Ship’s Company Theatre Reveals 2008 Season Productions

Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro is pleased to announce their featured Mainstage and Second Stage productions for the upcoming 2008 season.

Opening the 25th performance year in July will be BUMP, by Richard Merrill - a powerful recollection of the days following the ‘bump’ at the Dominion Coal Company in Springhill, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, in October of 1958. Directing the Ship’s Company Theatre production will be Ship’s Company alumnus, Michael Chiasson. Previews will be held July 2nd and 3rd; the play will open on July 4, closing on July 27th.

Snow Dance, by Daniel Lillford, tells the story of a group of long-time friends, and a stranger, who find themselves in a café in a small town on a long winter’s night in New Brunswick. Lillford’s The Mystery of Maddy Heisler made its World Premiere on the Ship’s Company Stage in 2006, and is currently playing to rapt audiences at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre. Pamela Halstead, Ship’s Company Theatre Artistic Producer, will direct this World Premiere, previewing August 6th and 7th, opening on August 8th and closing August 24th.

A Ship Portrait, adapted from author Harry Thurston’s novella-in-verse, brings together the voices of a modern day poet and the renowned nineteenth-century painter of tall ships, John O’Brien, as it explores the value of art in society and in the life of the artist. Ship’s Company Theatre will present the World Premiere, under the direction of Pamela Halstead. The production is then scheduled to tour in conjunction with the Tall Ships Festival in 2009, with the support of the Province of Nova Scotia’s Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage. A preview will take place on August 28th, with performances on August 29th, 30th, and 31st.

Newfoundland’s native gem, Andy Jones, will bring his incomparable wit to the Second Stage with his production of An Evening with Uncle Val, on July 31st, August 1st and 2nd.

Christian Murray’s remarkable one-man performance in Frankie Productions’ Underneath the Lintel by Glenn Berger, directed by Mary Vingoe, will be featured in matinees for area students, as well as in evening performances for the public, from September 10th to 14th.

Details of the complete 2008 season will be released at the Ship’s Company Theatre Fiddle Camp Instructors’ concert on Saturday, May 17th, 2008. Visit www.shipscompany.com.