup of writers offers unique takes on the moments before, during and after "I do." Witty, warm and occasionally wacky, these plays are vows to the blessings of equality, the universal challenges of relationships and the often hilarious power of love.

You Better Sit Down: Tales from My Parents' Divorce

Feb 27, 2015 - Mar 14, 2015

A Play by Anne Kauffman, Matthew Maher, Caitlin Miller, Jennifer R. Morris, Janice Paran, and Robbie Collier Sublett

Directed by Scott Herr

Crafted from interviews between the cast and their own parents, YOU BETTER SIT DOWN is a heartbreaking and hilarious account of the parents' marriages and their subsequent divorces. These delicate parent-child conversations have yielded unique insights into falling in love, falling out of love, and rebuilding a life after the complex experience of dividing a family. The show explores each couple's first meeting, the ups and downs of their marriage, their split, and the surprising perspectives on life after divorce. This provocative show reveals the stories behind the statistics of one of the most prominent social phenomena of our time.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob

May 29, 2015 - Jun 13, 2015

Directed by Dewey Scott Wiley

During the roaring '20s, New York stockbroker Bill Wilson rides high on money, fame, and booze. In '29, both he and the market crash and he becomes a hopeless drunk. Dr. Bob Smith, a surgeon in Akron, Ohio, and a pillar of the community, has been a secret drunk for thirty years, often going into the operating room hungover and high on sedatives. His family has tried everything to no avail. Through an astonishing series of events involving doctors, ministers, the Oxford Group evangelical movement, and Henrietta Sieberling a scion of the Goodyear Rubber fortune, Bill and Bob meet on Mother's Day of 1935. The two men form a relationship which keeps each sober. Fired up, they seek out a third drunk to see if their program will work for others. Richly textured with the ragtime and jazz of the era, the play tells a magnificent American success story.

AWARDS:

2010 Regional British Columbia Drama Festival Winner for Best Play