September 6-8, 2024/ Charter Arts Black Box Theatre
The Charter Arts Theatre Department is excited to present a series of original works written by accomplished playwrights as part of 2024-2025 theatre season. Playing host to these premieres is an important and distinct honor for a high school theatre program. Artistic Director, Kelly Minner-Bickert shares: “We pride ourselves on offering something that is different from other high school theatre programs in the Lehigh Valley. In addition to the extensive training they receive here our students are given the rare opportunity to work with playwrights, composers and other artists at the forefront of the theatre movement in the creation of new works.”
The season kicks off with “The Oscars: A Conversation Among Friends” by John Thompson, September 6-8. 2024. Evening performances on September 6 & 7 at 7 PM. Matinee performance September 8 at 2 PM.
Oscar Wilde, a famously complex man, invites you into an evening of conversation between five different versions of himself- the young poet, the mature storyteller, the jaded playwright, the sorrowful prisoner, and the weary exile. The conversational jousting between the Oscars brings alive the arc of Wilde’s life and follows his search for a way to recover himself as the artist of his own life.
This production is directed by Kelly Minner-Bickert and features an exceptional cast that includes students, alumni and community artists. “All of the artists involved in this project have diligently committed to taking the intimate conversation among the 5 Wildes and turn it into a transcendent spiritual experience of self reflection and hopefully, discovery for the audience as well. As Wilde questions his choices and the world’s view of them, he also challenges the audience (who will be seated around the actors as part of the action) to do likewise. Playwright John Thompson, in his first play, has crafted a piece of such raw emotional text (often using WIlde’s own words) where the famed wit, dandy, playwright peels back the layers of himself to unmask how his desires, his vanity, his genius, his suffering, and his mistakes led him on the ultimate search to embrace all of his identities and rediscover who is Oscar Wilde?”
Tickets are General Admission: $12 Adult, $7 Student/Child. Evening performances September 6 & 7 at 7 PM, Matinee performance September 8 at 2 PM. Limited Seating.
ABOUT THE CHARTER ARTS THEATRE DEPARTMENT:
The Charter Arts Theatre Department offers a pre-professional training program for high school-aged performers. The goal is to provide students with the skills they will need to move on to competitive college programs as well as professional theatre experiences.
Classes are designed to encourage students to create imaginative and compelling characters, to regard their voices and bodies as creative instruments, to expose them to theatrical literature and to instill in them a sense of respect and professionalism for the art form that will stay with them throughout their lives.
The department will also engage alumni performers, directors and artists this year as part of its Alumni Artist-in-Residence program. “The creation of this program was to keep our alumni connected to Charter Arts and to reinforce with our current students that they will always have a home here with us. We demonstrate that we value artistry and we want to instill in our young artists that when they reach a certain skill level of mastery in their art they have a right to be celebrated and paid for their contributions as professional artists.”