The Memory of Water

by Shelagh Stevenson
February 11th - March 12th

The first play by a young English playwright already being compared to Alan Aykbourne will be making its West Coast premiere at Stage 3. The setting is the north of England where three grown sisters have returned to their childhood home, summoned there by the death of their mother. It is a voyage to their past and the results are filled with surprises, revelations and discoveries. Riotously funny and often black as midnight, The Memory of Water is a play for mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, sisters, brothers and lovers. "A deeply felt, richly funny study of the pervasive power of the past" -London Guardian.

Lady Day at the
Emerson Bar and Grill

by Lanie Robertson
April 14th -May 14th

For blues fans of all ages, Billie Holiday was the original one and only "Lady" to sing the blues. Her life and her music are inextricably intertwined, each profoundly influenced by the other. The time is 1959. The place a seedy bar in Philadelphia. The audience is about to witness one of Billie Holiday's last performances, given four months before her death. More than a dozen musical numbers are interlaced with salty and humorous reminiscences to project a riveting portrait of the lady and her music."...(a) subtle, absorbing dramatic performance…evokes all the sordidness of a woman entirely shaped by suffering…By the end…one is filled with an unexpected joy."- N.Y. Times. "A searing portrait of a woman whose art was triumphant." - On Stage.

The Compleat Works of
Wllm. Shakspr. (abridged)

June 16th -July 16th

We had to do it! This show was the blockbuster hit of Stage 3's 1998 season and the original cast is returning for another silly look at "Willy the Shake". From the madcap disco version of Romeo and Juliet, to the non-stop action of all of the comedies rolled into one, to Hamlet, backwards, forwards and sideways, the comedy and the laughter never stop. Don't miss it!

Foxfire

by Hume Cronyn and Susan Cooper
August 4th - September 3rd

Bette Laws LeFevre stars in this great play with music written by Hume Cronyn for himself and his wife, Jessica Tandy, as an exhilarating and affirmative tribute to country folk. Annie Nation, an indomitable Appalachian widow of 79, lives on her mountain farm with the acerbic ghost of her husband Hector. Her tranquility is threatened by a brash real-estate developer who wants to turn her land into a vacation resort and by concern over her son, Dillard, a country singer who has come home with two stranded children because his wife has run away. "The play quivers with laughter and stabs the heart." -Time Magazine.

Stage 3's Fourth Annual
Festival of New Plays

September 15th - 17th

A full weekend of staged readings of the best plays submitted to Stage 3's annual competition.

DURANG/DURANG

by Christopher Durang
September 29th -October 23rd

From one of America's funniest and most outrageous playwrights comes this evening of inventive, imaginative, and hilarious one-acts full of audacious originality and brilliant parody. The hit of the 1996 off-Broadway season, Durang/Durang is an off-the wall look at "Theatre…and Everything Else." "The fine art of parody has returned to theater in a production you can sink teeth and mind into, while also laughing like an idiot." - New York Times

The Cripple of Inishmaan

by Martin McDonagh
November 17th - December 17th

From the young Anglo-Irish playwright who has taken the English-speaking theater by storm, The Cripple of Inishmaan is a masterpiece of Irish storytelling, filled with unforgettable characters whose bittersweet lives teeter between comedy and tragedy. "…a madcap tall tale populated by people who remain endearing even at their worst moments." -Philadelphia Inquirer. "…as funny and sad and exhilarating a new play as I've seen for some time." --Curtain Up "…his comic talent appears unlimited, and he also has a way - and at least this appears typically Irish - of mixing up his humor with a touch of the poet and a profound sense of that tragedy always dangerously lurking on comedy's untidy fringe."- New York Times

Stage 3 Theatre Company
208 S. Green St.
Sonora, CA 95370

NEW TICKET PRICING FOR 2000:

INDIVIDUAL TICKETS

Thursday nights: $10
Friday - Sunday: $14

SENIOR TICKETS:

Friday - Saturday: $14
Sunday: $10

ALL STUDENT TICKETS: $8

SEASON TICKETS

5 Productions: $60
6 Productions: $72

Thursday night curtain at 7pm
Friday and Saturday night curtain at 8pm
Sunday matinee at 2pm.

RESERVATIONS: (209) 536-1778
E -MAIL: info@stage3.org