Boca Stage presents a ghost story, emotional journey and laugh-out-loud comic moments during 2022-23 season starting Nov. 4
Now established as a redoubtable acting troupe in South Florida, Boca Stage hopes to break free of the past few COVID-complicated performance years with a fourth season of diverse productions kicking off Nov. 4 at the Sol Theatre on North Federal Highway.
“After the intensity of the past few years, we thought we’d take a season to lighten up a little by increasing the comedic content,” said Artistic Director Keith Garsson.
The 2022-2023 season — the company’s eighth overall counting its previous tenure as the Primal Forces troupe — will feature a pair of comedies, an edge-of-your-seat drama and a modern ghost story. Three shows are South Florida premieres.
Tickets are $40 to $50 for single show seats and $150 for all four productions. They can be purchased at www.bocastage.net or by calling (561) 300-0152.
“Strong characters and stories that resonate make this both a compelling and funny season,” said Director Genie Croft. “And as the cultural community emerges from this long dark period, we have chosen plays that will bring the audience together in a way that only live theatre can. We look forward to a season of shared energy and emotions.”
The season launches Nov. 4 with playwright Lucas Hnath’s The Thin Place, a new, modern spin on the classic ghost story. The Thin Place is a twisty tale of psychics and the fragile boundary between our world and the other one. With acuity and relentless curiosity, Hnath’s play transforms the theater into an intimate séance, crafting an unnerving testament to the power of the mind.
Garsson directs The Thin Place, which brings a quartet of familiar local actors to the North Federal showplace: Jacqueline Laggy, Lourelene Snedeker, Kim Ostrenko and Steve Carroll. The show runs Nov. 4 to Nov. 20, with a preview set for Nov. 3.
Boca Stage opens its season Nov. 4 with The Thin Place.
Following a holiday break, the play, Time Alone, welcomes the new year with a run that begins Jan. 6, with a preview Jan. 5. Directed by Croft, the show is a poignant drama about two seemingly unconnected people, a widow and a young man serving a life sentence in prison. Both are seeking redemption.
The play is the product of writer Alessandro Camon’s volunteer work in the California juvenile and justice systems. As the play unfolds both characters find themselves in places of extreme loneliness, and, as time itself seems to unravel, their tales both contrast and mirror each other, providing answers to each other’s questions — until they find new doors to life.
Time Alone, which runs through Jan. 22, features actors Karen Stephens and Rio Chavarro.
Next on the playbill is Grand Horizons, another new play offering a comic spin on divorce among the elder set.
Fifty years into her marriage to Bill, Nancy wants a divorce. While Bill seems unfazed by the decision, her two adult sons are shaken to the core. Forced to re-examine everything they thought they knew about their parents’ outwardly happy lives, the family grapples with their new reality as each reckons with their own imperfect past and how their love for each other might express itself in new and unlikely forms.
Grand Horizons, by playwright Bess Wohl and directed by Croft, includes in the cast Michael Gioia, Lourelene Snedeker, Jacqueline Laggy, Angie Radosh, Wayne LeGette and Jordon Armstrong. The show runs from Feb. 10 to Feb. 26. A preview will be held Feb. 9.
Concluding the four-program season is a comic gem with a flip. Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, the female version, will be performed March 17 to April 2, with a preview March 16.
The distaff version of The Odd Couple is Simon’s 1986 update of his Classic original New York comedy. This time, Unger and Madison are at it again, but it’s Florence Unger and Olive Madison who play the bickering roommates in this contemporary comic classic.
Boca Stage concludes its season March 17 with the female version of The Odd Couple.
