The Shawnee Theatre's 2012 season offers a musical mystery, a couple of comedies, two scary pieces-one for real and one for laughs-a real thriller, and performances by their Children and Teen Theatre Workshop.
 Veteran Takes The Reins
Kevin Guthridge takes the reins at Shawnee as the producing artistic director. It's his first year in that role, but he's a veteran at the theatre in Bloomfield. "I first came down just to act, compose and direct seven years ago," says Guthridge. "I was actually a little hesitant, but I just fell in love with the place, the spirit and the energy of the theatre."
 The Audience Takes A Chance
Shawnee opens with Clue: The Musical on June 14."Yes, it is based on the board game," says Guthridge. "Members of the audience get to make some choices at each show before we start. There are more than two hundred possible plot lines."
 Comedy Tonight
The comedy Moon over Buffalo is a summer theatre staple by Ken Ludwig and the Shawnee audience may remember his Lend Me a Tenor from past years. Rounding Third is a summer baseball piece that Guthridge heard about from a friend. "As I read it, I was really surprised that I'd never heard of it before," he says. "It has just two characters, opposing little league coaches and they talk to the audience as if the audience members are on their teams. It's a play whose warmth will sneak up on you."
 Scary Stuff
Shawnee wouldn't be Shawnee without some scary stuff and this year is no exception. The Haunting of Hill House is based on a Shirley Jackson novel. "It's a good scary piece, a kind of thing that we can do well," says Guthridge. And then, there's Zombies in Greene County. "Yes," says Guthridge. It's our chance to let our hair down to take ourselves a little less seriously. We'll even be renting out tomatoes for the audience to toss at the actors."
Wrapping up the season will be Dial M for Murder. "The play was the source for Alfred Hitchcock's great movie," says Guthridge. It's a terrific script and will really end our season very strongly."
 Kids Too
But, that's not the end of the season. "No," says Guthridge. "The expanded, two week Shawnee Children and Teen Theatre Workshop actually began during the week of the run up to Dial M… and they'll have one more week with some of our actors and technical crew followed by four performances."