ANNIE, ASSASSINS, et al. Set for Santa Rosa's 6th Street Playhouse 2010-2011 Season

Santa Rosa's 6th Street Playhouse announces its 2010-2011 "All-American" season featuring four musicals and eight plays. The twelve-show season offers a wide variety of Theater Productions, from Aug. 13, 2010 through June 26, 2011, including family musicals, comedies, American classics and two world premieres.

6th Street Playhouse also presents "off season" productions in its Studio Theatre including "Solofest of the West," (set to begin Aug. 6, 2010) which will showcase stories from the Bay Area's most popular solo playwrights-performers. Featured will be David Templeton in "Wretch Like Me," Matthew Kerns performing his critically acclaimed "Chicken" and Sarah Abbey in "The Weight Game." A comedy series is also planned. "Comedy Tonight" will feature comedies by five great American Playwrights - "A Sermon," by David Mamet, "Workout," by Wendy Wasserstein, "Your Mother's Butt," by Allan Ball, "Variations on the Death of Trosk," by David Ives and "An Actors Nightmare," by Christopher Durang.

The 6th Street Playhouse is located in a converted 100-year old cannery featuring two state-of-the-art theaters and is located in the historic Railroad
Square district of downtown Santa Rosa.

Season subscriptions and single tickets for the 2010-2011 season are available for purchase by calling 707-523-4185 or visit the website at
www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

Here's are the 6th Street Playhouse productions planned for the coming year:

Aug. 13 to Sept . 12, 2010
"Annie"
Music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, book by Thomas Meehan
Directed by Keith Baker
G.K. HARDT THEATRE

Leapin' lizards! The 6th Street Playhouse pulls "Annie" straight from the newspaper comics with all the favorite characters and a set design that brings the comic strip to life. One of Broadway's beloved Broadway musicals, "Annie" is based on the 1930's comic strip, featuring the spunky depression-era orphan, "Little Orphan Annie." Follow Annie's adventures when she runs away from the orphanage and sets out to find her parents who abandoned her years ago on a doorstep in New York City. Along the way Annie adopts a lovable mutt named Sandy and eventually finds a happy family life at the home of billionaire Oliver Warbucks. "Annie" won the Tony Award for Best Musical with its memorable songs "Tomorrow" and "It's the Hard-Knock Life."

Oct. 1 to Oct. 24, 2010
"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf"
By Edward Albee
Directed by Matthew Kerns
G.K. HARDT THEATRE

This winner of the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play tells the story of George, a professor at a small college, and his wife, Martha. They have just returned home, drunk from a Saturday night party. Martha Announces, amidst general profanity, that she has invited a young couple-an opportunistic new professor at the college and his shatteringly naïve new bride-to stop by for a nightcap. When they arrive the charade begins.

Oct. 8 to Oct. 24, 2010
"Becoming Walt Whitman" - World Premiere

By David Beckman
Directed by David Lear
Studio Theatre

A heartfelt, intelligent and moving look at the early life of Walt Whitman, BECOMING Walt Whitman explores the unique ingredients of nature and nurture that play upon young Walt inspiring him to become America's greatest transcendental poet.

Nov. 12 to Dec. 12, 2010
"1940's Radio Hour"

By Walton Jones
Directed by Laurie Glowdowski
G.K. HARDT THEATRE

Take a musical sentimental journey to a bygone era as you experience this "live" radio broadcast from the Hotel Astor's Algonquin Room on
December 21, 1942. The spirit of that era, when the world was at war and pop music meant "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," "Have Yourself A Merry
Little Christmas," and "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" (all of which are in the show), is wonderfully captured. Full of 1940s big-band music, swing
dancing, patriotism and old-fashioned sound effects, THE 1940'S RADIO HOUR is a holiday treat for the whole family you won't want to miss.

Nov. 26 to Dec. 19, 2010
"Ham for the Holidays"

By Shad Willingham
Directed by Shad Willingham
Studio Theatre

Set on Christmas Eve in a small radio station (WHAM) in Georgia (circa 1940), a group of actors await the arrival of Orson Wells who is scheduled
to make a guest appearance on their broadcast. This bright new holiday comedy played to sold out houses last season.

Jan. 7 to Jan. 23, 2011
"Art"

By Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton
Directed by Jennifer King
Studio Theatre

Set in Paris, the story revolves around three friends-Serge, Marc and Yvan-who find their previously solid 15-year friendship on shaky ground
when Serge buys an expensive painting. The canvas is white, with a few white lines. Hilarity and smart wit ensue. Written by the author of the
2009 Tony Award winning, GOD OF CARNAGE. Co-production with Napa Valley College. Starring: Tim Kniffin** & Dodds Delzell. ** (** members
of Actors Equity Association).

