Peterborough Players

Peterborough Players Present Screening of THE MADNESS OF GEORGE III

1/17/2019

On Saturday, January 26 at 1:00pm the Peterborough Players present an encore screening from National Theatre Live: THE MADNESS OF GEORGE III,

It’s 1786 and King George III is the most powerful man in the world. But his behavior is becoming increasingly erratic as he succumbs to fits of lunacy. With the King’s mind unravelling at a dramatic pace, ambitious politicians and the scheming Prince of Wales threaten to undermine the power of the Crown, and expose the fine line between a King and a man. Written by one of Britain’s best-loved playwrights, Alan Bennett (The History Boys, The Lady in the Van), this epic play was also adapted into a BAFTA Award-winning film following its premiere on stage in 1991.The cast of this new production includes Olivier Award-winners Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Wolf Hall, NT Live: Coriolanus) in the title role, and Adrian Scarborough (Gavin and Stacey, Upstairs Downstairs, After the Dance).

Runtime is approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes including an intermission.

Tickets to National Theatre Live screenings are $20. For tickets and information on this and all upcoming productions, call 603-924-7585 and visit www.peterboroughplayers.org. The Peterborough Players is located at 55 Hadley Road in Peterborough, NH.

BETH BROWN COMES HOME TO THE PETERBOROUGH PLAYERS AS NEW DIRECTOR OF ADVANCEMENT

1/15/2019

PETERBOROUGH, NH—Peterborough Players welcomes Beth Brown as its new Director of Advancement. An established and successful professional, Beth has spent more than 25 years in the fields of development and marketing. She has worked for corporations and nonprofit organizations in New York City, the Washington, DC area, and most recently in Keene, NH where she planned, led and completed a $5mil capital campaign for MoCo Arts.
“We are fortunate to have Beth at the helm of our development efforts. Her knowledge and experience are a perfect fit for our organization and we couldn’t be happier to welcome her home to Hadley Road”, says Players’ Managing Director, Keith Stevens.

Beth's career has included retail advertising sales for GLAMOUR Magazine, Director of Marketing for the Naval Academy Athletic Association, Vice President of Marketing for DavCo Restaurants / Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, and Director of Development at MoCo Arts. She is a past member of the Rotary Club of Annapolis, Board Member of the Annapolis Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Board of the Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Conference & Visitors Bureau, Board Member of Arts Alive, and many other civic and community organizations.

Raised in Peterborough, Beth has always held a strong love for the performing arts and maintains a special connection to the Players in particular as it was founded by her family in 1933. "MoCo brought me home to NH after many years in corporate life in NY and DC, and this next stage is uncannily poetic; I will--quite literally--be home. The Players, founded by my grandmother and run for decades by my mother, has been a cultural treasure for generations. I am so grateful to Ellen Dinerstein and Chuck Morey, and more recently Keith Stevens and Gus Kaikkonen for keeping this magical theatre going and growing. I look forward to continuing to find ways for the Peterborough Players' high-quality professional theatre to thrive in the Monadnock Region and to reach diverse audiences, existing and new."

Peterborough Players is New Hampshire’s premiere professional regional theater. Known for their annual Summer Season consisting of 7 main stage productions and 2 children’s shows, the Players now produces a 3-play Winter Season and continues to offer their Arts on Screen series that includes screenings of renowned performances from the Metropolitan Opera and London’s National Theatre. The Players strives to enrich the human experience by producing quality live professional theatre, developing and training theatre artists, and offering New Hampshire a wide variety of performing arts events. The Peterborough Players is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization, and has been providing professional theatre to audiences since 1933. They are located at 55 Hadley Road, Peterborough, NH 03458. (603) 924-9344, www.peterboroughplayers.org.

Kraig Swartz Returns to the Players in FULLY COMMITTED!

1/9/2019

The Peterborough Players presents the award-winning comedy, Fully Committed by Becky Mode, January 17-27.

A return engagement of one of their most popular productions, this hit comedy warms the basement of Manhattan’s trendiest, most impossible-to-get-into restaurant where the best food inspires the worst behavior. In one frazzled day, our hero, a harried reservationist/struggling actor, fends off coercion, hysterics, and bribes, only to stumble upon his own recipe for success.

Kraig Swartz first opened his menu of 40 delicious characters at the Players in 2001. Since then his Fully Committed performance has won him Philadelphia’s Best Actor Barrymore Award and Michigan’s Thespie Award. Directed by Players’s Artistic Director Gus Kaikkonen, Fully Committed is approximately 90 minutes and is Rated PG-13.

For tickets to this production and more, visit www.peterboroughplayers.org or call 603-924-7585. The Peterborough Players is located at 55 Hadley Rd in Peterborough, NH.

Peterborough Players Present Live Screening of MET Opera’s ADRIANA LECOUVREUR!

1/7/2019

On Saturday, January 12 at 1:00pm the Peterborough Players present, Live from the Metropolitan Opera, a screening of Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur.

The New York Times raves that this production "bristles with passion and danger." Soprano Anna Netrebko joins the ranks of Renata Tebaldi, Montserrat Caballé, and Renata Scotto, taking on—for the first time at the Met—the title role of the real-life French actress who dazzled 18th-century audiences with her on-and offstage passion. The soprano is joined by tenor Piotr Beczała as Adriana’s lover, Maurizio. Sir David McVicar’s staging, which sets the action in a working replica of a Baroque theater and has been praised as an “elegant production, sumptuously designed … The spectacle guarantees a good night out.”

Runtime is approximately 3 hours and 25 minutes including 2 intermissions.

Tickets to Metropolitan Opera screenings are $25. For tickets and information on this and all upcoming productions, call 603-924-7585 and visit www.peterboroughplayers.org. The Peterborough Players is located at 55 Hadley Road in Peterborough, NH.

