Melbourne Civic Theatre 61st Season
By Space Coast Daily // July 8, 2012
Arts and Entertainment
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA — Melbourne’s Civic Theatre’s 2012-2013 Season.
The 39 Steps
Adapted by Patrick Barlow from the novel by John Buchan from the movie of Alfred Hitchcock.
A Farce
Combining a spy thriller with farcical comedy and ingenious theatrical invention, The 39 Steps is an engaging, fast-paced whodunit that celebrates the magic of theater.
Closely following the storyline of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film, the play features more than 150 characters brought to life by a cast of just four actors – all putting their many sidesplitting skills to the test in this wildly entertaining experience.
Show Dates: August 17- September 23, 2012
The Foreigner
By Larry Shue
A comedy
Winner of two Obie Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best New American Play and Best Off-Broadway Production.
THE STORY: The scene is a fishing lodge in rural Georgia often visited by “Froggy” LeSeuer, a British demolition expert who occasionally runs training sessions at a nearby army base. This time “Froggy” has brought along a friend, a pathologically shy young man named Charlie who is overcome with fear at the thought of making conversation with strangers. So “Froggy,” before departing, tells all assembled that Charlie is from an exotic foreign country and speaks no English.
Once alone the fun really begins, as Charlie overhears more than he should—the evil plans of a sinister, two-faced minister and his redneck associate; the fact that the minister’s pretty fiancée is pregnant; and many other damaging revelations made with the thought that Charlie doesn’t understand a word being said.
That he does fuels the nonstop hilarity of the play and sets up the wildly funny climax in which things go uproariously awry for the “bad guys,” and the “good guys” emerge triumphant.
Show Dates: October 12- November 18, 2012
Holidays with Dino
Musical
Join us for a nostalgic look back at the 1960s’ Dean Martin Show, as we enjoy some holiday favorites of Dino’s and his friends who arrive on his doorstep unexpectedly. Last year’s most popular Holiday show of the season is back for more holiday cheer.
Show Dates: December 7, 8, 13, 14, 15 , 20, 21, 22: 8 p.m.
December 9, 16, 23, 24: 2 p.m.
On Golden Pond
By Ernest Thompson
Comedy
The plot focuses on aging couple Ethel and Norman Thayer, who spend each summer at their home on a lake called Golden Pond. During the year the story takes place, they are visited by daughter Chelsea with her fiancé and his son in tow.
The play explores the often turbulent relationship the young woman shared with her father growing up, and the difficulties faced by a couple in the twilight years of a long marriage.
Show Dates : January 18- February 24, 2013
Into the Woods Music
By Stephen Sondheim and Lyrics by James Lapine
Musical
An ambivalent Cinderella? A blood-thirsty Little Red Ridinghood ? A Prince Charming with a roving eye? A Witch…who raps?
They’re all among the cockeyed characters in James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s fractured fairy tale. When a Baker and his Wife learn they’ve been cursed with childlessness by the Witch next door, they embark on a quest for the special objects required to break the spell, swindling, lying to and stealing from Cinderella, Little Red, Rapunzel and Jack (the one who climbed the beanstalk).
Everyone’s wish is granted at the end of Act One, but the consequences of their actions return to haunt them later, with disastrous results. What begins a lively irreverent fantasy in the style of The Princess Bride becomes a moving lesson about community responsibility and the stories we tell our children.
One of Sondheim’s most popular works, INTO THE WOODS is a timeless yet relevant piece and a rare modern classic.
Show Dates: March 15 – April 21, 2013
The Heiress
By Ruth and Augustus Goetz, Suggested by Henry James’ novel Washington Square.
Classic
The background of the play is New York in the 1850s and the basic story tells of a shy and plain young girl, Catherine Sloper, who falls desperately in love with a delightful young fortune hunter.
Catherine’s lack of worldliness prevents her from realizing that the young man proposing to her is not entirely drawn to her by her charm.
Catherine’s father, a successful doctor, sees through the fortune hunter and forbids the marriage, but his daughter proposes an elopement that fails to materialize because the young man knows most of her expected fortune will go elsewhere if he marries her. Catherine retires into a little world of her own.
But the fortune hunter turns up once more and again proposes to her. For a moment, Catherine leads him to believe that she will accept him, but when he calls by appointment, she locks the door, blows out all the lights and allows him to realize that she will not be fooled for the second time.
Show Dates: May 17- June 23, 2013
About The Melbourne Civic Theatre
The Melbourne Civic Theatre, then known as Indian River Players, was born in 1951 and is the oldest community theatre in Brevard County. It was incorporated as a Florida Not For Profit Company in 1965.
MCT is currently located in La Galerie, in Downtown Melbourne (in the space formerly occupied by The Phoenix Theatre). Its first production was Big Hearted Herbert in February of 1952.
MCT (then IRP) staged its first three seasons in the municipal auditorium at Trailer Haven. In 1953, Indian River Players began renovation of a partially burned Navy Mess Hall and turned it into a theatre that was their home for over 23 years.
When maintenance costs became too high, Indian River Players decided to join the effort to renovate the Henegar Center changing its name in 1988 to Melbourne Civic Theatre to further identify itself with the community it serves.
MCT began operation as the resident theatre group when the Henegar Center of the Performing Arts opened in 1991. In 1999, MCT moved into its own space in the Metro West Shopping Center in West Melbourne, renovating the former Meadowland Library into a theater.
MCT staged many a show and dinner theater production at that location, until moving into the former Phoenix Theatre location (MCT’s current home) in Historic Downtown Melbourne in the summer of 2006.
MCT (IRP) has won many awards over the years. Some of the most notable are Winner of Florida Theatre Conference in 1980 with The Dumb Waiter and Winner of Florida Theatre Conference in 1990 with Painting Churches. Actress Gillian Wilson won Best Actress.
Through its 58 seasons of producing fine entertainment and education for the community, MCT has had its ebbs and flows, changes and moves and many of the usual situations that any volunteer organization goes through. People have come and gone, but without exception they have left behind them a wealth of memories and a healthy dose of the magic that is theatre.
As Melbourne Civic Theatre continues to grow in this new century along with the rest of Historic Downtown Melbourne, its goal is to continue in the fine tradition of those who have gone before and to continue enriching the quality of life in Brevard County.
For more information and tickets call the Box Office at 321-723-6935 or visit mymct.org
