New Stage Theatre readies for new season. Details here
New Stage Theatre in Jackson invites patrons to celebrate laughter, love, and wonder in 2023 and 2024 as the professional theatre presents its 58th season on stage.
The theater recently completed a round of auditions Aug. 4-7 which saw approximately 170 aspiring actors from throughout Mississippi participate. Additional video submissions have been made from throughout the nation.
“It is competitive,” said New Stage Artistic Director Francine Reynolds. She describes the job of auditioning and selecting cast members as a difficult one. “Just how talented everyone is makes it very hard for us to choose,” she said.
Just announced as cast members for the first production, “Lend Me a Soprano,” which opens Sept. 12, are local actors Jo Ann Robinson (an Actors Equity Association member) along with Joe Frost, Michael Kinslow, Viola Dacus, Marquita Levy and Sarah Beth Solop. The cast will also include traveling guest actors Annie Gill and Jack Baugh.
Equally challenging to the task of selecting actors is choosing the plays to perform each year, Reynolds said. “Every season we try to balance what the audience says they want with our mission of presenting both contemporary and classic theatre,” she said.
Managing Director Dawn Buck said rebuilding support for New Stage after COVID-19 closed the theatre for 18 months beginning in 2020 has been challenging, but that season subscription numbers are again on the rise.
“Before the pandemic we had 2,500-plus subscribers annually. That number was down to 1,004 for the 2021-22 season but last season we had 1,500 and hope to build on that this year,” she said.
A longtime supporter of the performing arts, Buck first worked in the New Stage box office for much of the 1980s. She returned to New Stage in an administrative role in the 2000s after working with the USA International Ballet Competition.
The idea for New Stage began when a group of Jacksonians met in 1965 with dreams for creating the first professional theatre in Mississippi.
At the time the only professional performing arts theatre in the mid-south was the Front Street Theatre in Memphis, but Jackson did have a well-established community theatre called the Jackson Little Theatre, founded in 1925, which had only a year earlier built a new 400-seat auditorium in the affluent Belhaven neighborhood at 1100 Carlisle Street.
New Stage, by comparison, set up shop in a former Seventh Day Adventist Church at 705 South Gallatin Street, in the heart of Jackson’s more working-class Duttoville (often nicknamed “Doodleville”) area.
The first officials included Jane Petty, managing director; Ford Petty, president; Frank Haines, vice president; James K. child, secretary; D. Carl Black, treasurer; and Kay Gillis, Howard Jones, and Beth Griffin Jones, directors.
Assistance was provided by Milton Lyon, chairman of the Department to Extend Professional Theatre of the Actors’ Equity Foundation in New York, celebrated Mississippi writer Eudora Welty and many others.
New Stage produced its first play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?” in January 1966 and for the next decade New Stage and the Jackson Little Theatre co-existed on opposite ends of town.
By the late '70s, however, New Stage had become the more dominant theatre, and in June1978, after staging their final production (“The Madwoman of Chaillot”) the JLT board voted to disband and sell their Carlisle Street building to New Stage, where it remains today.
Here is a schedule for the upcoming 2023-2024 season:
Sept. 12-24, 2023: "Lend Me a Soprano" by Ken Ludwig; It’s 1934, and Lucille Wiley, Manager of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company, is ready to welcome world-class soprano Elena Firenzi for her one-night-only starring role in Carmen. However, Elena arrives late, she is sick, and her passionate husband Pasquale has a fit of jealousy. So, Mrs. Wiley's mousy but determined assistant Jo has to come up with a plan to save the day in order to keep her job. Recommended for ages 14 and up.
Oct. 24 - Nov. 5, 2023: "What The Constitution Means to Me" by Heidi Schreck; Schreck, who earned her college tuition by winning Constitutional debate competitions held across the U.S., resurrects her teenage self to trace the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives. This play, to be presented in the Hewes Room, is a love letter to our constitution, giving it new life and imagining how it will shape the next generations of Americans. Recommended for ages 14 and up.
Nov. 30 - Dec. 21, 2023: "Elf The Musical," by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin with music by Matthew Sklar and lyrics by Chad Beguelin; Raised as an oversized elf, Buddy travels from the North Pole to New York City to meet his biological father who doesn't know he exists and is in desperate need of some Christmas spirit. Based on the 2003 PG movie “Elf.” (Note: This is considered a special holiday presentation and will be ticketed separately from season subscription packages.)
Feb. 6-18, 2024: "The Secret Garden: Spring Version," based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett; Orphaned in India, Mary Lennox, 11, returns to Yorkshire to live with her embittered uncle, Archibald and his disabled son Colin. The estate includes a magic garden which beckons the children with haunting melodies. This classic of children’s literature is re-imagined in brilliant musical style by composer Lucy Simon and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Marsha Norman. Recommended for all ages.
April 9-21, 2024: "Chicken & Biscuits" by Douglas Lyons; Rival sisters, Baneatta and Beverly, are trying to bury their father without killing each other first. When a family secret is revealed at the church altar, decorum flies out the stained glass window. With fast-paced jokes — and Grandpa turning over in his grave — this dysfunctional family comedy is a laugh-out-loud celebration of Black joy, love, and laughter. Recommended for ages 13 and up.
May 28 - June 9, 2024: "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical," based on the book by Douglas McGrath with words and music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil; A Brooklyn girl who fought her way into the record business, King had a flourishing songwriting career by her 20s. But it wasn’t until her personal life began to crack that she finally managed to find her true voice. Featuring an array of beloved songs including “I Feel the Earth Move,” “One Fine Day,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “You've Got a Friend,” and the title song, “Beautiful.” Recommended for ages 11 and up.
Season subscriptions are now on sale offering the chance to lock in discounted admission prices, enjoy a same seat/same night privilege, the chance to purchase additional tickets for guests at discounts, and receive unlimited ticket exchanges.
Flexipass and Mini Flexipass subscriptions are also available offering many of the same benefits except that flexipasses must be redeemed before each show in order to receive a seat on a first-come, first-served basis. Flexipass subscribers can choose to use all of their tickets on a single show or space their tickets out to enjoy the entire season.
Tickets for individual performances go on sale in September.
For more information or to become a subscriber, visit newstage.com or call the box office at 601-948-3533.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson MS New Stage Theatre announced 58th season lineup
