The next production at the Playhouse will be Always….Patsy Cline opening on March 14, 2012.  To purchase 3-play, 5-play or 7-play subscriptions please call 860.767.9520 during office hours or click here to download a form and mail your request to the address below.  Please note that subscriptions cannot be purchased on line or at our box office (currently closed until February 2012).  Please click here for more information on subscriptions and to view the series options.  

Individual tickets for shows in our 2012 season will not go on sale until February 13, 2012.

Thank you for supporting the Ivoryton Playhouse.  See you in March!

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Strong businesses build a strong community and the Ivoryton Playhouse wants to help you promote your business to over 30,000 people each year throughout the year.

Last year, during our Centennial Season, the Ivoryton Playhouse welcomed enthusiastic visitors from all over the Northeast – visitors who can support your business as well as ours.  This year more than ever, the Ivoryton Playhouse is dedicated to support local merchants and help our own community to thrive and prosper.

By advertising in the Ivoryton Playhouse Playbill your ad will be circulated and read by over 30,000 patrons.  Playbill is read from cover to cover and taken home and kept as a souvenir.  For many visitors to the area, Playbill is a primary source of information on where to eat, stay, shop and explore on the Connecticut Shoreline.

Playbill ad rate sheet 2012. 

Advertising in the Ivoryton Playhouse Playbill is both cost effective and good for business.  Also, your purchase of an ad really makes a difference to us – the lights of the Ivoryton Playhouse shine brighter with your support.  Thank you for partnering with us to make 2012 a successful year for our whole community.

To book your space, please contact us at (860) 767 9520 or email info@ivorytonplayhouse.org

PS:  As an added incentive, all ads a ¼ page and above will be listed on our award winning website (over 57,500 visits in 2011) and in an e-blast to our database of 4,000 contacts!

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Join the Ivoryton Playhouse in its 101st year for a season that is positive, upbeat, tasty, toe-tapping and even a little risqué.    

Subscriptions are on sale now.  Single tickets go on sale February 13, 2012. 

Visit www.ivorytonplayhouse.org or call (860) 767 7318 for the latest ticket information.

Always… Patsy Cline        
by Ted Swindley
March 14th – April 1st, 2012
Based on the true story, the show includes down home country humor, true emotion, and many of Patsy’ unforgettable hits such as Crazy, I Fall to Pieces, Sweet Dreams and Walking After Midnight

The Graduate          
A play adapted by Terry Johnson.
April 18th – May 6th, 2012
Based on the novel by Charles Webb and the motion picture screen play by Calder Willingham & Buck Henry.  A cult novel, a classic film, a quintessential hit of the 60s, the story of Mrs. Robinson and young Benjamin Braddock is brought vividly to life in this exciting stage production.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers  
by Neil Simon
June 6th – June 24th, 2012
Bruce Connelly returns as middle-aged Barney Cashman- a decent fellow who can’t succeed in sinning – in this classic Neil Simon comedy.

Hairspray               
Book by Mark O’Donnell & Thomas Meehan. Music by Marc Shaiman.  Lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman.
July 4th– July 29th, 2012
Broadway’s Big Fat musical comedy hit that inspired a motion picture and won 8 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

Oliver!              
by Lionel Bart. Based on the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
August 8th – September 2nd, 2012
Bringing vividly to life Dickens’ timeless characters with its ever-popular story of the boy who asked for more, Lionel Bart’s sensational score includes Food Glorious Food, Consider Yourself, You’ve Got to Pick-a-Pocket or Two, I’d Do Anything, Oom Pah Pah, As Long As He Needs Me and many more.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do  
Featuring the songs of Neil Sedaka
Neil Sedaka, Erik Jackson, Ben H. Winters, Howard Greenfield, Philip Cody, Tom Kitt.
September 26th – October 14th, 2012
Set at a Catskills resort in 1960, this is the sweetly comic story of Lois and Marge, two friends from Brooklyn in search of good times and romance over one wild Labor Day weekend. The score showcases 18 Neil Sedaka classics, including Where the Boys Are, Sweet Sixteen, Calendar Girl, and, of course, the chart-topping title song.

The Kitchen Witches        
By Caroline Smith
October 31st– November 18th, 2012
It’s Martha Stewart meets Jerry Springer in this 2003 comedy of dueling divas who stir up a main course of fun with a side dish of drama. Dolly Biddle and Isabelle Lomax – archrivals in life and love – are tricked into appearing on a cooking show together on their local public access channel. Look out as spoons fly and family secrets are aired.

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It’s that time of year again! Ivoryton Village Alliance is now accepting applications for its Outdoor Lights Competition.  Due to the overwhelming success of last year’s event, the Ivoryton Village Alliance will be expanding entrant eligibility to include ALL of Essex Village this year. Every house in Essex, Centerbrook and Ivoryton can enter to win. If you would like to enter but feel that you do not have enough lights, thanks to local donations, we will be able to supply you with some. There will be a total of 15 of prizes: A first prize of $200 savings bond, 5 prizes of $100 savings bonds, $50 gift certificates from Gather, Ivoryton Service Station, Aggies and the Ivoryton Tavern, as well as 5 pairs of tickets from the Ivoryton Playhouse. If you are interested in participating, please contact Gather in Ivoryton at gather.ivoryton@yahoo.com.
   