Jan. 14 to Feb. 13, 2011
"Assassins"

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by John Weidman Bold
Directed by Matthew Kerns
G.K. HARDT THEATRE

Original, surreal, disturbing, thought provoking, and alarmingly funny, Assassins is perhaps the most controversial musical ever written. This most
American of musicals lays bare the lives of nine individuals who assassinated or tried to assassinate the President of the United States, in a
one-act historical "revusical" that explores the dark side of the American experience. From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman bend the rules of time and space, taking us on a nightmarish roller coaster ride in which assassins and
would-be assassins from different historical periods meet, interact and in an intense final scene inspire each other to harrowing acts in the name of
the American Dream.

Feb. 11, 2011 to Feb. 27, 2011
"Intimate Apparel"

By Lynn Nottage
Directed by Matthew Kerns
Studio Theatre

"Intimate Apparell" is a moving human-interest story in the early 1900s, where a talented African-American designer creates intimate apparel for
New York Society Ladies and Prostitutes alike. Her life becomes romantically intertwined with her clientele, challenging the sexual taboos of the
age. "Each of the six characters of Lynn Nottage's multi-award winning play, wear emotional underpinnings of race, class, education, hope, or
despair, that impel their actions." -- Steppenwolf Theater. Part of Black History Month

March 4 to March 27, 2011
"The Final Scene" - World Premiere

By Gene Abravaya
Director-TBA
G.K. HARDT THEATRE

Gretchen Manning helped create "The Promising Dawn," a long running soap opera, and has been its star since the show began. But the show's
ratings are not what they once were, and now it's time for a change. Join her and this wonderfully funny cast of characters on the studio set as
they confront their final scene. This is Sonoma County playwright, Gene Abravaya's second full length play following closely on the footsteps of his
critically acclaimed, BOOK OF MATHEW which premiered at Pacific Alliance Theater in 2008.

March 18 to April 3, 2011
"The Ticking Clock" *

By Jody Gehrman
Directed by Linda Reid
Studio Theatre

A humorous, moving and timely play that draws inspiration from a series of true stories taken from Ms. Gehrman's many hours of interviews of 23
women. Each character reflects upon the impact of her own ticking biological clock on her life's choices. * (subject to final licensing approval in January, 2011).Part of Women's History Month

April 15 to May 15, 2011
"Desire Under the Elms"

By Eugene O'Neill
With original music and lyrics by Richard and Sandi Ricardi
Directed by David Lear
G.K. HARDT THEATRE

The Widower Ephraim Cabot abandons his New England farm to his three sons, who hate him but share his greed. Eben, the youngest and
brightest sibling, feels The Farm is his birthright so he buys out his brothers and takes over. The drama unfolds when the Widower Ephraim returns
to the head of the table with his new young bride Abbie Putnam in this American classic by Eugene O'Neill.

June 3 to June 26, 2011
"The Mystery of Irma Vep: - A Penny Dreadful"

By Charles Ludlum
Directed by Jennifer King
G.K. HARDT THEATRE

Shad Willingham * stars in Charles Ludlam's Obie-winning farce has enjoyed a run as one of the most-produced plays in America. On a "dark and
stormy night," Lady Enid arrives at an estate with her new husband, who is under the spell of his deceased first wife and haunted by something
that's prowling the grounds. Strange things begin to happen around Lady Enid while the mysterious portrait of Irma Vep hanging over the fireplace
gazes down upon her. The MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP is a hilarious comedy that satirizes everything from Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca" to
"Victorian Melodrama" to "The Mummy's Curse." This definitive spoof of Gothic melodramas, recently revived Off-Broadway to rave reviews, is a
quick-change marathon in which two actors play all the roles. A sympathetic werewolf, a vampire and an Egyptian princess brought to life when
her tomb is opened, make this a comedy that has everything. * (AEA)
_______________________

OTHER "OFF SEASON" OFFERINGS IN THE Studio Theatre:

SOLOFEST OF THE WEST
The Studio Season starts off with a bang, showcasing stories from the Bay Area's most popular solo playwrights-performers. Featured will be David Templeton in "Wretch Like Me," Matthew Kerns performing his critically acclaimed "Chicken" and Sarah Abbey in "The Weight Game." Can peanut butter, show tunes, and religious fanaticism, candy bars and a chain-smoking mother save of us all?

Aug. 6, 2010:
Wretch Like Me
Written and performed by David Templeton
Directed by David Yen

Infused with cultural and social references and interesting characters from 1960s & '70s, David Templeton's episodic adventure about growing up with a quirky, yet dysfunctional family while searching for the meaning of life as a born-again Christian is haunting, shocking, thought provoking and hilariously funny.

COMEDY TONIGHT
Stop by The Studio for an evening of laughs from five great American Playwrights. "A Sermon," by David Mamet, "Workout," by Wendy Wasserstein, "Your Mother's Butt," by Allan Ball, "Variations on the Death of Trosk," by David Ives and "An Actors Nightmare," by Christopher Durang will have you rolling in the aisles as 6th Street Playhouse takes on a day in the life of these comedy greats." Dates to be announced.

IF YOU GO:

LOCATION: 6th Street Playhouse
52 West 6th Street, Santa Rosa
Located in historic Railroad Square

PHONE: 707-523-4185
Order tickets by telephone, online or purchase at the door

WEB SITE: www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

Photo Credit: Eric Chazankin