P.T.D. Production's Community Theater 2009 Season

A Delicate Balance
by Edward Albee
March 5- 8 – March 12-14

Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize winning play opens with characters Agnes and Tobias spending a typical evening in their upscale New England home.

They are living an outwardly quiet yet inwardly conflicted life. This evening is no different and is fraught with Agnes's sarcastic, bitter remarks about her alcoholic, wise cracking, live-in sister, and Tobias' fruitless attempts at mediation. When dysfunctional but painfully honest Julia, their daughter visits upon the demise of yet another marriage, the conversations heat up. Add to the mix an unwelcome intrusion, from life long friends Harry and Edna who bring with them their own fears and immediate travail, the household erupts, and emotional chaos ensues.

Masks are off, and painfully honest confrontation leads the characters to self revelations. It is a truly gripping show...but in the style of, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Albee does leave us with a ray of hope for this group of deep and multi-layered characters.

Present Laughter
by Noel Coward
June 11-14 & June 18-20

Written by Noel Coward in 1939, the play's title comes from a song in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which urges carpe diem (" present mirth hath present laughter"). The plot follows a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in Africa. Amid a series of events bordering on farce, Garry has to deal with women who want to seduce him, placate both his long-suffering secretary and his estranged wife, cope with a crazed young playwright, and overcome his fear of his own approaching fortieth birthday and, by implication, his impending mid-life crisis. Add to this Coward's incredible use of language and wit, and you have a recipe for hilarity.

Sherlock Holmes,
The Final Adventure
by Steven Dietz
October 8-11 & October 15-17

Is this the end of Sherlock Holmes? Join Doctor Watson as he tells the tale of what could be the legendary detective’s last great adventure.

Holmes has finally met his match…in a woman! A mysterious ex-opera singer is at the center of the mystery, and matters are complicated with a blackmail plot involving The King of Bohemia! With Holmes’ arch-nemesis Moriarty pulling the strings, Holmes must best a sinister group of characters including: devious lawyer James Larrabee, unpredictable henchman Sid Prince, a scheming maid who may be more than she seems, and finally the brilliant, calculating Moriarty himself.

Will Sherlock Holmes finally defeat his arch-enemy, or will this be the final showdown? Join us in what will prove to be an adventure no one will ever forget! The Game’s afoot!

Final Show of the 2009 Season
Auntie Mame
by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee
December 10-13 & December 17-19

Auntie Mame, the play that spawned the musical Mame, chronicles the madcap adventures of Patrick growing up as the ward of his deceased father’s eccentric sister, Mame Dennis. In short order, he’s attending a clothing-optional Bohemian school, putting to bed Mame’s hard-partying friend, actress Vera Charles; and learning to mix a perfect martini. None of this sits very well with Dwight Babcock, his father’s executor, who spirits him away to a boarding school. Mame loses “big time” in the 1929 crash. Things look bleak until she finds love and marries, only to be widowed a year later. Meanwhile, Patrick is growing up in a succession of boarding schools, and his visits to Auntie Mame become sporadic as he begins spending more vacation time with “Uncle Dwight.”
As Mame watches her young nephew grow into a man she knows she must rescue him from the stuffy, conventional lifestyle towards which he is heading, because “Life’s a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!” and Mame’s appetite for life ensures that when she’s done, she won’t leave behind a single crumb of missed experience or an ounce of regret.