Heartland Theatre Company's
2009-2010 Season
Additional Events
Get your Season Flex Passes!
All the shows in chronological order
 indicates a production part of the season
HEARTLAND THEATRE COMPANY
Holds Book Signing with
Local Playwright and Actress, Terri Ryburn
 ArtAge Publications’ Senior Theatre Resource Center has published a
collection of Terri Ryburn’s plays entitled, “Age on Stage: 10 Minute
Plays.” Her plays were selected from 160 submissions. The plays were
written for and performed by Young at Heartland, the senior acting program of Heartland Theatre Company.
The books will be available at a book signing on Sunday, April 25,
from 5-6 p.m. at Heartland Theatre, One Normal Plaza, 1110 Douglas Street, Normal. Terri will speak about memories of families, friends, and at least one stranger who inspired the play and one of the plays will be performed.
ArtAge Publications’ Senior Theatre Resource Center is the largest
distributor of plays, books and materials for older performers. With
customers around the world, Terri Ryburn’s work will be staged by
Senior Theatre companies, community theatres, and other sites where
older adults perform. It’s also featured on the website,
www.seniortheatre.com, the most comprehensive information source in
the field.
There is no admission fee and no obligation to purchase the book.
New Plays from the Heartland:
Anniversary!
MAY 6, 7, 8
"Happy Anniversary" is easy to say, even though they're not always happy, are they? At its most basic, an anniversary is just a day to remember.
To the French, "anniversaire" is the same as a birthday. Joyeux anniversaire, mon ami!
To Emily Post, it's a day upon which one must offer very specific gifts, like wool for those married seven years (now you know where the seven-year itch comes from) and silver to those celebrating 25 years of wedded bliss. But it could be a company's Duodecennial (if it's been around 12 years), a city's Demisemiseptcentennial (175 years) or the just the Quindecennial of the Class of 95. Party down, 33 year olds! Or maybe this is the day, however many years ago, that somebody's beloved dumped her, a prodigal son reappeared, a tornado blew a whole town away, somebody won the lottery, or ignominious defeat trampled what seemed like certain victory.
A happy day, a sad day, a day with shades of gray... We were looking for one-act plays that involve one of the above, and we found three great ones.
10-Minute Play Festival
INNS & OUTS: The Hotel Lobby
JUNE 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27 — 2010
Have you ever sat in a hotel lobby, safe behind your newspaper, and watched what happens around you?
People checking in. People checking out. Lost luggage. Stolen towels. Somebody missing. Somebody hiding. The world's craziest convention. A front desk clerk with dreams of Anywhere But Here. Dangerous (or not-so-dangerous) liaisons...
There will definitely be Inns & Outs when Heartland opens up a hotel lobby!
Kathleen Kirk will read from her new book Living on the Earth
at Heartland Theatre,
Sunday, July 11, 2010, at 2:00 p.m.
Kathleen Kirk, a frequent actor on the Heartland stage, will read from her new poetry book, Living on the Earth, at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 11, at Heartland Theatre, during the weekend of the Sugar Creek Arts Festival in Normal, Illinois. Plan to spend an hour or so in a cool theatre!
Kathleen Kirk is the author of two previous poetry chapbooks, Selected Roles (Moon Journal Press, 2006) and Broken Sonnets (Finishing Line Press, 2009). Her work appears in numerous literary journals including Common Review, Fourth River, Poems & Plays, and Spoon River Poetry Review. She had her local release reading for Broken Sonnets at Heartland Theatre in 2009.
Living on the Earth is available directly from the publisher, at www.finishinglinepress.com on the New Releases page, or by mail at
Finishing Line Press
P.O. Box 1626
Georgetown, KY 40324
($15 includes shipping),
at Amazon.com, or at
Babbitt's Books
119 E. Beaufort
Normal, IL
(www.babbittsbooks.com)
WOMAN IN MIND
by Alan Ayckbourn
SEPTEMBER 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30 & OCTOBER 1, 2, 3 — 2010
There's no question that British playwright Alan Ayckbourn is a master at comedy. But his best plays, like WOMAN IN MIND, show the all-too-real heart under the humor. The titular WOMAN IN MIND is Susan, who hits herself in the head with a garden rake. Along with her headache, she finds she now has a handsome husband, a lovely daughter and a loyal brother who are eons better than the real lout she's married to and the surly son who may've joined a cult. Fantasy can be hard to resist when it's so much nicer than reality, but... Uh oh. Now they're starting to collide!
THREE FOR THE SHOW
by Jared Brown
NOVEMBER 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21 — 2010
Local audiences are familiar with Jared Brown, IWU Emeritus Professor of Theatre Arts, as an author, director and actor. In THREE FOR THE SHOW, Brown takes a different path with three short, provocative plays. There’s offbeat romantic comedy (MÉNAGE À TROIS), a dip into suspense (RAGE) and a fizzy, funny farce, complete with musical numbers (GEORGE AND IRENE). Brown’s plays couldn’t be more different, but each features three characters, and those characters will be played by the same three actors on similar sets. All’s fair in love and war in Brown’s irreverent look at relationships times three.
A TUNA CHRISTMAS
Reprise!
A FUNDRAISER FOR HEARTLAND
December 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18 at 7:30 p.m.
December 11, 12, 18, 19 at 2 p.m.
Tacky tree trimmings, gaudy garlands, and redneck ribbons festoon the town of Tuna, Texas as this much-loved audience favorite returns by popular demand. Home for the holidays takes on a whole different meaning in the Lone Star State's third-smallest town when the colorful denizens of Tuna compete in the annual lawn display contest. David Krostal and Don Shandrow portray the entire population, and multiple costume quick-changes help to put the riotous fun in holiday dysfunction. SPECIAL PRICING All Performances: $12 All Performances, except $10 FlexPass Holders and $10 Group Rate for 10 or more.
PROOF
by David Auburn
FEBRUARY 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27 & MARCH 4, 5, 6, 7 — 2011
David Auburn's PROOF is one of the most lauded plays of the decade, winning both the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for drama. Auburn's play, set in the Hyde Park area of Chicago, deals with Robert, a genius who lost his mind along with his prowess in math before he died. Now his daughter Catherine has to deal with her sister, Claire, who wants her to cheer up and move on, as well as Hal, a former student of her dad's, who is looking for one final work, the magic "proof" that Robert left behind. On its face, PROOF is about math, genius, madness and what it means to have all of those things swimming in your gene pool. But in its heart, PROOF is about finding joy, love and self-worth in unexpected places.
END OF THE TOUR
by Joel Drake Johnson
APRIL 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 30 & MAY 1 — 2011
In THE END OF THE TOUR, Joel Drake Johnson offers a darkly funny play about the deeply flawed, deeply disconnected members of the Pierce family in Dixon, Illinois. While Mae hangs onto the memory of having once sung for Dixon's favorite son, Ronald Reagan, her daughter wonders if she can bear one more minute with her mother and her estranged son struggles with even the briefest reunion. Who owes what to whom? Who belongs to whom? What does it mean to be related to people and a place you really don't like very much? THE END OF THE TOUR was nominated for a 2003 Jeff Award for best new play after its Victory Gardens premiere.
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