For the Antigo Times

The Wabeno Area Players announces its 2017 season. The season is an exciting combination of regional premieres, a popular classic, and a world premier revue. The season offers something for everyone. The upcoming season reaffirms the company’s dedication to offering quality community theatre in Northern Wisconsin. Individual tickets are priced between $15-$25 each depending on the food and beverage accommodations. Productions run Thursdays, Friday and Saturday at 7:00 PM and Sunday at 2:00 PM.  Following is the 2017 season:

February 9-12, 2017

The Hallelujah Girls

Madonna Hall, Wabeno, WI

Hilarity abounds when the feisty females of Eden Falls, Georgia, decide to shake up their lives. The action in this rollicking Southern comedy takes place in SPA-DEE-DAH!, the abandoned church-turned-day-spa where this group of friends gathers every Friday afternoon. After the loss of a dear friend, the women realize time is precious, and if they’re going to change their lives and achieve their dreams, they have to get on it now! But Sugar Lee, their high-spirited, determined leader, has her hands full keeping the women motivated. Carlene’s given up on romance, having buried three husbands. Nita’s a nervous wreck from running interference between her problematic son and his probation officer. Mavis’ marriage is so stagnant she’s wondering how she can fake her own death to get out of it. And sweet, simple Crystal entertains them all, singing Christmas carols with her own hilarious lyrics. The comic tension mounts when an ex-boyfriend shows up unexpectedly, a marriage proposal comes from an unlikely suitor and Sugar Lee’s archrival vows she’ll stop at nothing to steal the spa away from her. By the time the women rally together to overcome these obstacles and launch their new, improved lives, you’ve got a side-splitting, joyful comedy that will make you laugh out loud and shout “Hallelujah!”

 

May 25-28, 2017

The Letter-World Premier

Firefighter’s Park, Wabeno, WI

“The Letter” dates from WW-II when it was left in the tank now near the Wabeno VFW Hall.  It was written by one of the Andrews Sisters to the driver, who was wounded and whom they visited at a field hospital in Italy.  He forgot to get it out of the tank when he was reassigned, and it has lain hidden since the war.  It is discovered and the city decides to find out more about him and give the letter to his living relatives only to discover he is still alive.  Inviting him to Wabeno for a civic affair and publicity opportunity, he flashes back to the war, the Andrews Sisters and the story unfolds.

 

August 10-12, 2017

The Dastardly Doctor Devereaux

Wabeno High School Auditorium, Wabeno, WI

Lotta Cash, a wealthy widow, must be on the lookout.  The evil Dogsbreath Devereaux, M.D. plans to marry Lotta so he can inherit her fortune and her late husband’s clinic.  Helping him is the nasty nurse, Hilda Hatchet, whom he promises to wed after he gets rid of Lotta.  Wild?  Well, talk about medical mania when the insanely jealous Hilda catches Dogsbreath flirting with our heroine, Wendy March.  We can only hope that Dr. Phil Good, our hero, can save Wendy and the unsuspecting Lotta from certain death.  With an abundance of zany patients, wild tunes (’How Do You Bandage a Broken Heart?,’ ’Emergency,’ ’Do the Bop,’ etc.)  and a hilarious plot, this musical melodrama will certainly have your audience in stitches all the way!  As they say, Nurses!  Foiled again!

September 16, 2017

Julia’s Great Pie Bakeoff

Art in the Square-Forest County Courthouse Square, Crandon, WI

(4 performances throughout the day 11:00am/12:00pm/1:00pm/2:00pm)

Julie Child returns to Forest County to Judge the annual Art in the Square Pie Baking Contest. Along with Julie are three other famous chefs each battling for the title of “Best Pie.” Odd ingredients, funny pie themes, and sabotage are just a few of the interesting things that are going on in this contest. It’s sure to be a crowd pleaser!

November 16-18, 2017

And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little

Madonna Hall, Wabeno, WI

Their father having deserted them in their childhood, the three Reardon sisters have grown up in a house of women, dominated by their mother, who is only recently dead. But time has erased the tender closeness of girlhood; one sister has married and cut herself off; another has begun to drink more than she should; and the third, after a scandalous incident at the school where she teaches, is on the brink of madness. When the married sister comes to dinner to press the need for committing her sibling to an institution, the simmering resentments of many years burst alive and are exacerbated by the intrusion of a well-meaning but boorish neighbor couple, whose unexpected arrival impels the action towards its shattering conclusion—in which all the pathos, humor and searing honesty of the play combine with overwhelming effect.

For more information please see us on Facebook, website: www.wabenoareaplayers.org, email: [email protected], or call (715) 889-1606 or (715) 473-5466.