Rome Shakespeare Festival
2022-2023 Season
[title of show]
Jeff and Hunter, two struggling writers, hear about a new musical theatre festival. However, the deadline for submissions is a mere three weeks away. With nothing to lose, the pair decides to try to create something new with the help of their friends Susan, Heidi and Larry on the eighty-eights. With the cast in place, Jeff and Hunter begin a conversation about what to write about. Eventually, Jeff suggests they write about what to write about. They make a pact to write up until the festival's deadline and dream about the show changing their lives.
R & J & Z
What if Romeo and Juliet got a second chance? R & J & Z begins with Act V of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and keeps going, as the famous lovers navigate a world in which death isn't necessarily the end. Set against the historical backdrop of Verona's plague, Melody Bates’ new verse play throws old and new characters together over the course of an apocalyptic and action-packed 24 hours. Equally inspired by Shakespeare and modern zombie films, R & J & Z pushes the boundaries of theatrical humor and horror.
Sanders Family Christmas
Sanders Family Christmas is the sequel to Connie Ray and Alan Bailey’s wildly successful bluegrass gospel musical Smoke on the Mountain. It’s December 24, 1941, and America is going to war. So is Dennis Sanders, of the Sanders Family Singers. Join Pastor Mervin Oglethorpe and the rest of the Sanders family as they send Dennis off with hilarious and touching stories and twenty-five Southern Gospel Christmas favorites.
Romance/Romance
This delightful pairing of one-act musicals, one classic and one modern, takes a comical and moving look at the mysteries of love. Act I, based on Schnitzler's The Little Comedy, is a delightful romp through the sexual ennui of turn-of-the-century Vienna, as two wealthy but bored socialites masquerade as impoverished bohemians seeking romance. Act II, based on the Jules Renard play Summer Share, explores modern affection and disaffection as two married couples share a summer house in the Hamptons. An Off Off Broadway sensation that successfully moved to Broadway, Romance/Romance is a charming and tuneful small-cast gem.
Proof
On the eve of her twenty-fifth birthday, Catherine, a troubled young woman, has spent years caring for her brilliant but unstable father, a famous mathematician. Now, following his death, she must deal with her own volatile emotions; the arrival of her estranged sister, Claire; and the attentions of Hal, a former student of her father’s who hopes to find valuable work in the 103 notebooks that her father left behind. Over the long weekend that follows, a burgeoning romance and the discovery of a mysterious notebook draw Catherine into the most difficult problem of all: How much of her father’s madness—or genius—will she inherit?
Julius Caesar
Jealous conspirators convince Caesar's friend Brutus to join their assassination plot against Caesar. To stop Caesar from gaining too much power, Brutus and the conspirators kill him on the Ides of March. Mark Antony drives the conspirators out of Rome and fights them in a battle. Brutus and his friend Cassius lose and kill themselves, leaving Antony to rule in Rome.