The Acting Loft Academy of the Performing Arts will present Stephen Sondheim's musical Company as a part of their 2008/2009 mainstage season. Performances will be held at their studios located at 516 Pine Street in Manchester, NH. Opening night is Friday, November 14th at 7:30pm with additional performances on Saturday, November 15th at 7:30pm and Sunday, November 16th at 2pm.
Stephen Sondheim's rarely performed Tony Award winning masterpiece comes alive on the Acting Loft stage. Company began as a collection of one-act plays written by librettist George Furth and was shaped into a musical thanks to the vision of legendary director Harold Prince. Examining the pros and cons of marriage, Company focuses on the character of Robert, a bachelor whose 35th birthday party provides the occasion to bring all of Furth's characters together at the opening of the play. Everyone but Robert is married or getting married, and they are all eager for their bachelor friend to follow in their footsteps, but Robert isn't quite ready to take the plunge. He's sure that the perfect girl is waiting just for him, and until she makes herself known, he is content to amuse himself with the countless women who come to New York every day.
Meanwhile, Robert has the opportunity to observe the lives of all of his married friends, and what he sees does not exactly fill him with encouragement. They fight, plan affairs, talk of divorce, and take refuge in drugs and alcohol. It's enough to make Robert question whether he ever wants to join the ranks of the married.
Company is perhaps Stephen Sondheim's most recognizable score and includes the musical theatre classics, Being Alive, The Ladies Who Lunch, Another Hundred People and You Could Drive A Person Crazy.
Featuring a cast of some of southern New Hampshire's best known performers including, Jeff Carron, Nathan Barnes, Sue Bechard, Craig McKerley, Deb Doda, Jen Fichera and Kirstin Kennedy, Company directed by Jude Bascom with musical direction by Meegan Gagnon, promises to be a spectacular restaging of a classic show.
Company is part of the Acting Loft's Mainstage performance series which stages full-scale musical productions using live musicians as well as complete sets and costumes.
Seating is general admission and tickets to Company can be purchased in advance by call The Acting Loft box office at 666-5999 or visiting their website at http://www.actingloft.org/. Company is being produced by generous support from William L. Ritchie Jr.
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The Acting Loft Academy of the Performing Arts is a not-for-profit performing arts organization dedicated to offering the highest quality theatre arts education and entertainment to children and adults of all ages from the Southern New Hampshire region.