Read our latest newsletter with information about our soon-to-open show, a job opening, and 2014 season tickets.

For Immediate Release 
November 18, 2013 

Contacts: 

Susan Goes, Executive Director, (541) 942-8001 
Amanda Ferguson, Artistic Director, (541) 409-2522 

It's a Wonderful Life opens December 6 at Cottage Theatre 

Cottage Grove, OR — Cottage Theatre concludes its 2013 season with a classic holiday drama. It's a Wonderful Life, a fully-staged adaptation of the beloved film by Frank Capra, will run for three weekends at Cottage Theatre beginning December 6. The play was adapted for the stage by James W. Rogers, inspired by the movie and the original story by Philip Van Doren Stern.

In our American culture It's a Wonderful Life has become almost as familiar as Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The story is a natural for a stage adaptation: the saga of George Bailey, the Everyman from the small town of Bedford Falls, whose dreams of escape and adventure have been quashed by family obligation and civic duty. George’s guardian angel descends on Christmas Eve to save him from despair and to remind him ─ by showing him what the world would have been like had he never been born ─ that his has been, after all, a wonderful life. This faithful adaptation has all the favorite characters from the movie: George, Mary, Clarence the angel, Uncle Billy, Violet, and, of course, the Scrooge-like villain, Mr. Potter. This dramatization not only celebrates the faith of the season, it also celebrates the American philosophy of life: hard work, fair play, and the love and support of one's family and community will be rewarded.  

Cottage Theatre's production of It's a Wonderful Life is co-directed by Jim Curtiss and David Work, with set design by Alan Beck, costume design by Rhonda Turnquist, and lighting design by Amanda Ferguson and Rich Nichols. The cast features Cody Mendonca as George Bailey, Sophie Blades as Mary Hatch, Bil Morrill as Clarence the Angel, Dale Flynn as Uncle Billy, Tracy Nygard as Violet, and Alan Beck as Mr. Potter. The cast also includes Matt Boatman, Campbell Conforth, Kenady Conforth, Marian Dempsey, Ireland Ellis, Kim Evans, Debbie Gross, Elaine Haugen, Keith Kessler, Steve Knight, James Morris, Galen Phillips, Lacey Pool, Darcy Rust, Earl Ruttencutter, Jay Searle, Hanna Shumate, Elaine Slatore, Karen Snyder, Mike Tripp, and Maia Wilhour. 

It's a Wonderful Life runs for three weekends at Cottage Theatre from December 6 - 22, 2013. Performances are Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00 pm and Sunday afternoons at 2:30 pm. There will be an added Thursday performance closing weekend, on December 19 at 8:00 pm.  

Tickets are available online at www.cottagetheatre.org, by phone at (541) 942-8001, or in person at the Cottage Theatre Box Office, 700 Village Drive, Cottage Grove. Tickets are $18 for adults and $15 for youth (ages 6 to 18). Group rates are available. Box Office hours are Wednesday through Friday, 10 am to 2 pm, and one hour before performances. 

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For Immediate Release
November 18, 2013


Contacts:
Susan Goes, Executive Director, (541)942-8001
Amanda Ferguson, Artistic Director, (541)409-2522


Cottage Theatre's 2014 Season now on sale


Cottage Grove, OR — Season tickets to Cottage Theatre's 2014 season are now on sale. The community theatre's 32nd season includes 3 plays and 3 musicals, and runs from January 31st through December 21st, 2014 in Cottage Grove. Both 6-play, full season ticket packages and 4-play, mini-subscriptions are available.

Cottage Theatre's 2014 season opens with Almost, Maine, a somewhat magical romantic tale by John Cariani. Almost, Maine is a play about love and longing, friendship and isolation, melancholy and hope. On a cold, clear, moonless night in the middle of winter in the mythical town of Almost, Maine, residents find themselves falling in and out of love in unexpected and often hilarious ways. Almost, Maine will run for 10 performances from January 31 - February 16, 2014.

Next in the lineup is the well-known musical, Fiddler on the Roof. Winner of the 1965 Tony Award for Best Musical, this beloved show features memorable songs like “If I Were a Rich Man,” “Matchmaker,” and “Sunrise, Sunset.” With book by Joseph Stein, Music by Jerry Bock, and Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, Fiddler on the Roof is based on stories by Sholem Aleichem by special permission of Arnold Perl. Fiddler on the Roof will run for 12 performances from April 4 - 27, 2014.

The June 2014 Cottage Theatre production will be a madcap backstage comedy by Ken Ludwig: Moon Over Buffalo. The play centers around Charlotte and George Hay, a husband-and-wife team of fading 1950s actors, who are playing Cyrano de Bergerac and Private Lives in repertory and hoping for their big break when Frank Capra comes to see their matinee. Moon Over Buffalo will run for 10 performances from June 13 - 29, 2014.

In August, theatre-lovers will travel to Paris, the setting for Georges Feydeau's masterpiece of French farce, A Flea in Her Ear. This new translation by David Ives is a frisky and hilarious romp through Paris at the turn of the 20th century, where a wife sets a trap to try and catch her husband in suspected infidelity. Her plan is complicated by confused identities, revolving beds, a great many doors and the fact that a hotel porter is the exact double of her husband. A Flea in Her Ear will run for 10 performances from August 8 - 24, 2014.

The most provocative production in Cottage Theatre's 2014 season is without a doubt the October musical, Assassins. With music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by John Weidman, Assassins bends the rules of time and space, taking us on a nightmarish carnival ride in which Presidential assassins from different historical periods meet, interact and inspire each other to harrowing acts in the name of the American Dream. Prospective audience members should note that this production contains mature themes and language.Assassins will run for 10 performances from October 3 - 19, 2014.

Cottage Theatre's 32nd season will conclude in December 2014 with another musical by the same composer and lyricist team as Fiddler on the Roof. The heart-warming romance She Loves Me is a 1963 musical based on the same play by Miklos Laszlo that inspired the filmsYou've Got Mail and The Shop Around the Corner. Georg and Amalia are two feuding clerks in a European parfumerie during the 1930s who secretly find solace in their anonymous romantic pen pals, little knowing their respective correspondents are none other than each other. She Loves Me will run for 11 performances from December 5 - 21, 2014.

2014 season tickets are on sale now through the run of the first show, Almost, Maine, which closes February 16, 2014. Season tickets range in price from $78 to $108, depending upon the package selected. Discounts are offered for seniors (60+) and youth (6-18). Season ticket holders save up to 20% over the price of individual tickets.

Individual tickets to each production will go on sale one month prior to each show's opening night. Musical tickets are $23 for adults, and $19 for youth (6-18). Play tickets are $18 for adults, and $15 for youth (6-18). For more information, please contact Cottage Theatre at (541)942-8001 or visit www.cottagetheatre.org.

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