TALLAHASSEE – Cameron Jackson, Director of the School of Theatre at Florida State University is pleased to announce that subscriptions are now available to Theatre FSU’s 2005-2006 season of theatrical productions. This year’s subscription season includes the award-winning musical Sweet Charity (sponsored in part by Magnolia Properties and Investments, Inc., Realtor), the award-winning dramatization Amadeus, and the dramatic comedy Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.

Other subscription options include Lanford Wilson’s Vietnam drama Fifth of July, Peter Weiss’ controversial play Marat/Sade, Joseph Robinette’s charming adaptation of E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (part of the Sue and Richard G. Fallon Theatre for Young Audiences Series), and the hilarious musical whodunit The Mystery of Edwin Drood, based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel.

This year’s theme “Look a Little Deeper” encourages audiences to look a little deeper at relationships – a deeper look at the relationships between close friends, families, distant friends, a pig and a spider, a war and its impact, accidental competitors, a girl and her city, and much more.

Mr. Jackson states, “Throughout the 2005-2006 season, you will also have the opportunity to look a little deeper at how productions come to life at the School of Theatre.  From pre-show talks to post performance receptions, numerous events will offer exciting looks into our process of creating theatre, and we invite you to join us throughout this year’s journey.”

2005-2006 season subscriptions and season brochures are now available by calling the Fine Arts Ticket Office at 850-644-6500. The Fine Arts Ticket Office is located in the lobby of the Fine Arts Building on the corner of Call and Copeland Streets. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday, 11 am to 5:30 pm and one hour prior to each performance.

The School of Theatre at Florida State University 2005-2006 Season includes:

Fifth of July

By Lanford Wilson

October 7-8, 12-15 at 8:00 pm

October 9 & 16 at 2:30 pm

Conradi Studio Theatre

First presented by New York’s famed Circle Repertory Company in 1978, this brilliant, enthralling play has been hailed as a major work by one of the theatre’s most important and celebrated writers, Lanford Wilson.  Fifth of July pays compassionate tribute to a group of former student activists who gather for a reunion at an old farm in Lebanon, MO.  As they reminisce, revealing lost dreams and buried resentments, they expose the shattered hopes of their college days at Berkley and the unhealed trauma of the Vietnam War.  Ultimately what emerges is a portrait of a flawed but loving family who, in spite of everything, is surviving.  (This show is intended for mature audiences)

Sweet Charity

Book by Neil Simon

Music by Cy Coleman

Lyrics by Dorothy Field

October 21-22, 26-29 at 8:00 pm

October 23 & 30 at 2:30 pm

Fallon Theatre

Set in the explosive 1960’s, Sweet Charity is a dazzling musical that explores a dance hall girl’s pursuit of love in this fractured urban fairy tale set in New York City.  Follow Charity as she dances through life, exposed to the harsh realties of romance while never doubting the redemptive nature of love.  Sweet Charity is the legendary Bob Fosse musical featuring classic numbers “Big Spender,” “Rhythm of Life,” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now.”  Cool, sexy, and groundbreaking, Sweet Charity is a musical in every sense of the word, capturing the rhythms, the sounds, and the fun vernacular of the 60’s.

Marat/Sade

(The Assassination and Persecution of Jean-Paul Marat s Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum Charenton under the Direction of the Marquis deSade)

November 4-5, 9-12 at 8:00 pm

November 6 & 13 at 2:30 pm

Lab Theatre

Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade assaults political ideals while presenting a brilliant by disturbing mixture of fact and fiction.  Provocative and controversial, Marat/Sade has alternately enthralled and shocked audiences for 40 years.  When the infamous write and inmate of Charenton’s Asylum for the Insane, the Marquis de Sade, stages a play about the murder of the French Revolution’s Jean-Paul Marat, the play-within-a-play develops a breathtaking life of its own.  As Sade’s play progresses, its lunatic performers teeter on a dangerous edge and chaos envelopes both the sane and the mad.  The brilliant and completely bizarre conclusion will leave you raving for more!  (The show is intended for mature audiences and contains violence, adult themes, language, and situations)

Charlotte’s Web

Adapted from the book by E.B. White by Joseph Robinette

November 17-19 at 7:00 pm

November 19-20 at 2:30 pm

Fallon Theatre

Joseph Robinette’s adaptation of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web is the charming story of Wilber the pig and Charlotte the spider.  Charlotte’s Web, the best selling children’s novel of all time, is a story about the importance of friendship and the willingness to put the needs of others’ ahead of one’s own.  By many accounts, this is the most entertaining play that a child can take an adult to see.  Guaranteed to cause laughter and thought provoking conversation, the amusing characters will have everyone smiling as they share this enjoyable and poignant story.

A Sue and Richard G. Fallon Theatre for Young Audiences Production

Amadeus

By Peter Shaffer

February 3-4, 8-11 at 8:00 pm

February 5 & 12 at 2:30 pm

Fallon Theatre

While it seems that few people are destined for greatness, the majority are what Nietzche has called “the bungled and botched” – those who witness greatness, but for some reason, never achieve it.  Amadeus explores an encounter between: the extraordinary and the ordinary; the sublime and the merely mundane.  Antonio Salieri, finds his faith in God shattered by the glorious talents of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the childish genius whose music has a brilliance Salieri can never hope to match.  Amadeus is a dramatized account of actual events, filled with passion, jealousy, perhaps murder and of course, some of the most spectacular music ever composed.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

A musical by Rupert Holmes

February 17-18, 22-25 at 8:00 pm

February 19 & 26 at 2:30 pm

Lab Theatre

This hilarious musical whodunit based on Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, follows an outrageously loony Victorian musical troupe, as it performs its flamboyant rendition of this musical mystery.  When young Drood disappears, murder is suspected, but who could have committed the crime?  The giddy playfulness of this play-within-a-play allows the audience to vote on the solution as prelude to the most unusual and hilarious finale of all!

Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

By Ed Graczyk

April 7-8, 12-15 at 8:00 pm

April 9 & 16 at 2:30 pm

Fallon Theatre

Inside a rundown 5 & Dime store in McCarthy, Texas, a fun-filled reunion is planned for the members of a local 1950’s James Dean Fan Club.  A dramatic comedy, the play shifts between the present 1975 and 1955 as flashbacks show the Disciples of James Dean frenzied over Dean’s arrival to shoot the film Giant.  Five of the friends appear for the reunion, including an old acquaintance with some surprises for all.  By the end of the evening, everyone has to come to terms with the secrets and self-deceptions that they have been living with for the past 20 years.