2020-2021  Season

Romeo & Juliet
BY William Shakespeare
fall play directed by grant sorenson

One of the most widely performed and studied plays in history, Romeo & Juliet has captured the imagination of audiences for generations. Two feuding households bear an ancient grudge, but a fateful connection between the children of the families sparks a fast and furious chain of events that ultimately ends in tragedy...but is their death enough to bring peace between the rival houses? In a timely new production, the tragic story of the star-cross'd lovers will be told by a troupe of traveling actors during a time of pandemic -- the Black Plague that ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages. Romeo & Juliet will be a fully staged production filmed and made available to audiences digitally.

Romeo & Juliet will have its virtual opening night on Saturday, November 20. 

THE WOODS
AN ORIGINAL DEVISED THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE
 ​DIRECTED BY Sandra Struthers

The Woods will be an original devised theater piece created by the ensemble with guidance from director, Sandra Struthers. The ensemble will take elements of folklore, urban legends, and spooky stories to create an immersive walk-through experience in the woods behind the high school. The perfect way to get into the Halloween spirit, audiences will be invited to walk along these haunted trails in safe, socially-distanced groups.

The Woods will perform October 22-31, 2020. More information on this unique theatrical experience will be available soon!

PLAYGROUNDS 2021
STUDENT PRODUCED PLAYS
FACILITATED BY SANDRA STRUTHERS, SONIA GErbER,
​AND GRANT SORENSON

Wayzata Theatre's annual new play festival, featuring plays written, directed, and performed entirely by WHS Theatre students in conjunction with PlayPen, our yearlong play development club. Following a three week intensive writing workshop, a handful of original Zoom plays will be selected for production. Directed and performed by students, these new plays will stream live on Zoom. What a better way to kick off 2021 than with a festival of totally unique and fully student produced plays?!

PlayGrounds 2021 will livestream January 29 and 30, 2021 at 7:00pm. More information about streaming will be available soon!

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
MUSIC & Lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison
Book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar
​SPRING MUSICAL DIRECTED BY SONIA GERBER

A hilarious send-up of Golden Age musical comedies, The Drowsy Chaperone is a bubbly glimpse into one man's Broadway obsession. Using a clever show-within-a-show structure, the introverted narrator, Man in Chair, shares his favorite musical with the audience, The Drowsy Chaperone. As he listens to the worn-out record, the show comes to life in his tiny apartment, transforming his world into the Morosco Theatre in New York City, 1928. Within the musical, vaudeville starlet Janet van de Graaf is due to marry dashing leading man, Robert Martin -- but plans go awry thanks to a classic blend of mix-ups, mayhem, and mistaken identities. Will the wedding go on as planned or will this cast of hilarious show-biz types ruin Janet's one shot at true love and happiness? 

Crimes of the Heart
by Beth Henley
 SPRING Play directed by Grant Sorenson

​This hysterical and heartwarming dark comedy concerns itself with the three quirky Magrath sisters, forced to spend a fraught couple days at their childhood home in Hazlehurst, Mississippi in the fall of 1974. Youngest sister Babe has just shot her husband for unknown reasons, middle sister Meg is home to rekindle a long lost love, and oldest sister Lenny just wants to celebrate her birthday in peace. As the sisters rehash old traumas and new territory, they move past their disturbing childhood and begin to heal together. Crimes of the Heart won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.