Welcome to Kernersville Little Theatre’s 44th Season: Adapat-Ability! This year, we are trying a few new things, including venues. We’re also reserving the right to zig-zag, punt, loop the loop and dosido our way through — by keeping arts opportunities alive and ensuring the safety of our patrons and volunteers — and bringing you four incredible productions! We hope you’ll take the adventure with us.
The Service at Rocky Bluff (September 24, 25 and 26 at 6:30 p.m.
A fun little jointly-produced venture with Krossroads Playhouse and Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden — The Service at Rocky Bluff with additional support from Vintage Sound & Light and Kernersville Museum — is our gift to the community and admission will be FREE.
We will hold this production outdoors at Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden, located at 215 South Main Street, Kernersville, NC 27284. Reservations will be required, so that we can abide by gathering restrictions in place at the time of show.
Amy Westmond and her husband Floyd, along with his brother and father who comprise a country music group, return to Amy’s home church. They reminisce and catch up on the gossip with Marie, the church’s housekeeper, and Betty, the choir director, who inspired Amy earlier but now seems to have somewhat of an attitude. The Westmonds are told that a search committee will be there for the evening hymn-sing to try to lure the church’s beloved pastor away. With the unseen organist who communicates through charades, they form a plan — a fake pastor and fake service! Lloyd will do his comic preacher routine and Floyd will be his minister of education. The two “ministers” have an abundance of bad jokes, and there’s plenty of comical choreography when they all sing. The fake service seems to be working, but when Betty brings out her puppet, Bobby Socks the Bible Book Worm, there are unexpected — and heartfelt — consequences.
The Kitchen Witches (October 15, 16 and 17 at 6:30 p.m.)
In October we’ll be back at Paul J. Ceiner Botanical Garden, located at 215 South Main Street, Kernersville, NC 27284, for The Kitchen Witches.
Isobel Lomax and Dolly Biddle are two “mature” cable-access cooking show hostesses who have hated each other for thirty years, ever since Larry Biddle dated one and married the other.
When circumstances put them together on a TV show called The Kitchen Witches, the insults are flung harder than the food! Dolly’s long-suffering TV-producer son, Stephen, tries to keep them on track, but as long as Dolly’s dressing room is one inch closer to the set than Isobel’s, it’s a losing battle, and the show becomes a ratings smash as Dolly and Isobel top both Martha Stewart and Jerry Springer!
Eleemosynary (April 15, 16 and 17, 2021 at TBD)
In April, we’ll be back at Paul J. Ceiner Botanical Garden, located at 215 South Main Street, Kernersville, NC 27284, for Eleemosynary.
Eleemosynary examines the delicate relationship of three women: a grandmother, Dorothea, who has sought to exert her independence through strong willed eccentric behavior, Artie, her daughter, who has run from her overpowering mother, and Echo, Artie’s daughter, who is incredibly smart and equally sensitive. It is a study of family relationships, and both through humor and poignant moments, highlights the need for connection and forgiveness.
In this dramatic work by Lee Blessing, three generations of highly intelligent and freethinking women attempt to reconcile years of family dysfunction. Dorothea was a repressed housewife and mother of three sons and a daughter, Artemis (Artie), whom she favored. She discovered that being an eccentric suited her perfectly and spent a lifetime thrusting her wild ideas and beliefs onto an unappreciative and doubting Artemis.
Artemis ran away from Dorothea as soon as she could and kept on the move until she married and had a daughter of her own. She named her Barbara, but Dorothea renamed the child Echo and began to teach her everything from Ancient Greek to calculus. What Echo loves most is words and spelling. The title of the show comes from the winning word that Echo spelled correctly at the National Spelling Bee.
Bright Star (June 2021)
Join us in June for Bright Star.
And last but not least, and hopefully in our traditional venue, in June 2021 we’ll get to tell the story we wanted to tell our audiences so badly this season — Bright Star. Inspired by a true story and featuring the Tony®-nominated score by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Broadway’s Bright Star tells a sweeping tale of love and redemption set against the rich backdrop of North Carolina in the 1920s and ’40s.
When literary editor Alice Murphy meets a young soldier just home from World War II, he awakens her longing for the child she once lost. Haunted by their unique connection, Alice sets out on a journey to understand her past — and what she finds has the power to transform both of their lives.
Bright Star is the story of one woman at two different points in her life: the first, when she is wild and young growing up barefoot and carefree in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina; the second, when she is a well-to-do magazine editor in Asheville, 22 years later. Her story is inevitably woven with that of an idealistic young man named Billy, with whom she shares a mysterious connection.
With beautiful melodies and powerfully moving characters, the story unfolds as a rich tapestry of deep emotion. An uplifting theatrical journey that holds you tightly in its grasp, Bright Star is as refreshingly genuine as it is daringly hopeful.
Special Thanks to Our 44th Season Sponsors
The Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County
North Carolina Arts Council
Kernersville Foundation
River Landing at Sandy Ridge
Town of Kernersville
Vintage Sound & Light
