Chickasaw Civic Theatre has unveiled its lineup for the 2014-15 season, returning to a traditional slate of five productions after a supersized 50th anniversary year that featured nearly three times that number of shows.
The season opens Sept. 12 with “Shrek the Musical,” the award-winning stage adaptation that follows a gruff, swamp-dwelling ogre on his unlikely path toward love and self-acceptance. Director Scott Morlock, who has previously staged crowd-pleasing productions of “Scrooge: The Musical,” “Aladdin,” “Pinocchio” and “Kitty Cats” for Mobile-area audiences, will lead the musical through a three-weekend run.
“Driving Miss Daisy” follows on Nov. 7, opening a two-week run of Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about the decades-long friendship between an elderly Southern woman and her African-American driver. The story, which enjoyed two separate Broadway runs and was adapted into a film that won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Picture, remains one of the most frequently staged works in regional theater. Leonora Harrison directs the Chickasaw production.
Beginning Jan. 23, 2015, “The Light in the Piazza” brings a two-weekend run of the musical by Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel, which premiered on Broadway roughly a decade before the Chickasaw staging. The show tells the story of an American mother and daughter whose tour of Italy leads to an unexpected romance. Stacy Driskell, a Mobile vocalist known for her performances with Mobile Opera, will direct.
Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” takes the Chickasaw stage next, opening Feb. 27 and running through March 8 under the direction of Bill Watts. The comedy, centered on shipwrecked twins, mistaken identities and tangled romance, ranks among the most frequently produced of the playwright’s works.
The season is scheduled to close with “Mary Poppins,” set to open May 29 for a three-weekend run pending the availability of performance rights. Mary Jo Alsip will direct the family favorite about a magical nanny who transforms the lives of the children and household she serves.
Chickasaw Civic Theatre, based in Mobile County, has staged community theater productions for decades and draws audiences from throughout the greater Mobile area. Ticket and season information is expected to be released closer to each production’s opening date.