"It’s show time in Navasota!” Navasota Theatre Alliance (NTA) announces its theme for its shows for the 2023-24 season, unveiling the list at a special season announcement party. The lineup includes four main stage shows, NTA’s annual Lanterns & Legends event, and two summer productions for kids and teenagers.
“We’re excited about mixing our season up this year,” said Joyce Yorek, NTA Board President. “We have a few shows that we have never done before, and some that haven’t been seen on our stage in quite a few years. And we have some of our annual events mixed in as well. I think our audiences are going to love these shows. They’re funny, sentimental, thought provoking and most of all, entertaining!”
NTA’s will open its 38th season with The 39 Steps. Patrick Barlow’s comedy is a spoof on the Alfred Hitchcock film and John Buchan novel of the same name. The show features four actors playing all the roles in the story with many other Hitchcock references thrown in to delight the audience. Auditions for the show will be August 7-8, with performances scheduled September 22 through October 8. The show will be directed by Keith Marrocco.
The theme for this year’s Lanterns & Legends event is Faces Behind the Facades and will feature historical Navasota residents whose names appear on the building facades in historic downtown Navasota. Lanterns & Legends is written by local residents, Mavis and Gary Anderson and Mark Taylor, and directed by Joyce Yorek. The event features live actors who bring to life historic residents from Navasota’s past.
The event will be held at Oakland Cemetery, October 26-28, with a single Sunday matinee performance at the NTA theater on October 29. Featured residents this year will include J.T. Lott, Dr. Alfred Ketchum, Maurine Chinski, Mattie Bookman Craig and other last names from yesteryear that are still visible downtown, revealing the faces and stories behind those names on the building facades.
“Lanterns and Legends is one of the best things we do each year,” said Yorek. “It focuses on the rich history of our community and pays tribute to the men and women who built Navasota. Many of these people were very well-known across the state and beyond in their day. We try to let them tell their stories in a way that is historically accurate and honoring to those people, while still providing some humor and perspective along the way. It’s truly a great event!”
An O. Henry Christmas will fill the NTA stage for the holidays, written by Howard Burman and directed by Mark Taylor. The show features a group of down-on-their-luck characters camped out on a railroad spur for Christmas Eve 1893. A mysterious stranger appears and helps the group enact several O. Henry stories, including Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen, One Thousand Dollars, The Last Leaf, The Gift of the Magi. Auditions will be October 9-10, and performances will include two Thursday night shows in addition to the regular weekend performances, December 7-17.
For the winter show, NTA will produce Eurydice, written by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Kathryn Sutton. The play is a modern-day retelling of the classic story of Orpheus, the greatest musician in the world, and his wife, Eurydice. Auditions will be December 18-19, 2023 and performances will be February 9-25, 2024.
NTA’s spring production will feature two different one-act plays by James McLure, directed by Jim Lawrence. The first act features three actresses on a front porch set in Maynard, Texas in the play, Laundry and Bourbon. Act two will feature three actors in a Texas backyard for the play Lone Star. Both shows feature comedic scripts that deal with the timeless themes of friendship, loyalty and dealing with life’s surprises. Auditions will be held February 26-27, 2024 and performances will be April 19 - May 5, 2024.
NTA will once again host two summer productions put on by its Rising Stars Kids Camp and its Summer Teen Camp. The Teen Camp production has not yet been announced, but the Kids Camp will be producing the Robert Louis Stevenson classic, Treasure Island, adapted by Brendan P. Kelson. Auditions for Kids Camp will be held May 11, 2024. Camp dates are June 3-7, 2024 with a single performance of Treasure Island on June 7. Teen Camp auditions will be held April 22, 2024. The teen camp is scheduled to run two weeks, June 17-29, 2024 and two performances scheduled for June 28-29.
NTA also released the results of the fan favorites from its previous season.
“This season we’re wrapping up holds so many dear memories,” said Yorek. “At our season announcement party, we always like to have the crowd vote on their favorites, and we throw a few extra categories in just for laughs.”
The winners for the 2022-23 season were:
- Best Play: Lend Me A Tenor
- Best Set Design: Games Afoot
- Best Costumes: Lend Me A Tenor
- Best Director: Mark Taylor, Lend Me A Tenor
- Best Actor: Silas Moore as Max in Lend Me A Tenor
- Best Actress: Jane Brewer as Maria in Lend Me A Tenor
- Most Likely to Improvise: Steve Watkins in The Game’s Afoot and Lend Me A Tenor
- Most Likely to Steal a Scene: Steve Watkins in The Game’s Afoot and Lend Me A Tenor
- Most Likely to Forget their Lines: Mac Vaughn in Lanterns & Legends
- Most Infectious Laugh: Gigi Greene in The Supper Club
- Most Likely to be Late for Rehearsal: Mark Taylor, Director of The Game’s Afoot, Lend Me A Tenor, and June Mad
Season ticket packages for the upcoming season are available, as are various levels of sponsorships for each NTA event. NTA’s season is partially funded through Hotel Occupancy Tax revenues from the City of Navasota, distributed through The Arts Council. Performances are held at Navasota Theatre Alliance, 104 W. Washington Avenue historic downtown Navasota, directly across from Prosperity Bank. More details about NTA’s 38th Season are available on the organization’s web site at www.NavasotaTheatre.org.
Courtesy of Navasota Theatre Alliance
