Garfield Center for the Arts Executive Director Steven Arnold announces the 2025 Season to the organization’s volunteers and supporters at a special event held on June 27th.
At a volunteer appreciation event held at the Garfield Center for the Arts on Thursday, June 27th, Executive Director, Steven Arnold, unveiled the 2025 Season. The evening was designed to provide first access to the 2025 Season selections to the most actively involved part of our community, and attendees were treated to food and refreshments prior to the presentation.
The GCA’s Programming Committee includes Mr. Arnold, Mark Sullivan, Shannon Carter, Melissa McGlynn, Jen Friedman, and Nic Carter. It was their task to review title proposals from interested directors, read scripts, settle on a production calendar, and finalize the selected season. Thursday’s event also featured projections showing the new poster graphics for each 2025 title. All of the Garfield Center’s graphics are designed by Francoise Sullivan, the GCA’s webmaster and Marketing specialist.
Opening the season will be the over-the-top farce “Noises Off.” A contemporary comedy classic by Michael Frayn, It takes a side-splitting look at the foibles of theatre folk and the invitable on and offstage issues that can occur during a play, including out-of-control egos, passionate affairs, actor memory issues, personal props mishaps – all of the things that can turn a performance into a high-risk adventure. This play-within-a-play captures a touring British theatre troupe’s production of a comedy titled “Nothing On” in three stages: Act One in “Noises Off” depicts the final dress rehearsal for “Nothing On,” Act Two occurs backstage at a performance about a month into its run, and Act Three depicts a performance two months later and near the end of its debilitating run. We see the dysfunctional inner workings of “Nothing On” as it progresses from flubbed lines and missed cues, at its start, to all-out warfare between cast members in the final performance. Brimming with slapstick comedy, “Noises Off” comes complete with slamming doors, falling trousers, a ballet of silent backstage warfare between actors, and — of course — flying sardines!
“Noises Off” will be directed by the GCA’s Executive Director Steven Arnold and it will run February 21st through March 9th, 2025.
The second production will be “A Rock Sails By,” by Sean Grennan. The story is incredibly interesting and unique: Dr. Lynn Cummings, a facts-only astrophysicist, has discovered herself at life’s crossroads as she tries to bring science and faith into balance. She is grappling with personal questions, trying to reconnect with her daughter, and mourning the loss of her husband. When an unidentified object is discovered heading toward Earth, a less-than-reputable online magazine misquotes her, casting doubt on her credibility. With her reputation on the line, she invites the ambitious journalist to witness the object with her as it comes closest to Earth. Dr. Cummings hopes to see nothing remarkable and thus salvage her credibility, but there is no telling what she will discover beyond the stars. It is thought-provoking and filled with wit, humor, and meaning.
“A Rock Sails By” will be directed by the GCA’s Theatre Manager Nic Carter and will run April 25th through May 11th, 2025.
2025 will bring yet another installment of the annual crowd favorite “Short Attention Span Theatre.” Frequently hilarious, often heartfelt, sometimes downright dramatic, typically irreverent, but always brief and to the point. That describes Short Attention Span Theatre, our annual festival of ten minutes plays. The festival always brings together an excellent assortment of actors, directors and playwrights in a truly wonderful and fulfilling collaboration, so be ready for more fun, more mayhem, more tradition, where each piece is designed to hold your attention for ‘Just. Long. Enough.’
Mark Sullivan is the producer for Short Attention Span Theatre, which runs July 11th through July 27th, 2025.
Playmakers, the annual summer camp for kids age 8 to 15, starts July 14th and runs through August 8th. The production title for Playmakers is not chosen until shortly after the beginning of the year, but its production will be performed on the weekend of August 8th, 9th and 10th, 2025.
Next up in the 2025 season will be “The Elephant Man,” by Bernard Pomerance. Many know the story of John Merrick or, as some called him at the time, the Elephant Man. In 1880s London, Merrick is a horribly deformed young man – a victim of rare skin and bone diseases. Under the care of celebrated physician Frederick Treves, Merrick slowly evolves from an object of pity to an urbane gentleman, desperate to be recognized as a man like any other. A rarely-produced stage play, due to the incredibly transformative and difficult physicality needed from the actor playing Merrick, it provides astounding tour-de-force performances from its lead actors and is universally seen as a modern stage classic.
“The Elephant Man” will be directed by Talley Wilford, who served as the Executive Director of The Groove Theatre in Cambridge. It runs October 3rd through October 19th, 2025.
Closing the season will be the great Rodgers and Hammerstein’s wonderful family-friendly musical, “Cinderella.” Sandwiched between their huge successes with The King and I, Flower Drum Song and The Sound of Music, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote a musical for television. That musical was “Cinderella,” starring Julie Andrews. The show subsequently went on to successful stage productions, a second televised performance, a modern movie interpretation, and a reworked Broadway revival in 2013. The story, as we all know, is about the trials and eventual triumph of a young woman forced into a life of servitude by her cruel stepmother and self-centered stepsisters. She dreams of a better life, and with the help of her fairy godmother, Cinderella is transformed into a princess and finds her prince. The Garfield Center will be producing the 2013 Broadway revival version of the show, with Music by Richard Rodgers, Original Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and New Book by Douglas Carter Beane.
“Cinderella” will run from December 5th through December 21st, 2025. The show will be directed by Adrienne Wrona, who has appeared on stage at the GCA in several productions, directed several 10-minute plays for “Short Attention Span Theatre” and was once the GCA’s Development Director.
Auditions for all plays will occur throughout 2025, though the auditions for “Noises Off” will happen in early December of this year. To receive Auditions announcement emails, go to www.garfieldcenter.org and look for the “Subscribe to our Audition List” option at the bottom of the main page. To receive emails about productions and events, you may also sign up in the same location by using the “Subscribe to our Email List” feature.
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