Third Avenue Playhouse Announces 2018 Lineup

James Valcq, co-artistic director of Third Avenue Playhouse, as eccentric Parisian composer Erik Satie in the one-man play ‘The Velvet Gentleman.’ Photo by Len Villano.

Third Avenue Playhouse (TAP) announces their 2018 schedule.

TAP starts the year with their Winter Play Reading Festival, Feb. 16 – 25. This is TAP’s second annual play reading festival featuring both new and classic plays in staged readings by TAP’s professional company. The play selections will be announced at a later date.

On stage April 5-22 is Gray’s Anatomy by Spalding Gray. In middle age, Spalding Gray (played by Doug Mancheski) has entered “the Bermuda Triangle of health,” that place where the body begins to break down in alarming and humiliating ways. His immediate problem is an eye complaint that could be corrected with minor surgery. But for the high priest of high anxiety, nothing is ever minor. And so Gray embarks on a crazed crusade for wellness that takes him from a Native American sweat lodge to a dictatorial nutritionist and, finally, to a gory session with the “Elvis Presley of psychic surgeons” in the Far East.

Stella and Lou by Bruce Graham will be performed May 10 – June 3. On a quiet night at Lou’s South Philadelphia bar, two kindred spirits seek solace as they navigate changing times and relationships past. It’s an intimate exploration of friendship, forgiveness and the longing for companionship that grows with the passage of time.

Lungs by Duncan MacMillan will be performed June 20 – July 28. Lungs is a smart and funny drama that follows a couple through the surprising lifecycle of their relationship as they grapple with questions of family and change, hope, betrayal, happenstance and the terrible pain that you can only cause the people you love.

From Aug. 2 – Sept. 8, Shinbone Alley, a musical comedy from Mel Brooks and Joe Darion, will be on stage at TAP. Shinbone Alley was one of the most daring musicals of the 1950s. In a deserted office, a cockroach dives headfirst onto the keys of a typewriter, pouring out the ruminations of his soul. This is Archy, a poet, philosopher, moralist and hapless friend of Mehitabel, an alley cat. This bizarre, highly original musical takes us into the streets of the big city as Archy tries hopelessly to bring Mehitabel off the back fence and into a respectable home as a housecat. This will be a rare chance to see a true forgotten gem of Broadway’s Golden Age.

From Sept. 13 – Oct. 21, Billy Bishop Goes to War by John MacLachlan Gray with Eric Peterson will be performed. The story is of irreverent hero and Canadian WWI flying ace Billy Bishop. In his heyday, no one was more famous in Canada than Bishop, a pugnacious young pilot from Owen Sound, who was the terror of the skies during World War I. Eric Peterson and John MacLachlan Gray’s buoyant celebration of this complex man has a rich, nearly 40-year history of touring nationally and internationally.

To end 2018, Velvet Gentleman, written and performed by James Valcq, will return Dec. 19-31. The play is a colorful journey into the mind and music of the witty and eccentric composer Erik Satie whose music ranges from comically bizarre to hauntingly beautiful.

This winter TAP offers a variety of classes for all ages – elementary, middle and high school students and adults. To see the full list of classes and schedules visit thirdavenueplayhouse.com/education. For more information, call 920.743.1760 or drop by the daytime box office at 234 N. Third Avenue.