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Door County Entertainment: Peninsula Players Announce 2009 Season

Peninsula Players Theatre, America’s oldest professional resident summer theater and Door County’s theatrical icon, is pleased to announce its 74th season running June 16 through October 18.

A major role of Peninsula Players’ Artistic Director Greg Vinkler is play selection. Vinkler not only looks for shows to stir excitement in patrons, but also in the resident company of actors and designers. “Enthusiasm builds in the company to meet the challenges of each show,” Vinkler said, “and the creative results are expressed in the final product on stage.”

The Peninsula Players will open its 74th season June 16 with David Rambo’s The Lady with all the Answers. This comedy is drawn from the life and letters of Ann Landers, the “Mistress of Manners,” with the cooperation of her daughter Margo Howard. From an accomplished playwright, Rambo delivers a hilarious look into the life of Ann Landers. If one needed blunt advice, they wrote to Ann. But to whom can Ann turn when life hands her lemons? The Lady with all the Answers will run through July 5.

Next up will be a double-feature musical A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine (July 8 – July 26) with book and libretto by Dick Vosburgh, music by Frank Lazarus and additional lyrics and music by Jerry Herman. This Tony Award-winning musical comedy is first a musical tribute from the ushers at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, who imagine themselves upon the silver screen; then in Act Two audiences are off to a Russian mansion and a fast-paced comedy à la the Marx Brothers.

From July 29 through August 16 the Peninsula Players presents the Midwest première of Is He Dead? by Mark Twain, adapted by David Ives. Written in 1898, the play was not published until it was rediscovered by Twain scholar, Shelly Fisher Fishkin, while doing research work at Berkley. First performed on Broadway in 2007, Millet, a young painter, fakes his death in order to pay off his girlfriend Marie’s debts. Millet then puts on a dress and passes himself off as his own sister while figuring a way to come back to life, don trousers again and marry Marie!

Wait Until Dark a thriller by Franklin Knott moves onto the stage from August 19 through Sept. 6. Sinister con men, who are willing to kill for what they want, meet their match in a courageous blind woman. They claim to seek material evidence against her husband, who is implicated in a murder. Susy struggles to outwit them in a cunning game of cat and mouse.

Closing the season and bringing fast-paced adventure to the stage is Around the World in 80 Days (Sept. 9 – Oct. 18), adapted by Mark Brown based on the novel by Jules Verne. Take a whirlwind spin around the globe with fearless adventurer Phileas Fogg in a comic, family-friendly escapade as Fogg races to save the fortune he wagered.

Season, group and individual tickets are available. For more information or to reserve tickets phone the Peninsula Players’ box office at 920.868.3287 or visit http://www.peninsulaplayers.com.