Yes, summer theater is gone. But there is no shortage of plays to choose from. And more is coming in October.
Once upon a time there was a separation of time between the end of summer theater and the start of the fall productions.
That no longer exists as the summer theater companies have expanded their seasons and many local companies start producing in September. Indeed, Albany Civic Theatre already opened it season last week with Paula Vogel’s “How I Learned to Drive.”
I know it sounds odd, but “How I Learned to Drive” is a brilliant look at the issues of pedophilia, incest and misogyny. Though each is cringe worthy, the play is not. It’s a delicate-touch look at things we’d rather look away from. There’s a reason it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1997. It runs through September 25.
Earlier this week Curtain Call Theatre in Latham opened “Tiny Houses”. It’s a comedy about a couple deciding to build a tiny house to live in and help save the environment while doing it. The house get built onstage and the couple learn some lessons of their own. It plays through October 9.
Schenectady Civic Players also opened their season with Neil Simon’s serious-comedy “The Sunshine Boys.” The work is about a pair of elderly successful comics who stopped working together years ago. They now hate each other and refuse to work together at an important reunion performance. It plays through September 26.
A few blocks away Schenectady Light Opera is offering the musical “Once.” The show which is about an Irish street musician who regains his love for music after meeting a female Czech immigrant who is filled with love of music and life, too plays through September 25.
It doesn’t stop. This week Harbinger Theater in Albany presents the regional premiere of “Andy and the Orphans.” It is a charming but serious play about two siblings who take their brother, who has Down Syndrome, out of an institution to attend the funeral of their 86 year old father.
It’s a funny-sad experience as the three grown “orphans” learn about what it means to be family. It is also a sad look at how society once treated those with special needs. Harbinger works out of The Barn in Albany and the production runs Thursday - October 1.
Colleges are now back, so there is another theater opportunity. For instance, Theater Institute at Russell Sage College is offering Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days,” September 23 – October 2. It’s about a woman who finds herself buried up to her neck in a mound. There she reflects on the complications of life. It’s one of Beckett’s few plays that has what you might call a happy ending.
At the same time the professional summer troupes in the Berkshires are extending their summer seasons.
Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield is presenting “All of Me” September 21-October 9. It’s about an unusual romance. The boy is in a wheelchair and a disabled girl uses a scooter. They communicate through text to speech technology. Should they be together? Can their love survive if together? It’s an immensely challenging love story unfolding on stage.
September 23 to October 30, Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA will offer “Golden Leaf Rag Time Blues.” It’s about a young African-American boy and an aging vaudevillian who meet in an offbeat manner. Through story and song they overcome race, religion and age while they learn from one another.
September 29 – October 23 Berkshire Theater Group offers Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Seascape” at its Unicorn Theater in Stockbridge, MA. It works with the fantasy of two human-size lizards come out of the sea and meet a retired couple enjoying a picnic on the beach. For two acts the lizards wonder if they’ve evolved enough to live on land, but by play’s end they begin to have doubts about joining humans on earth.
Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany closes the September marathon with “Dracula: a Comedy of Terrors,” running September 30 through October 23 . It’s 90-minutes of laughs as the Dracula legend acquires a new comical look.
Bob Goepfert is theater reviewer for the Troy Record.
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