Sienna Miller stars in Screening of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

12/28/2018

On Saturday, January 5 at 1:00pm the Peterborough Players present a special encore screening of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof starring Sienna Miller, Jack O’Connell, and Colm Meaney.

On a steamy night in Mississippi, a Southern family gathers at their cot- ton plantation to celebrate Big Daddy’s birthday. e scorching heat is almost as oppressive as the lies they tell. Brick and Maggie dance round the secrets and sexual tensions that threaten to destroy their marriage. With the future of the family at stake, which version of the truth is real – and which will win out? Don’t miss the show praised by the New York Times as a “thrilling revival”

Runtime is approximately 2 hours and 55 minutes including one intermission.

Tickets to National Theatre Live screenings are $20. For tickets and information on this and all upcoming productions, call 603-924-7585 and visit www.peterboroughplayers.org. The Peterborough Players is located at 55 Hadley Road in Peterborough, NH.

Peterborough Players Receives 23 Finalist Nominations for the 17th Annual New Hampshire Theatre Awards

12/26/2018

The Players are ringing in the New Year with news that they have been recognized for their work during the 2018 Summer Season with 23 finalist nominations for the New Hampshire Theatre Awards! Of their 7 Main Stage productions this past Summer Season, 2 plays were eligible for consideration: An Inspector Calls and The Drowsy Chaperone. And the 23 finalist nominations are from those 2 productions in a variety of categories.

The Players congratulates all of the finalists and thanks the New Hampshire Theatre Awards for the recognition!

The New Hampshire Theatre Awards Ceremony will take place on January 19, 2019 at the Capital Center for the Arts in Concord, NH.

The list of Players finalists are as follows:

The Drowsy Chaperone (13 Finalist Nominations) -

Best Professional Production of a Musical
Best Director of a Professional Production of a Musical: Gus Kaikkonen
Best Actress in a Professional Production of a Musical: Elyse Collier as Janet Van De Graaff
Best Actor in a Professional Production of a Musical: Kraig Swartz as Man In Chair
Best Supporting Actor in a Professional Production of a Musical: Tom Frey as Aldolpho
Best Supporting Actor in a Professional Production of a Musical: Joe Bigelow as Robert Martin
Best Supporting Actress in a Professional Production of a Musical: Bridget Beirne as The Drowsy Chaperone
Best Musical Direction of a Professional Production: Thomas Martin
Best Scenic Design in a Professional Production: Charles Morgan
Best Lightning Design in a Professional Production: Kevin Frazier
Best Choreography for a Professional Production: Kirby Ward
Best Costume Design for a Professional Production: Elizabeth Rugg-Hinds
Best Sound Design for a Professional Production: CJ Leake & Kevin Frazier

An Inspector Calls (10 Finalist Nominations) -

Best Professional Production of a Drama/Comedy
Best Director of a Professional Drama/Comedy: Keith Stevens
Best Actress in a Professional Drama/Comedy: Rebecca Brinkley as Shelia Birling
Best Actor in a Professional Drama/Comedy: Gus Kaikkonen as Inspector Goole
Best Supporting Actor in a Professional Drama/Comedy: Marc LaVasseur as Gerald Croft
Best Supporting Actor in a Professional Drama/Comedy: Jack Koenig as Arthur Birling
Best Supporting Actress in a Professional Drama/Comedy: Dee Nelson as Sybil Birling
Best Scenic Design for a Professional Production: Charles Morgan & Gus Kaikkonen
Best Lightning Design for a Professional Production: F. Mitchell Dana
Best Costume Design for a Professional Production: Anthony Paul-Cavaretta

The awards are produced by The New Hampshire Theatre Alliance (NHTA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works with NH theatre companies and artists to foster collaborative conversation, resource-sharing, and audience engagement. Believing that theatre is a public good vital to the health of the Granite State, we advocate for the growth of NH professional, community, and youth theatre organizations by promoting the pursuits of individual member companies and highlighting the impact of the performing arts locally and statewide.

Peterborough Players Announces New Board President

12/20/2018

Jacqueline Smethurst has been elected as the new Board President of the Peterborough Players. She takes over the position from local business leader, Cy Gregg.

“Given the importance of Peterborough Players both economically and culturally, it has been my pleasure to be on the Board for the past 6 years, and as its President for the past three”, says Cy Gregg, whose work with the theatre has positioned the Players as a leading arts organization in New Hampshire. “Fortunately, I am leaving the Board knowing that Jacqueline, in her role as President, will build on the past 85 years of the Players’ performance with an eye towards the future.”

Jacqueline Smethurst is a nationally recognized thinker and leader in education. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Oxford University, and her doctorate from the University of Massachusetts; she is an Honorary Fellow of her alma mater, St. Hilda's College, Oxford. Her current and former trusteeships include Concord Academy, Ursuline Academy, American Friends of St. Hilda's College, Monadnock Center for History and Culture, and the National Association of Independent Schools. Formerly Head of Northfield Mount Hermon School, Jacqueline was co-founder of a national non-profit to narrow the education gap though public-private partnerships, and has consulted widely to schools and colleges.

“Like so many people, I have been applauding Peterborough Players’ superb productions for decades”, says Jacqueline Smethurst, “The Players is one of the great assets of our region, and I am honored to follow Cy in guiding the Board of Trustees as we look to ‘the next stage’. We are extraordinarily fortunate to have theatre of this quality right here in the Monadnock Region and I shall bring my passion for the organization to every discussion and decision as we expand our reach and secure the future of the Players.”

The Peterborough Players, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization, has been providing professional theatre to audiences since 1933 and is located at 55 Hadley Road, Peterborough, NH 03458. (603) 924-9344 or visit www.peterboroughplayers.org.