A Very Valley Theatre Christmas

Well, it's been over a year since our last show (2012's Dial M for Murder). It's taken reading through what feels like a million scripts to find the right one, but Valley Theatre is officially back in business.  Tonight marks the start of rehearsals for our first Christmas show, Ron Osborne's Wise Women.  The VT board and I have been waffling over what our next show should be since Dial M wrapped last November.  We've had Steel Magnolias and The Odd Couple  in the hopper for quite a while, but bad timing and problematic casting concerns have pushed those farther in the future (Spring and Fall 2014 to be precise).  As I read and rejected more and more scripts, the idea of switching gears and doing a Christmas show became more and more appealing.  

We'd discussed doing a Christmas show in the past, but they only come in a few settings: huge and glitzy or sugary-sweet schmaltz.  It's also a hugely busy time for everyone.  I read a lot of Christmas scripts.  A few were decent, most were just awful.  I was beginning to think Valley Theatre might just have to miss doing something in 2013, when Wise Women came on my radar.  I didn't notice it in the first batch of searches because the title doesn't really give much clue that it's a Christmas story.  When it arrived Hilary and I read it aloud and really enjoyed it.  It's set during World War II and centers on a mother and daughter who open their homes to a few boarders for the Christmas season.  I was instantly drawn to the fun characters and pleasant ensemble set-up.  Calling it a Christmas story might be a little misleading.  More accurately it is a story that happens to be set during the Christmas season.  Christmas isn't the main focus and yet it manages to radiate a nice down-home Christmas vibe throughout.  It has humor, it is poignant and I think people will really enjoy it.  I'm excited to dig in and get started.  As much I loved doing Allegro, small-cast plays are more my style.  The cast is excellent and I think they will work well together.  It is rare to have a cast comprised solely of people I have worked with before and I am really forward it.  (The only other time that happened was with Crimes of the Heart and that was a blast.) Now I just have to finish hammering out a schedule that will work with everyone's hectic Holiday/end-of-semester plans.  I'm not looking forward to that nearly as much.

Wise Women runs December 13 & 14 at 7pm at the Houghton Fire Hall.