Peninsula Players Announce 2009 Company Members

Peninsula Players Theatre, America’s oldest professional resident summer theater, announces the cast and company members for its 2009 season. The Peninsula Players will begin its 74th season June 16 and run through October 18 with a mix of shows, which includes a musical, a thriller/mystery and a variety of new comedies.

The season, cast and designers were assembled by the Players’ Artistic Director Greg Vinkler, who has been with Peninsula Players since 1988. “We have a great mix of shows from a musical filled with song and dance to romantic comedies, thought provoking comedies and the thrill of a mystery,” Vinkler said. “Patrons will enjoy seeing the familiar faces of Maggie Carney, Kevin McKillip, Joe Foust, Carmen Roman, and Sean Fortunato. We will also bring to the stage some fresh newcomers to work alongside the Players veterans.”

Opening the Peninsula Players season is David Rambo’s The Lady with All the Answers, which will run from June 16 through July 5. This comedy is drawn from the life and letters of Ann Landers, the “Mistress of Manners.” Longtime Players’ actress Maggie Carney will portray Landers in this one-woman show under the direction of Tom Mula.

A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine will be on stage July 8 through July 26. Peter Amster, who directed Master Class and Born Yesterday, will direct Carney, McKillip, Fortunato, Roman and newcomers Jarrod Zimmerman, Katheryn Patton, Maris Hudson and Dan Collins in the production.

Players’ veteran Karen Sheridan takes the director’s seat for the Midwest première of Is He Dead? the comedy by Mark Twain, and adapted by David Ives, which runs from July 29 to August 16. To raise the value of his paintings, an artist named Millet fakes his own death. Portraying Millet will be McKillip and others in the cast include Fortunato, Neil Friedman, Tim Monsion, Carney, Roman, James Leaming, Hudson, Patrick New and Cassandra Bissell.

Fredrick Knott’s classic thriller Wait Until Dark takes the stage August 19 through September 6 under the direction of Players’ veteran Joe Foust. Wait Until Dark will feature Linda Fortuanto as Susy, the recently blinded woman who faces peril at the hands of ominous strangers. Others in the cast include Whittaker, Friedman, New, McKillip and Anya Kopishcke, a Door County high school freshman making her Players’ debut.

Closing the Players season will be an adaptation by Mark Brown of the Jules Verne classic, Around the World in 80 Days, which runs from September 9 through October 18. McKillip will step into the proverbial shoes of the infamous explorer Phileas Fogg with Whittaker playing Fogg’s manservant, Passepartout. New is cast as the misguided detective who thinks Fogg is a bank robber on the run. The cast will be under the direction of Mula and will also include Foust and Bissell.

The Players perform Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 7:30 pm in the early summer and change the Sunday curtain time in September and October to 7 pm. Matinee performances of each play will be held at 4 pm on each closing Sunday performance:  July 5, July 26, August 16, September 6 and October 18. Ticket prices are $30 to $35/person, and there are no performances Mondays. Season tickets and group rates are also available. For more information or to reserve tickets, phone the Players’ box office at 920.868.3287 or visit the website at http://www.peninsulaplayers.com.