PCPA Theaterfest’s 2011-2012 Season to Feature First Ever Co-Production

PCPA's 48th season includes a broad selection of brilliant literary masterpieces that will shake its audiences out of the ordinary. In addition to a season of comedies, musicals, and drama, two of the region's leading professional theatre companies will, for the first time, join forces to produce a sparkling new musical that will be presented in four Central Coast venues in 2012.

It's a season of soul-searching drama, jaw-dropping humor, and spirit-lifting musicals, presented as only PCPA can. It's more of the terrific artistry Central Coast audiences have come to expect from their resident professional theatre company for the past 48 seasons. Artistic Director Mark Booher said the coming season will serve up a sumptuous banquet of productions. "I hope you will find that this rich season is beyond entertaining. The theatre is not just one of life's appetizers or dessert. It is the main course and you'll want to savor every flavor in the season. We're sure these plays will be intensely pleasurable -- designed to touch, inspire, and thrill to the core."

PCPA opens the curtains on its 2011-2012 season with the wonderful holiday masterpiece, A Christmas Carol. This song-filled adaptation of Dickens' classic tale reawakens the true spirit of Christmas in a heart-stirring Carol of profound beauty and redemption. It plays in the Marian Theatre November 10 - December 23, 2011. PCPA's production of A Christmas Carol is adapted by Richard Hellesen with original music and lyrics by David De Berry and orchestrations by Gregg Coffin.

PCPA Theaterfest and Ventura's Rubicon Theatre Company are pleased to announce their first co-production, the West Coast premiere of Hello! My Baby. From Golden Globe and Emmy-Award winning writer Cheri Steinkellner, award-winning composer Georgia Stitt, and a dream-team of great American songwriters, comes a riotous musical comedy that reboots Berlin, Gershwin, Kern and a score of others; smartly weaving their updated hits into a timely romantic farce for all ages.

Over the course of six months it will play in four Central Coast venues in 2012:
Santa Maria's Marian Theatre February 16 - March 11, 2012
Ventura's Rubicon Theatre March 28 - April 15, 2012
Santa Barbara's Lobero Theatre April 25 - 29, 2012
Solvang's Festival Theater June 14 - July 1, 2012

In March, the Tony and Drama Critics' award winning drama, All My Sons by Arthur Miller, plays in the Severson Theatre March 8 - 25. It's a powerful story about social responsibility and personal trust in a stirring portrait of an American family smashed apart in a collision of ethics, loyalties, and love.

Poetry and tragedy make up Shakespeare's most famous love story, Romeo and Juliet, which plays in the Marian Theatre April 19 - May 13. In a world ripped apart by passions of brawling love and loving hate, two star-crossed lovers find each other in a love too pure for this hard world to keep.

With the arrival of summer 2012 PCPA Theaterfest presents a comedy by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Rivals. It runs in the Marian Theatres June 21 - 30 then under the stars July 5 - 22. Sheridan's masterpiece of satire surrounds us with a symphony of exuberant laughter, youth and romance, played out with wit and wisdom in 18th Century Bath. If you laughed at The Importance of Being Earnest and loved Pride and Prejudice, get ready to laugh and fall in love again!

Fresh off its National Tour is Legally Blonde, the Musical playing July 6 - 22, in the Marian Theatre then July 27 - August 19, in the Solvang Festival Theater. The star of UCLA's Delta Nu, Elle Woods, proves once and for all that girl power can change the future! Against the odds, she moves to the head of class, and the top of the firm, with her charm, Chihuahua and the classic bend and snap! Elle realizes, and America will too, that brain power is as potent as being a blonde in a pink dress!

The musical hit, Daddy Long Legs, rolls into town for a run in the Marian Theatre August 1 - 19 then in the open air Solvang Festival Theatre August 23 - September 9. At the turn of the 20th century, Jerusha Abbott, an orphan, is given a chance to blossom in mind and spirit through the generousity of an anonymous benefactor. This musical adaptation of Jean Webster's 1912 popular novel explores the nature of friendship and independence and how that changes forever, giver and recipient.

Closing the 2011-2012 season is the classic masterpiece by Anton Chekhov, Three Sisters. It will play in the Severson Theatre September 6 - 30. Chekhov's brilliant tragi-comedy invites us to provincial 19th Century Russia, and paints a portrait of a family in crisis and a world in transition. His belief in a dynamic future with all its possibilities is tempered by the harsh light of day, and a duel.

InterPlay a Festival of New Plays in a play reading format will return in 2012, dates and titles are TBD.

Tickets for the 2011-2012 Season go on sale October 12.
Visit www.pcpa.org for tickets and more information.

For the best seating, lowest prices, and exclusive privileges become a season ticket holder. Subscription packages start with as few as 4 plays, or see all 8 throughout the season for the ultimate theatre experience. Also available is the VIP Subscription for just $20 a month. With the VIP Membership and the 7-8 play subscription - besides all the mainstage productions - you also receive special invitations to behind the scenes events in the PCPA Conservatory.
Call the box office - (805) 922-8313 - between 12:30 and 7pm Wednesday through Sunday for tickets and information.

Information about Group Sales for 12 or more patrons may be obtained by contacting kstegall@pcpa.org or by calling 928-7731 ext 4150 or 1-800-727-2123