The Kalamazoo Civic Theatre’s executive director Laura Zervic and artistic director Anthony Hamilton recently outlined the wide-ranging, accessible programming of its 2025-26 season in a conversation with Cara Lieurance.
The season opens Sep 19 with the classic musical Camelot, marking the fourth time the Civic has produced the Lerner and Loewe masterpiece. "It's a centennial production and we're very proud to be bringing it back to the Civic Stage for the fourth time," Hamilton explains. August Gallagher stars as King Arthur, with Sydney Harrison as Guinevere and Western Michigan University alum Brandt Trotter making his Civic debut as Lancelot.
Following the opening production, the theater presents "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" in October through their Senior Class Readers Theater program, designed for volunteers 50 and older. Youth programming continues the season with Disney's Frozen Jr. opening October 24th, a production that holds special significance after being shut down on opening night in March 2020 due to the pandemic. "We finally feel like it's time to try to do Frozen Jr. again," Zervic says.
November brings "The Colored Museum" through a collaboration with Face Off Theater, celebrating that organization's 10th anniversary. Hamilton describes the work as chronicling Black life in America, through a series of vignettes that showcase diverse experiences, much like browsing exhibits at a museum.
The holiday offering is the ever-popular musical Annie, which will run through Dec 21. The theater recently completed "dog auditions" to select their Sandy, well in advance of “human” auditions.
The new year begins with Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" in January, launching a new "Classics in Carver" series in the theater's smallest venue. Hamilton created the new series after the success of “The Lion in Winter” in 2023. Hamilton says he always hears about strong volunteer interest in challenging classical works, and wanted to accommodate that desire.
The season also features the Penguin Project's "SpongeBob Musical Youth Edition" in February, serving differently-abled youth, and concludes with Mel Brooks' "The Producers" in May.
"We have a 12-show season, which is actually substantially smaller than what the Civic used to offer. But we've also broadened our offerings to be different, to be more accessible to everyone," Laura Zervic says. A recent wave of ticket purchases is thrilling the Civic staff. Zervic says patrons are saying they "haven't been to the civic in years" but are excited to return.
Tickets and more information are available at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre website.
This article was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
