Redlands Footlighters Announces 2014-2015 Season

For its sixty-ninth season, Redlands Footlighters is delighted to offer a collection of five new and familiar plays to its audience that are sure to please.

Opening the season in September is Ken Ludwig’s The Game’s Afoot. Audiences will recognize Mr. Ludwig’s plays from past seasons including Leading Ladies, Moon Over Buffalo, and Lend Me a Tenor. This fast-paced comedy doubles as a murder mystery. It begins with the final scene and curtain call of the play “Sherlock Holmes”. Afterwards, star William Gillette invites his fellow cast-members to his castle to celebrate; but when one of the guests is stabbed to death, life imitates art as Gillette assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes to track down the killer before he or she strikes again.

A touching and light comedy follows in November. Chasing Manet by Tina Howe brings us two ladies in a nursing home from very different backgrounds. One is a rebellious painter and the other is a Jewish woman with a large, loving family. One is almost blind and the other is in a wheelchair. Together they plan to escape from the Mount Airy Nursing Home on the QE2 to Paris.

January brings audiences the popular musical revue about relationships. I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change by Joe DiPietro celebrates the pitfalls of dating and the joy and dread of newborns, in-laws, family car trips, and geriatric pick-up techniques. Big laughs and touching moments can be expected by the author of the audience favorite Over The River And Through The Woods from 2005.

Things turn dark in March with the classic thriller The Bad Seed by Maxwell Anderson. This famous book, play, and movie from the mid 1950’s will keep audiences on the edge of their seats. Ten-year-old Rhoda Penmark is an admired, charming, and well-mannered ten-year-old girl. When disaster strikes one of her classmates, an uneasy feeling overwhelms Rhoda’s mother.

Back by popular demand, Neil Simon’s comedy Rumors by Neil Simon in May closes out the season in May. Before his anniversary party, the Deputy Mayor of New York has just shot himself. Though only a flesh wound, his lawyer and his wife must get “the story” straight before the other guests arrive. Miscommunication and confusion lead to an evening of farcical hilarity.

Season tickets will be on sale for $60 beginning May 1 at the theater during the production of Pump Boys and Dinettes. Brochures and order forms are available online.

Season tickets are sold by the Zonta Club of Redlands and, in return, the club receives a percentage of sales which helps support such local projects as scholarships for women, Family Service Association’s getting-job-ready program, Youth Hope education, American Association of University Women’s math-science conference for eighth-grade girls, A.K. Smiley Public Library, YMCA camperships, and Meals on Wheels.