Peninsula Players Announces 2018 Artistic Company

Peninsula Players Theatre, America's Oldest Professional Resident Summer Theatre and Door County's theatrical icon, announces artistic company members for its 83rd season, running June 12 through October 14, 2018. The "must-see" 2018 season includes a world première comedy-drama, a thrilling new mystery, a delightfully funny musical, a sparkling new comedy and an intriguing new drama.

Peninsula Players is a professional, not-for-profit theater which employs professional actors and collaborates with members of Actors' Equity Association (AEA), the union of professional actors and stage managers; United Scenic Artists (USA), a labor union and professional association of Designers, Artists and Craftspeople; and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), a theatrical union of stage directors and choreographers.

Company members work in regional theaters from Los Angeles to New York and internationally, as well as in film, television and radio. Many of the directors, designers and cast members are recipients of or have been nominated for Chicago's prestigious Joseph Jefferson Award and other regional theater awards.

Peninsula Players is America's oldest professional resident summer theater and is unique in the country for its diverse productions, continuing loyalty to a resident company, and its beautiful setting of 16 wooded acres along the cedar-lined shores of Green Bay. In the past 83 years, the theater has become a Door County landmark and its cornerstone arts institution, attracting audience members from throughout Wisconsin and across the country.

The line-up of shows, designers and casts were selected by Artistic Director Greg Vinkler who celebrates his 30th season at Peninsula Players. His directing credits with the company include "Lord Arthur Savile's Crime," "The Full Monty," "Outside Mullingar," "The Mystery of Irma Vep," "Chicago" and "Lombardi." His recent acting credits at the Players include "The Actuary," "Alabama Story," "Chapatti," "A Real Lulu," "Butler," and "Heroes." Vinkler will perform in the opening play of the season, "Now and Then," the musical comedy "The Drowsy Chaperone" and will direct the autumn production of "Salvage."

"The artists of the 2018 company are extremely talented and very versatile," Vinkler said. "The wide variety of shows needs comedians, singers, dancers and performers who can take audiences from the world of Victorian London, to 1950s New York and to an Irish bar of today. For example, the musical features intricate song and dance numbers, and the comedy needs operatic voices. Eleven actors, two designers and one musician will make their Players debut this season. But many familiar and loved performers, designers and musicians are returning as well.

"'The Drowsy Chaperone' has a cast of 16, five of them will also perform in 'Living on Love' and six in 'Miss Holmes.' We have 14 returning Players in The Acting Company and 13 staff members. Our small army of artists also includes 17 designers, seven musicians, three scenic painters, three carpenters, three union stage managers, two properties managers, two new master electricians, one new cook, a new Box Office manager and a whole bunch of collaborative creativity. We really have a multi-talented group coming together - which is necessary for our diverse line-up of shows."

Peninsula Players opens its 83rd season on June 12 with the world première of "Now and Then" by Sean Grennan, a new comedy-drama that is performing through July 1. This touching, funny and unbelievable story centers on Jamie, an aspiring pianist, his girlfriend Abby and a mysterious older gentleman who offers them $1,000 each to talk with him for an hour. Their ensuing conversation changes their lives.

Vinkler is cast as the older gentleman and the remaining cast includes company members Erica Elam, Sean Fortunato and Barbara Robertson. Elam performed in last season's world première of "The Actuary," "Almost, Maine" and in Grennan's world première of "The Tin Woman." Fortunato's recent Players' credits include "Peter and the Starcatcher," "Sunday in the Park with George" and Grennan's "Making God Laugh." Robertson returns to Peninsula Players and was last seen in "Noises Off" and "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940."

Tom Mula is slated as director for "Now and Then" and will perform in two productions this season. Mula directed "Chapatti," "A Real Lulu," as well as the world première of Grennan's "Making God Laugh" and "The Tin Woman." Mula has performed in 35 Peninsula Players productions including "Heroes," "Chicago" and "Cabaret."

Playwright Sean Grennan's "Making God Laugh" and "The Tin Woman" also made their world premières at Peninsula Players.

Tom Mula directs "Now and Then" and returns to Peninsula Players to collaborate on his third project with Sean Grennan.

"Miss Holmes," a new play by Christopher M. Walsh based on characters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, takes the stage July 4 through July 22 to thrill audiences. In this deadly mystery with a twist, Walsh's Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are intelligent, independent women in 19th Century England, a time when society did not value those attributes. Cassandra Bissell ("Around the World in 80 Days," "Opus") and Maggie Kettering ("Lend Me a Tenor," "Outside Mullingar") reprise their lead character roles, Miss Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Dorothy Watson, from the 2017 winter play reading series, The Play's the Thing.

Director Elizabeth Margolius ("The Bridges of Madison County") returns to helm the tension, thrills and drama of "Miss Holmes." Peninsula Players veterans under Margolius' direction include Elam ("The Actuary"); Fortunato ("And Then There Were None,") as Mycroft Holmes; Karl Hamilton ("The Bridges of Madison County"), Tim Monsion as Inspector Lestrade ("Dial M for Murder), Mula ("The Hollow"); and Robertson ("Broadway Bound") as Eudora, the mother of a suspected murder victim.