The judges will be making several drive-bys between Dec 1 and Dec 18 so please keep your displays on during the month. The judges’ criteria will be the same as last year:

1. Creativity
2. Number of lights
3. Colored lights are looked upon favorably

The winners will be announced in the Valley Courier the week before Christmas.

If you need lights or have any questions contact: Chris Shane
 860-767-1147 or shanec89@comcast.net

For more information on the Ivoryton Illuminations, please follow this link:  http://www.ivorytonplayhouse.org/our-season/ivoryton-illuminations

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Neal Mayer – a NY actor who was last scene at the Playhouse as Dale Harding  in “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” will be featured on the CBS Early Show on Tuesday, November 15th in a story on actor’s who are hired by Medical Schools to portray patients with a variety of different ailments. Neal portrays a patient with a neurological disorder – I hope his experience here in Ivoryton as a patient in a Mental Hospital came in useful!

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Check out the latest review for The Woman In Black now playing at the Ivoryton Playhouse.  Tickets on sale now.  Call 860.767.7318 or book online.

http://ctarts.blogspot.com/2011/11/theater-review-woman-in-black-ivoryton.html

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We are grateful to report that Ivoryton has been spared any damage with this past snow storm and we all have power, lights and heat.  Our seventh and final show in our professional season – The Woman In Black – opens as usual tomorrow (Wednesday, November 2) with a 2:00pm matinee.  With sophisticated lights and sound effects, this is going to be one spooky show.  Call 860.767.7318 or purchase tickets on line via this website.  See you at the theatre!

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This past year has been an extraordinary milestone for the Ivoryton Playhouse – our 100th year. 

Please help to ensure that the First Lady of Connecticut Theatre continues to stand strong during her second century of life by becoming a member of the Ivoryton Playhouse Foundation.  Memberships start at just $35. 

Membership funds allow us to accomplish many things:  preserve the historic building, improve our facilities so audiences can be more comfortable and purchase new technologies to make our organization more efficient.  Did you know that ticket sales only cover the cost of the shows?  Ticket sales fund the talent; membership dues keep the building alive. 

Become a member today.  Play your role in preserving the tradition of quality theatre at the historic Ivoryton Playhouse. 

Click here to see benefits and to download an application form.

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Ian Lowe and Steve Barron star in The Woman In Black opening November 2

One of the most terrifying live theatre experiences – ever!

The Woman in Black
by Stephen Mallatratt
Based on the novel by Susan Hill
at The Ivoryton Playhouse

As the nights are drawing in and Halloween is in the air, who doesn’t love a good, old-fashioned ghost story? Especially a ghost story told on the stage of a 100 year old theatre. Well, you’re in luck! The Ivoryton Playhouse is presenting Stephen Mallatratt’s brilliant adaptation of Susan Hill’s classic chiller The Woman in Black from November 2 – 20.  Unanimously acclaimed by the critics and now in its 23rd year in London’s West End, The Woman In Black is a terrifying trip through time into a tragic and ghostly world where the horrors of the supernatural combine with the power and intensity of live theatre to send shock waves through the audience with splendid thrills and chills.

The Woman In Black was first performed at the Theatre-By-The-Sea in Scarborough in 1987. The original production received rave reviews, paving the way for future productions throughout England. It reached the West End in 1989 where it celebrated its 9000th performance in June of this year.

‘The most brilliantly effective spine chiller you will ever encounter…if you haven’t seen this show yet you are missing a treat’ Daily Telegraph

The Woman In Black runs from November 2 - 20

Set on a lonely English moor, on an isolated causeway, the story has as its hero one Arthur Kipps, an up-and-coming young solicitor who has come north to attend the funeral and settle the estate of Mrs. Alice Drablow of Eel Marsh House. The routine formalities he anticipates give way to a tumble of events and secrets more sinister and terrifying than any nightmare: the rocking chair in the nursery of the deserted Eel Marsh House, the eerie sound of pony and trap, a child’s scream in the fog, and, most dreadfully, and for Kipps most tragically, the woman in black.

The Woman In Black is both a brilliant exercise in atmosphere and controlled horror and a delicious spine-tingler – proof positive that that neglected genre, the ghost story, isn’t dead after all.

Directed by Maggie McGlone Jennings, the show features Steve L. Barron*, who was last seen in Ivoryton in Driving Miss Daisy, and Ian Lowe*, who is making his Ivoryton debut. Maggie is a veteran director has been seen on the Ivoryton stage in Moon Over Buffalo and Steel Magnolias, but this will be her directorial debut here. Set design is by Tony Andrea, lighting design by Doug Harry, sound by Tate R. Burmeister and costumes by Vicky Blake.

The Woman in Black opens on November 2nd and runs November 20th for 3 weeks. Performance times are Wednesday and Sunday matinees at 2pm. Evening performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm. Tickets are $40 for adults, $35 for seniors, $20 for students and $15 for children and are available by calling the Playhouse box office at 860-767-7318 or by visiting our website at www.ivorytonplayhouse.org  (Group rates are available by calling the box office for information.) The Playhouse is located at 103 Main Street in Ivoryton.

 Members of the press are welcome at any performance. Please call ahead for tickets.

Photos courtesy of Anne Hudson.

*member of Actors Equity

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For the second year running, the Ivoryton Playhouse has won the Shoreline Times Readers Poll Best Place to See Live Theatre on the Shoreline!   Thank you for this fabulous honor!  We are thrilled!

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