Gallery Players Announces 2008-09 Season

Gallery Players, the oldest community theater group in Central Ohio, has announced its line up of productions for its 60th season beginning this fall. (Exact production dates will be announced at a later date.)

To kick off the season, Gallery Players will present Women's Minyan by Naomi Ragen. Based on a true story, Women's Minyan tells how a mother of 12 from the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel flees her abusive husband and, for the transgression of leaving her family, is banned by a court of men from ever seeing her children again. In the play, the woman meets with an all-female "minyan" to confront the issue. (Traditionally, a minyan is a group of 10 or more male religious Jews required for authorized public prayer.) Hearing for the first time what led to her divorce, they explore the boundaries between religion and social convention, truth and falsehood and a woman's true place in the religious world.

Gallery Players' winter Children's Production will be Joseph and Koza, with book, music and lyrics by Sean Hartley. Based on a short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer, this children's tale takes place in the wild and superstitious kingdom of Mazovia in ancient Poland. Like other royal maidens, Princess Koza faces danger - she's to be sacrificed to a river demon - but her rescuer isn't the usual sort. Instead of a prince charming, he's a nice young Jewish goldsmith. Joseph, the goldsmith, wanders into Mazovia, whose backward inhabitants fear Zla, an evil witch. When she chooses Koza for the sacrifice, even the king, Wilk, feels powerless. But Joseph convinces him and the rest of the townspeople that they are in control of their own demons, if only they will believe in themselves. (Last season, Gallery Players performed another of Singer's tales Mazel and Shlimazel, both plays adapted by Sean Hartley.)

In early 2009, Gallery Players will present Parade, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. Written by Alfred Uhry and co-conceived by Harold Prince, Parade is the tragic true story of the trial and the lynching of a man wrongly accused of murder. In 1913, Leo Frank, a Brooklyn-born Jew living in Georgia, is put on trial for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a factory worker under his employ. Already guilty in the eyes of everyone around him, a sensationalist publisher and a janitor's false testimony seal Leo's fate. His only defenders are a governor with a conscience, and, eventually, his assimilated Southern wife who finds the strength and love to become his greatest champion.

Rounding out Gallery Players' 60th season in Spring 2009 will be The Tale of the Allergist's Wife by Charles Busch. The play is the story of how one woman deals with her own mid-life crisis. Marjorie Taub, who lives comfortably with her doctor husband, Ira, in an expensively furnished condo near Zabar's, spends her days and evenings pursuing culture at various museums and the theatre. Her ongoing effort to improve her mind and soul has brought her to the conclusion she never will be more than mediocre, a feeling enhanced by her elderly mother's constant complaints about her shortcomings and her husband's altruistic dedication to serving the needs of the homeless. Following an emotional outburst in a Disney Store resulting in considerable breakage, Marjorie retires to the safety of her home to wallow in a mid-life crisis. Unexpectedly invading her depression is flamboyant childhood friend Lee who, much like The Man who Came to Dinner, becomes entrenched in the Taub household as a seemingly permanent guest, not only drawing Marjorie out of her dark mood, but impacting her marriage as well.

The plays will be produced by JCC Cultural Arts Director Jared Saltman. All Gallery Players productions take place in the Roth-Resler Theater.

Early Bird Season Subscription Sale

An Early Bird Season Subscription Sale is going on now through July 31, offering 20% discounts on season subscriptions orders. The prices for a season subscription for all four shows are: JCC Member, $35; JCC Senior Member (60+), $30; Non-member, $45; and Non-member senior (60+), $40.

For more information on the upcoming Gallery Players season, visit the Gallery Players website or call (614) 559-6248.