“I have seen evidence that small American communities, so buffeted by powerful forces of economic and social malaise, still harbor a resource that can reverse their plight and instill pride, achievement and the conviction that excellence resides within ‘ordinary’ people.”    
 
                                                            Ron Powers, Historian, Author and Playwright, after seeing his play, 
                                                           “Sam and Laura” produced at The Grove Community Playmakers.
 
 
                                                                   The Playmakers’
                                            2016-2017 Season of Plays
 
“EXIT LAUGHING”  by Paul Elliott                                                   Hysterically funny!"  
 July 9, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 2016                                            Springfield, Mo. News-Leader.com)
 
The Playmakers’ 2016-17 Season opening show is a laugh out loud comedy which portrays three southern ladies from Birmingham, Connie, Leona and Millie, who have spent one night each week for the past 30 years playing bridge…and other nights playing poker and canasta. Their “game nights” have provided them nice safe cocoons, but not many butterflies.
 
There was a fourth, Mary, and though she is physically no longer on this earth, she still manages to propel her middle-aged friends out of their routine lives.
 
When Millie “borrows” Mary’s ashes from the funeral home for one last card game, it’s the Golden Girls Gone Wild. It only takes one surprising event to get the girls cutting the way out of their cocoons. A whole new way of looking at and enjoying life is transformed before them.
 
Vicki King: Connie
Susan Bass: Leona
Lisa Houck: Millie
Lexi Wellman: Rachel
Justus Fletcher: Bobby
Suzanne Boles: Director 918 786 5871
 
 
SILENT SKY” by Lauren Gunderson
September 10, 11, 16, 18, 23, 24, 25, 2016
 
You will be alive with interesting ideas after seeing this startling, true story of a brilliant history-making woman, hitherto unknown to many of us.  It’s sheer visual magic, with bursts not only of stars but of smart, infectious humor.
 
A pleasant, thought-provoking evening is in store for you.  This play is an exquisite blend of science, history, family ties, and fragile love. A passionate young woman, Henrietta Leavitt maps her own passage through a society unaccustomed to strong women in a man’s world.
 
The real Henrietta Leavitt was one of the human “computers” of the Harvard Observatory, the all-female data collection staff organized in 1893.  She stared at the stars and struggled to chart our place in the universe .She refused to be content just tidying up the cosmos for her male colleagues who would claim credit for her work. She set off on a private intellectual crusade in the midst of a bigger social one in the early 1900s.
 
She changed the perception of our world forever and in so doing shattered a 20th-century glass ceiling through her persistence and dedication to science.
 
Ashley Davidson: Henrietta Leavitt
Riley Dubois: Margaret Leavitt
Nancy Flowers: Annie Cannon
OvaJean Siemens: Williamina Fleming
Randall Hendricks: Peter Shaw
Suzanne Boles: Director  
 
“ALL GREEK ARTS DAY”
October 2016, specific date to be announced
For ten years each fifth grade class has been introduced to Greek Theatre as part of The Playmakers In-school program.
This fall, the curriculum will change and become first, annual All Greek Arts Day for fifth grade students in Grove Public Schools. The students will learn about the contributions of early Greek civilization to our world today through: Math/Music, Social Studies/Comedies, Literature/Mythology & Poetry, Dance/Visual arts/Musical instruments, Architecture/Sculpture, Science/more Math and, of course, theatre.  An original play, written by local playwright, Jonathan Elmore, will be one part of the activities that day.  Don Simpson, former Jay Public School teacher, will direct. Suzanne Boles will choreograph the Greek chorus.  Rehearsals for this production begin late July.
 
Please call Mrs. Boles at 918 786-5871 if you would like to be, or have your children be, part of the cast.  You do not have to be a 5th grader to be in the play.  Please have your summer schedule in hand to discuss any conflicts. A rehearsal schedule will be set once casting is complete, but normally the cast will meet two days a week until school begins.  There will be more rehearsals the two weeks prior to the performance date which is tentatively scheduled for the week prior to fall- break.
 
All Students may dress in togas if they wish and there will be a contest for the best Grecian sandals made from flip flops. They will be given scrolls on which to create their own art and notes.
   
Adult volunteers are encouraged to help plan the activities for this day in the summer of 2015.
Please leave a message for the Artistic Executive of The Playmakers, Suzanne Boles, at 918-786-5871 if you can help.
 
 
“SEASONAL ALLERGIES” by Katherine DiSavino and Kevin Mead
November 18, 19, December 9, 10, 11, & 30 31, 2016
 
Are you allergic to the holidays?  Want to just get in the car or hop on a plane and go…somewhere, anywhere? Does your family...love ‘em... decide to extend their visit to the lake during the holidays?
 
Laugh away your holiday allergies, even colds and sinus problems, with a healthy dose of holiday fun. Holiday stresses will disappear with this funny, heartwarming story about friends & family.
 
A reviewer for Broadway World commented that it is “a kinder, gentler comedy, more a Neil Simon family tale than a Ray Cooney family disaster…” though some might classify it a disaster when a male family member in personal turmoil seeks comfort and manages to disrupt not one but three holidays.
 
The performance schedule matches the time periods in the play: Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, and a New Year’s Eve party… Our first!!   (But you do see the whole play when you come, not just the Thanksgiving dinner in Nov, etc.)
 
Lisa Houck, Director  1 479 206 1002.   Still casting actors, preferably in the 40s.  Need 3 men and 3 women.
 
 
W;T” by Margaret Edson  
(yes, there is a semi-colon in the title!)
 Feb 25, 26 & March 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 2017
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, or maybe learn how to talk about it, while eating a popsicle.  It can be both enlightening and enormously comforting.
 
“This play is very moving and sheds new insight into the patient experience.  We can always benefit from seeing health care through their eyes.”     (Janet Fletcher, PA-C, Grove )
 
This 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner for drama has been hailed as one of the most emotionally evocative works to be produced by a first time dramatist. It is a powerful depiction of Vivian Bearing (played by Pam Leptich), an English professor forced to confront the reality of her (spoiler alert!) imminent death.  But the plot isn’t what makes this play so interesting.  It is about “salvation anxiety” according to one doctor, about our need for forgiveness and dignity held together by human relationships.  As Vivian reassess her life and her work with profundity and humor it becomes transformative both for her and for us.   The audience will feel both enlightened and, in a strange way, enormously comforted.