The Cardinal Stage Company opens their sixth season in September with six theatre pieces and a special children's show, all by American authors. Randy White is the founding artistic director.
War And Peace
"This is the third year that we've been working with Indiana University's 'themester' project," White said. "This year it's War and Peace. We're staging All My Sons. It's Arthur Miller's first success, a play set in the forties as the shadow of war profiteering falls over a family."
Cardinal's season has a rhythm. Following the drama of the Miller play, there's Red Hot Patriot, a biting comedy featuring the words of social and political critic Molly Ivins. "She was the one who famously nicknamed George Bush ‘Shrub,'" White recalled. "I was delighted to find a play written about her. Diane Kondrat will play her in a production directed by Martha Jacobs."
Annies To The Left, Annies To The Right
People who attended the Bloomington 4th of July Parade saw a hint of Cardinal's holiday musical special. "Yes, we had about three dozen girls and even a couple of men in those curly red wigs that are the emblem of Annie. It was a hitwe even won an award."
The next two pieces from the list couldn't be more different. Bill W. and Dr. Bob is a play about the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, while Bachelorette involves some young women who overdo alcohol (among other things). "Well, we got a bit of a kick out the juxtaposition, but they're both strong pieces. Bill W.... is a very touching play about the two men who just happened to meet, discover, and share a way to control their addictions."
White goes on to say that Bachelorette is nothing like the TV show. "It's a very funny show about four young women who went to college together. Only one gets invited to a wedding. All in all it's quite a night before the day of ‘I do.'"
The Mississippi Swings
Wrapping up the season will be Big River. It's Roger Miller's musical based on Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. "Miller is a great country musician. He's best known as a comedian, but this musical shows him as a fine and varied songwriter. There's a gospel chorus, a Cajun band, and some Broadway touches that we're going to scale back to a sort of 'roots music' sound."