East Haddam Stage celebrates 10th year

EAST HADDAM — East Haddam Stage Company is celebrating the 10th anniversary of live theatre at Gillette Castle State Park. It was named Resident Theatre Company at Gillette Castle State Park in 2017.

The show for this special season is a comedy based on William Gillette’s 1890 Victorian farce, “The Professor.” Producing Artistic Director, Kandie Carle, has whittled the massive, 4 act extravaganza down to a 30-minute, four-character romp.

The play takes place at a resort hotel, The Seventh Sister Inn, summer 1890. When the Professor’s sister Fanny invites him to join her, it isn’t just to see the countryside, she has her sights on being a matchmaker! While her naive but brilliantly scientific brother tries, he stumbles (literally and figuratively) all over the place. And Daisy’s father has a thing or two to say about this young man’s attentions to his daughter. The fun includes clever repartee, a signature of William Gillette’s comedic style. Will the bumbling Professor win the young lady in the end? Come see the show to find out!

Gillette originally set the show at a resort in New Hampshire, but EHSCO is placing it in East Haddam, giving the fictional Inn the name Gillette originally gave his retirement home in the early 1900s, the Seventh Sister, which is now known as Gillette Castle.

Performances will be held on weekends only, July 7-Aug. 12, at 1 and 2:30 p.m. on the outdoor stage near the house. Admission is free; the shows are sponsored by East Haddam’s Staehly Farm and Winery.

The audience area is wheelchair accessible. There is limited bleacher and bench seating, so visitors are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs, and/or a picnic blanket. Unless rain is actually coming out of the sky onto the stage at show time, the show will go on.