Whitefish Theatre Co. prepares 34th season

“Rooted in community and staging the world” is the theme for Whitefish Theatre Co.’s 34th season of presenting vibrant, entertaining and meaningful performing arts for Northwest Montana.

This season, the theater group will present 44 community theater performances, six music concerts, two free senior concerts and five educational outreach performances for area children in kindergarten through high school. Tickets for this season’s shows go on sale Friday.

Whitefish Theatre Co.’s fall begins early this year, with the traditional Irish band Full Set hailing from Dublin on Sept. 8.

Then, with the kids back to school and the streets a little quieter, the company presents the Tony-Award winning comedy of grown-ups behaving badly when sorting out a playground fight between their two sons in Yasima Rez’s “God of Carnage.” That show will run Sept. 27-30 and Oct. 5-7.

As the sun sets earlier and scarves make their way out from the back of the closet, vivacious Latin rhythms from Buenos Aires come to the stage on Oct. 13 with Los Pinguos, including a dance section.

In between Friday night games at the local high schools and Sunday football comes Whitefish Theatre’s first Black Curtain Theatre of the season. “Lombardi” by Eric Simonson is “theatrical catnip for husbands and boyfriends otherwise reluctant to see theater” and will be staged Oct. 27 and 28.

November opens with a wickedly funny evening of professional comedy on with The Second City, straight from Chicago Nov. 9. Patrons are urged to buy their tickets early, because this show sold out weeks before the event two years ago.

After that show, Whitefish Theatre Co. moves into its holiday musical, wonderful for children and families, but also a great time for all ages: “Seussical: The Musical!” based on the works of Dr. Seuss. The show will be performed Nov. 29-30 and Dec. 1-2, 7-9 and 14-16.

After a day of powder shots on the mountain, the evening of Jan. 18 brings Canadian workingman’s blues and folk artist Matt Andersen to the O’Shaughnessy Center stage with a voice that will stop you dead in your tracks.

The Montana Repertory Theatre presents Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues” on Jan. 23. The show is a coming-of-age comedy about a young man from Brooklyn in an Army boot camp in Biloxi, Miss., in 1943.

January ends with Whitefish Theatre’s second Black Curtain production. “Elephant’s Graveyard” by George Brandt will be staged Jan. 26 and 27 and will explore circus life and tragedy.

Feb. 8 brings a night of guitar bliss with International Guitar Night, featuring acoustic artists from the world’s stage — Scotland, Madagascar and Brazil.

This show will be followed by the season’s second family theater event, “Charlotte’s Web,” based on the book by E.B. White, which aims to delight children and inspire the magic of friendship in the whole family. The show will be performed Feb. 21-24 and March 1-3.

On March 9, the duo Trout Fishing in America — called “the Lennon and McCartney of kids’ music” — takes the stage with songs like “My Hair Had a Party Last Night” and “When I Was a Dinosaur.”

On March 15, the powerful rhythms of Japanese Taiko are brought into new realms by the young Los Angeles band On Ensemble.

“Completely absurd without being silly, Victorian without being stuffy,” is a great way to describe the spring production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” April 11-14 and 19-21.

That classic show will be followed by the cutting-edge exploration of the hate-crime murder that took place in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998 and the Laramie of today. Whitefish Theatre’s Black Curtain production of “The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later” plays May 4 and 5.

For the final production of the season, the smart comedy about middle-aged longing and regret, “Becky’s New Car” by Steven Dietz, will be presented in Cabaret-style May 23-25 and 31, and June 1 and 7-8. Reserve a whole table for you and your friends on Ladies’ Night May 24.

This year Whitefish Theatre is offering a “build-your-own” season pass and a family pass in addition to individual tickets. Season tickets may be purchased through the box office or ordered through the brochure order form.  

 To purchase season and individual tickets or to order a brochure, call the box office at 862-5371, visit www.whitefishtheatreco.org, or visit 1 Central Ave. in Whitefish. Box office hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and one hour before performances.