Opening Night of Circle Players' PICNIC Set for 3/26

In its 65th season, Middle Tennessee's oldest community theater company presents an exciting and challenging new revival of playwright William Inge's seminal 1953 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about repressed desires and haunting recriminations: Picnic.

Opening Thursday, March 26, at Hillsboro High School Theatre in Nashville, Picnic runs through April 4.

When a sensual heartbreaker strides into town just in time for the summer-ending Labor Day picnic in Independence, Kansas, he upends the preconceived notions of what passes for life among the denizens of the small town. Hal Carter (played by Taylor Novak, making his Circle Players debut) walks into the shared backyard of Flo Owens (Kaul Williams Bluestone, 1996 First Night Award winner and Circle Players' Best Actress for Dancing at Lughnasa) and Helen Potts (Tammy Sutherland, also in her first Circle show), all bluster and bravado, masking his sensitivity and turning the heads of every woman in the neighborhood, setting in motion a series of events that will forever change the lives of everyone gathered to celebrate the last blush of summer.

There's Madge Owens (2013 First Night Most Promising Actor Gina D'Arco), Flo's oldest daughter and the town beauty who is dating Hal's former fraternity brother, Alan Seymour (Austin Olive, fresh from his role as Houdini in Circle's Ragtime and in ACT 1's Fifth of July); Millie Owens (University School of Nashville student McKenna Harrington, a 2015 First Night Most Promising Actor), Flo's quirky and bookish younger daughter who dreams of a writer's life in the big city; and Flo's tenant, Rosemary Sidney (Cat Arnold, veteran Circle actress whose next role will take her to Pull-Tight Players' Catch Me If You Can), the high school business teacher whose desperation and longing for a more exciting life coincides with the appearance of the sexy drifter.

Audiences also will meet Rosemary's "friend-boy" Howard Bevans (played by Tom Clouse in his Circle debut), the town paperboy (Connor Hall, most recently seen in Murfreesboro Little Theatre's Hamlet and who is cast in ACT 1's upcoming Take Me Out) with a crush on the beautiful Madge...and three of Rosemary's fellow teachers: Irma Kronkite (Nashville theater favorite Judy Jackson); Christine Schoenwalder (2015 First Night Most Promising Actor Rebekah Stogner) and Alvah Jackson (Laura Rader, in her stage debut). David Ditmore provides the voice of the local radio DJ.

Special live performances of "Moonglow", the theme from Picnic, will highlight intermission during each performance and will feature Memory Strong, David Arnold, Melissa Garner Campbell, Bobby Milford, Brooke Leigh Davis and Melissa Dawn Elkins Vinson at different performances.

Director Jeffrey Ellis (senior contributing editor for BroadwayWorld.com and the award-winning director of Circle Players' La Cage Aux Folles, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Gypsy, Damn Yankees, The Rocky Horror Show and An American Daughter and ACT 1's Company) has set Inge's still relevant drama in 1952, inspired by the films of Douglas Sirk (Imitation of Life) and set to a score of the best songs from that year.

William Inge's Picnic is produced by Andie Sanders, Vickie Bailey and Ramona Pope Richards. Emily Faith is production stage manager, with Eric Ventress as assistant stage manager. Jacob Street is design director and scenic designer, with Dan L Hayes as costume designer, Andie Sanders as properties designer and Charley Hubbs as sound designer. Lauri Gregoire, who serves as associate producer of The First Night Honors and is owner of Bellevue Dance Center, choreographs the dance between Hal and Madge that sets the mood for Act 2.

William Inge's Picnic is presented by Circle Players at Hillsboro High School Auditorium and runs March 26-April 4 (with performances on March 26, 27 and 28 at 7:30 p.m., March 29 at 2 p.m., April 1, 3 and 4 at 7:30 p.m.). For further details, go to www.CirclePlayers.net.