Past Shows - 1979 to Today
Noises Off
9/2021 - 10/2021
The Valley Players' fall 2021 production will be Noises Off – often described as “a play within a play, a farce within a farce” by Michael Frayn. The show is directed by Joanne Puente.
Out of Sight Out of Murder - Revival
Jan. 17 - Feb. 2 2020
Out of Sight... Out of Murder was the first Vermont Playwright's Award winner, produced in 1983. The play was subsequently published by Samuel French, and the Acting Edition bears the names of the original cast at the Valley Players.
40th Anniversary Season Overview
2019 - 2020
Our first show, Harvey, was staged in 1979. This was an auspicious start to our 40 year run performing community theater in the Mad River Valley. Over our 40 years we have never repeated a show, until now. To celebrate our anniversary, we hand-picked six of our most memorable shows to revive and kicked off the season May 31, 2019, with Harvey.
The Arsonists
Nov. 30 - Dec. 16 2018
Written By Max Frisch; Translated by Alistair Beaton The story is about Gottlieb Biedermann, who has gotten himself into some hot water. He is in conflict with his business partner of twelve years, at odds with the changing world around him, and struggling to maintain an idea of safety in his home as a spat of fires ravage through some of the more well-known locales of his modern American city. His wife Babette feels torn between her perception of the world around her and the reality of it, caught up in the love she has for her husband all the while being deceived by it. The infallibility of a grim ending becomes all too real when a stranger knocks on the door, asking simply for a bit of food and maybe a dry place to sleep. The play suggests that once a door has been knocked it has to be opened, eventually. What would you do for the one who had knocked?
Rock of Ages
June 29 - July 10 2017
Book by Christopher D'Arienzo
Music & Lyrics by A Bunch of F*#@!ing Face Melting 80's Bands
The Great American Trailer Park - The Musical
June 17 - July 3 2016
written by David Nehls and Betsy Kelso
Enchanted April
April 24 - May 3 2015
Directors Note: I expect that everyone in our audience has experienced
the desire to escape—most recently from a world where spring
and sunshine seemed to disappear. The characters in our play
are desperate to escape as well. They are caught in a world of
unending rain that symbolizes their own loss of hope and of love.
World War I is four years past, but the grief, both public and private, is still very real, and for “Those who appreciate Wisteria and
sunshine...” it seems that a journey of rediscovery and reawakening could bring them the happy “Afters” that will heal all the
sad “Befores.” In the play tonight, we will journey with them to a
“Paradise” where they find themselves able to heal and prosper
and bloom once more.
Jeanne Beckwith, Director
Young Frankenstein
October 4 - 20 2013
Book by mel Brooks and Thomas Neehan, Music and Lyrics by Mel Brooks
Avenue Q
June 22 - July 8 2012
music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book by Jeff Whitty
![[ title of show]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/50863c_369c89b362f74b7285fc12a1b21be372~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_492,h_328,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Image-empty-state.jpg)
"30 Anniversary Retrospective"
July 10 -12 2009
Ruth Ann Pattee, Artistic Director with a bunch of fabulous actors, singers and Joan Foster pulled together a wonderful evening of song, dance and play snippets.
"The Cemetery Club"
May 25-28; May 31-June 3 2007
This popular show about the lives of three Jewish widows is funny and poignant; full of laughter and tears. Lifetime friends, Ida, Doris and Lucille are part of a club, The Cemetery Club. Every month they meet at Ida's house in New York for tea, then trundle off to the cemetery to remember the good times and gossip with deceased husbands. Sam, the butcher, meets the widows at the cemetery while visiting his late wife and changes their lives forever. The movie version of this wonderful comedy starred Olympia Dukakis, Diane Ladd, and Ellen Burstyn.
"Annie"
June 23 - July 9 2000
Based on the popular comic strip by Harold Gray, Annie has become a worldwide phenomenon and was the winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The beloved book and score by Tony Award winners, Thomas Meehan, Charles Strouse and Martin Charnin, features some of the greatest musical theatre hits ever written, including "Tomorrow."
Monky Business
August 20 - Sept. 4 1999
Book by Todd Mueller & Hank Boland, Music and Lyrics by Gregg Opelka
Festival of One Acts - Popcorn, Reduced for Quick Sale, The Waiting Room, A Chance Meeting
Feb. 25-Mar. 5 19964
Little Shop of Horrors
1987
book and lyrics by Howard Ashman, music by AlanMenken
directed by Leo Cohen
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
written by Stephen Sondheim, directed by Wendy Cohen Kuglics
The Sandwalk
Nov. 22- Dec. 2, 1985
The second Playwright Award winner, written by David Paul Simon, directed by Leo Cohen
Butterflies Are Free
September 13-23, 1985
written by Leonard Gershe, directed by Mitchell Kontoff and Richard Kuglics
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
July 1985
written by Larry L. King and Peter Masterson, directed by Wendy Cohen and Bob Law
Company
July 6-16, 1984
music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Firth
directed by Wendy Cohen and Jim Dodds
Out of Sight...Out of Murder
October 21-30, 1983
The first Vermont Playwright Award winner, written by Fred Carmichael, directed by
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
August 19-29, 1983
book by Abe Burrows, music and lyrics by Frank Leosser, directed by Leo Cohen
Guys and Dolls
August 20-30, 1982
book by Jo Swerling & Abe Burrows, music & lyrics by Frank Loesser, directed by Leo Cohen
Something for Charlie
May 28-June 6, 1982
written by Neville J. Bryant, directed by Mark "Emmett" Bortner
On the 20th Century
August 14-24, 1981
The Valley Players' first musical! Book & Lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green;
Music by Cy Coleman; directed by Leo Cohen
Three One Acts
May 29-June 2, 1980
"George's Room" written by Alun Owen, directed by Elan Stevens
"I'm Herbert" written by Robert Anderson, directed by Leo Cohen
"Zoo Story" written by Edward Albee, directed by David Sardi
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Feb. 28-March 22, 1980
written by Tim Kelly, based on the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Directed by Don Hirsch
Cactus Flower
October 25-28, 1979
written by Abe Burrows, directed by Don Hirsch
"Cactus Flower" was our second show, and the first performed in the Odd Fellows Hall, now known as the Valley Players Theater.
Harvey
July 5-8, 1979
written by Mary Chase, directed by Edsel Hughes
"Harvey" was the fist show produced by the Valley Players, performed at the Fayston Elementary School.