Centastage - Season8

Season8

How Mrs. Grinchley Swiped Christmas
Written, directed & starring Ryan Landry

"Fabulosity! How Mrs. Grinchley Swiped Christmas has all the ingredients of a successful Christmas-time entertainment: carols, a sing-a-long & statuesque drag queens."

-Bay Windows

No one can usher in Christmas like a drag queen can -- so get ready to celebrate the holidays with Ryan Landry & Centastage as they bring this deliciously ridiculous musical parody to the stage. Mrs. Grinchley (Landry) owns a department store so sleazy that no one shops there -- not even at Christmas. When her regular staff fails to show up, she hires Cherry & Chenielle, two hookers, to work gift wrap... & work it they do.

Bawdy, hilarious... yet heartwarming!

Third Annual Boston Women On Top
A festival of new plays by Boston area women

Centastage, again in collaboration with Underground Railway Theater, presents the third annual Boston Women on Top Festival featuring a variety of theatrical pieces written & performaned by the area's leading female theater artists. Your subscription includes a festival pass allowing you to see all shows.

Feature 1 Friday Feb. 26, Thursday March 4, Saturday March 13, Sunday March 14, Friday March 19
Mr. Raisin Head written and performed by Erika Batdorf Cross-dressers beware! Festival alum, Batdorf takes a comical, bittersweet look at an average man's explorations of love through the search for his inner "animal." This newly developed version of "Mr. Raisin Head" comes fresh from the 1998 NY Fringe Festival.		The Judgement Day Cafe written and directy by Erika Batdorf performed by Debra Wise, Hazal Selcuk, Jes Shuford & others. Tired of slow change? Concerned about the wear and tear of apathy? Anticipating some magic cnage come the millennium? Or depressed that it all might remain the same? An evening of comic invocation, at the Judgement Day Cafe, a small group of women attempt to laugh, dance, sing, and pray their way into a social revolution. They'll do anything, try anything, and demand everything.
Feature 2 Saturday Feb. 27, Saturday March 6, Sunday March 7, Friday March 12, Thursday March 18
It Doesent Take a Tornado written by Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro directed by Daniel Gidron performed by Debra Wise A finalist in the critically-acclaimed Louisville National Ten-Minute Play Contest, this short monologue takes a humorous look at disaster and the human spirit, however peculiar!	L'Air Des Alpes written by Kate Snodgrass directed by Daniel Gidron performend by Debra Wise and Catherine Gowl On a night train to Geneva, two strangers meet by chance and, in breaking the language barrier, discover the true definition of responsibility. Edged with humor, this is an intimate play about choice and repercussions.	Memorial written and performed by Paula Plum directorial assistance from Daniel Gidron One of Boston's most versatile performers, Plum delves into the unique perspectives of three women, the bitter wife of a Gestapo commander, a Jewish prisoner and her 12 -year old daughter during the holocaust. This play challenges the concept of survival -- portraying women whose lives are forever entwined in a triangle of fate that will shock and inspire you.	Robby 2 is Drowning written by Wanda Strukus directed by Joann Green Breuer performed by Will Cabell, Bill Folman, Jennifer Jones, Ann Leacock, Kim Mansfield, Ralph Stokes, Wanda Strukus, and Debra Wise. The impossible occurs: the man who could hold his breath for the longest time sinks below the surface and fails to return. Confronted by this inconvenient turn of events, Robby 2's optimistic community contructs a memory to fill the void left in his wake.
Feature 3 Sunday Feb. 28, Friday March 5, Thursday March 11, Saturday March 20
God Smells Like a Roast Pig on a Summer's Day written and performed by Melinda Lopez directed by Betsy Carpenter A woman sorts through her relationship with Cuban history, contemporary politics and bad 70's rock-n-roll. A one-woman tour-de-force, Lopez plays over 10 characters -- from her great grandmother to Fidel Castro.		The Advantages of Bandages written by Deborah Lak Fortson directed by Erika Batdorf performed by Deborah Lake Fortson & Lizza Riley What to do with a woman wrapped head-to-toe in bandages? Another festival alum, Fortson takes her hat off to Samuel Beckett in this bold and humorous examination of personal intertia.
Special Events
Saturday Late Night Cabaret Saturday February 27, March 6, March 13 & March 14 @ 10:30 PM		Staged Readings
Moon Over Dark Street performed by Belle Linda Halpern, Kermit Dunkelberg, and Ron Roy directed by Kim Mancuso Back by popular demand! Featuring critically acclaimed cabaret singer and actor Belle Linda Halpern, this highly theatrical celebration of Brecht's 100th birthday travels from Berlin to Hollywood, offering songs of love, sex, and agitation.		Get Rid of the Roaches... A Love Story written by Boston/LA actress Jacqui Parker directed by Maureen Shea An epic story that traces the lives of fictional Boston-born and reaised jazz artists and their common bond to a small nightclub and its matriarchal owner. Tuesday March 16 @ 7:30 PM and Saturday March 20 @ 4:00 PM	The Me in the Mirror written by Paul Kahn in collaboration with Connie Panzarino directed by Daniel Gidron Based on Panzarino's autobiography -- this staged reading traces the remarkable life of the Jamaica Plain artist, activist, and lesbian: her struggles with severe physical disabilities, her conflicts with her sometimes supportive and sometimes destructive family, her triumph over the barriers to independence, and her pioneering work in the pease and disability rights movements. Wednesday March 17 @ 7:30 PM and Saturday March 20 @ 1:00

La Vita Claire
Written by Bill Lattanzi
The author of Season5's comedy hit, Dancing Downstream, is back with an uproarious comedy about love in the bad, old world. Three sets of lovers (or is it six?) couple, uncouple & recouple across time -- from Dante & Beatrice in medieval Florence to Claire & Bob & Kat & David in present day Boston & Cape Cod. Hello, Loveline? Winner of the 1997 John Gassner Playwrighting Award.