It starts in September with “Working,” inspired by writer Studs Terkel’s oral histories of people making ends meet. It ends in July with a cast of multi-talented early teen musicians on drums, bass, guitar and vocals in “School of Rock.” In a conversation with Cara Lieurance, Farmers Alley Theatre’s executive director Rob Weiner details the eight productions that make up the 16th season of Kalamazoo’s only equity theater, housed in its intimate downtown space (mostly).
There is a one man tour-de-force that makes willing participants of the crowd at the holidays (“Every Brilliant Thing”), a Gilmore Piano Festival collaboration (“Sondheim on Sondheim”), and a play for children featuring puppet characters with autism and other challenges who rally in support of each other (“Addy & Uno”). Neighbors lose their minds over landscaping in a comedy (“Native Gardens”) and tensions simmer in a powerful play by award-winning Michigander Dominique Morriseau (“Skeleton Crew”). The Festival Playhouse at Kalamazoo College lends its stage to Farmers Alley for the final two productions of the season in June and July, both musicals: “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” and the aforementioned “School of Rock,” with music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Tickets and more information are available at the Farmers Alley Theatre website.
