From press release

WOODSTOCK, Ill.—Woodstock Musical Theatre Company (WMTC) and TownSquare Players, Inc. (TSP), the Woodstock Opera House’s two resident community theater companies, have announced an ambitious schedule of plays and musicals for the 2010-11 season that will take audiences from present-day New York City to Victorian-era England to the Midwest in the 1940s. And season tickets go on sale soon to the general public.

Shows

Love, Sex and the I.R.S., a comedy by Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore, kicks off the season for WMTC. This is a wild farce with twists of fate, sight gags, mistaken identities, and hilarious comic lines.

Jon and Leslie are two out-of-work male musicians who room together in New York City. To save money, Jon has been filing tax returns listing the pair as married. When the I.R.S. lets the “couple” know they’re going to be investigated, Leslie has to masquerade as a housewife, aided by Jon’s fiancée, Kate. Visits by Jon’s mother, Leslie’s ex-girlfriend, and the landlord all complicate matters further, as does the fact that Leslie and Kate are having an affair behind Jon’s back.

The show runs Oct. 8-24.

TSP’s musical this year is The Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Rupert Holmes. This musical mystery, which won five Tonys, including awards for Best Musical, Book and Score, starts off with a loony Victorian musical troupe staging its flamboyant rendition of an unfinished Charles Dickens novel set in England.

The Dickens story centers on John Jasper, a Jekyll-and-Hyde choirmaster who’s madly in love with his music student, Rosa Bud, who’s engaged to Jasper’s nephew, Edwin Drood.

When Edwin disappears mysteriously one stormy night, it’s unknown whether he was murdered—and, if so, whodunit? Audience members vote on the solution; the ending of the show is determined by the vote.

Because of the audience interaction, each performance will be limited to 200. Drood will run Nov. 5-21.

WMTC’s traditional holiday offering is A Christmas Story, by Philip Grecian, based on the movie of the same name.

Humorist Jean Shepherd’s memoir of growing up in the Midwest in the 1940s follows 9-year-old Ralphie Parker in his quest to get a genuine Red Ryder BB gun under the tree for Christmas. Warned by many adults that “you’ll shoot your eye out,” Ralphie still hopes for the special gift.

Elements from the popular motion picture are all on hand, including: the family’s temperamental furnace, encounters with bully Scut Farkas, the experiment with a wet tongue on a frozen lamppost, and the unusual prize Ralphie’s father wins.

Seven performances are scheduled from Nov. 26 to Dec. 5.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s most enduringly popular play, is on tap for spring.

Produced by TSP, this play’s humor derives in part from characters who try to keep fictitious identities to escape unwelcome social obligations.
An aristocratic young Londoner, Algernon, finds out that his friend Ernest goes by a different name—and a different personality—when visiting in the country with his ward.

Algernon has a similar deception: pretending to visit an invalid friend in the country when he wants to get out of social responsibilities in London.

When the ward, a fiancée, the mother of the fiancée, a governess and a member of the clergy all get involved, it becomes clear why this play has entertained audiences for more than 100 years. Performances are March 4-20, 2011.

WMTC’s spring musical, Guys and Dolls, is set in Damon Runyon’s mythical New York City. With a book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, and music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, this oddball romantic comedy—considered by many to be the perfect musical comedy—soars with the spirit of Broadway as it introduces the audience to a cast of vivid characters, including Sarah Brown, the upright, but uptight, “mission doll” who’s out to reform the evildoers of Times Square and Sky Masterson, a slick, high-rolling gambler who woos Sarah on a bet and then ends up falling in love.

Also on hand: chronically Ill nightclub performer Adelaide, whose condition is largely the result of being engaged to Nathan Detroit for 14 years, and devoted fiancé Nathan himself, who’s desperate to find a location for his infamous floating crap game.

The show is set for April 1-24, 2011.

Tickets

Series tickets are already available for 2009-10 season subscribers; they go on sale for new subscribers July 19.

Series ticket packages are available for three, four or all five shows. Series ticket buyers can select the particular performance of each show that works best with their schedule, receiving the same seats for each show in their package.

The prices (including one $3 Woodstock Opera House surcharge) are $57 for three shows, $71 for four shows and $83 for the entire season. Those prices, which were not raised from the 2009-10 season, represent a savings of $12, $21 and $32, respectively (over individual ticket prices).

To purchase tickets, call the Woodstock Opera House box office at (815) 338-5300 or stop in during regular box office hours.