Forest Roberts Theatre 2012-2013 Season Schedule

The 2012-13 Forest Roberts Theatre season will feature the plays 1776, music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards, book by Peter Stone, the Panowski Playwriting Competition winner Bears by Mark Rigney, Fallujah by Evan Sanderson, and Legally Blonde: The Musical, music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin, book by Heather Hach.

1776
Music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards, book by Peter Stone
Directed by Paul Truckey
Oct. 10-13
Forest Roberts Theatre

The seminal event in American history blazes to vivid life in this most unconventional of Broadway hits. It's the summer of 1776, and the nation is ready to declare independence... if only our founding fathers can agree to do it! Winner three of Tony Awards including Best Musical, 1776 follows John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and Richard Henry Lee & Thomas Jefferson of Virginia as they attempt to convince the members of the second Continental Congress to vote for independence from the shackles of the British monarchy by signing the Declaration of Independence.

Bears
Panowski Playwriting Competition Winner
By Mark Rigney
Directed by Keli Truckey
Nov. 14-17
Forest Roberts Theatre

In a world where human society is almost nonexistent, Growl Bear and Timmy Bear are living peacefully in their zoo exhibit until a new, independent, and wild bear named Susie arrives at their enclosure and turns their world upside down. She convinces them to leave the safety of the zoo, and go out into the strange new wilderness. There, Growl, Timmy, and Susie have to discover who they are, how to survive the wild (and each other), and find within themselves what it truly means to be a Bear.

The theme for the Panowski Playwriting Competition entries submitted during 2011-2012 was “environmental issues.”  This theme had to include: sustainability, climate, biodiversity, conservation, natural disasters, environmental health, natural resources and resource depletion, population effects, land use, energy, etc.

Fallujah
Written by Evan Sanderson
Directed by Ansley Valentine
Feb. 20-23
Forest Roberts Theatre

After an American journalist is chosen to be embedded in a combat troop in Iraq, he befriends the Marines he is working with and is immediately captivated by their stories of combat and home life. After tragedy strikes, the journalist is forced to return home, but the echoes of his time in Iraq reverberate too strongly for him to bear as he struggles to reconcile his experiences and to make a difference in a war that he doesn’t fully know, but cannot truly leave.

Evan Sanderson’s first play, Fallujah, is the second play in our series reflecting on the Middle East. Written while he was an undergraduate, Fallujah went on to receive the Quest for Peace prize and the National Student Play award at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in Washington DC.

Legally Blonde: The Musical
Music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin. Book by Heather Hach
Directed by Shelley Russell
April 17-20
Forest Roberts Theatre