Winnipesaukee Playhouse 2020 season theme to be “Women in Theatre”

MEREDITH — Feisty femmes, historic heroines, and ladies of every age will be among the many faces of “Women in Theatre” throughout the coming year at Winnipesaukee Playhouse.

Producing Artistic Director Neil Pankhurst led the launch at a weekend reception. The award-winning Lakes Region theatre produces professional, community and educational shows year-round. The coming year has drama, comedy, and musicals, with plays both women and men, about and featuring women.

Attendees at the brunch applauded the titles, including the name of a musical that will be released publicly on Feb. 15, 2020, due to licensing restrictions. The rest of the titles and events include professional shows, Winni Players community productions, Education Department programs and productions, and special events.

The summer professional season will offer 'Matilda the Musical' July 8-25, Agatha Christie’s 'Murder on the Orient Express' July 29-Aug. 15, 'Votes for Women' Aug. 19-29, and 'Or' Sept. 2-12, as well as the as yet unnamed musical.  

While 'Matilda and Murder' may be a familiar title, 'Votes for Women' is the world premiere of a new, original play. The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the amendment that gave U.S. women the right to vote, and the new production will celebrate women's suffrage and the career and leadership of Emmeline Goulden Pankhurst and her daughters.

'Or' by Liz Duffy Adams is a fast-paced, critically-acclaimed farce driven by the real character Aphra Behn, the first woman to earn her living as an author. Behn is also a spy, a matchmaker and a lover. See her try to juggle these things and more while she completes a play the evening before a competitive deadline in this play, set in the 17th century.

Two professional shows follow, 'Glorious!' by Peter Quilter, a comedy about singer Florence Foster Jenkins, Oct. 7-11; and the annual traditional holiday Panto, 'Cinderella,' Dec. 18 to Jan. 2, 2021.

Timothy L’Ecuyer, Winnipesaukee Playhouse Education Department director, spoke about the coming year for students. Productions include 'The Wolves' Feb. 13-16, 'Really Rosie' April 2-5, and 'A Little Princess' and 'Head Over Heels,' performed on alternating weekends Oct. 30-Nov. 8. Summer camp is planned, as well as an expanded, residential summer theatre intensive for older students. 

Winni Players community productions are a double-billed radio drama by Lucille Fletcher, 'Sorry Wrong Number' and the 'Hitch-Hiker' March 13-15, 'Steel Magnolias' over two weekends, May 7-10 and May 14-17, and 'Calendar Girls' Nov. 18-22.

Fans of improvisational comedy can mark their calendars for Sept. 26 and the return of ImprovOlympics, a night of fundraising when teams from local organizations compete for votes and support in an evening show of 'Whose Line'-style humor.

Another special event will be the presentation of 'Amelia' by Alex Webb, Feb. 20-23. A production of Good JoB partners Johanna and Bryan Halperin, in conjunction with the playhouse, the story is set during the Civil War. It’s a romance and a story of courage, as Amelia sets off to find her missing soldier husband, masquerading as a soldier to gain access to the prison where he is being held.

To learn more, visit winnipesaukeeplayhouse.org, or call 603-279-0333.