Center Stage Theatre in Shelton announces a full summer season starting in June
Center Stage Theatre, a community-based theater in Shelton, has announced a full season of indoor shows starting in mid-June. While many theaters are doing outdoor shows in summer and hoping to transition indoors in fall, Center Stage is ahead of most others in committing to doing five indoor shows over the next six months.
Four of the five shows are musicals.
The five-show season opens June 11-27 with the musical “Godspell,” based on the biblical Gospel of St. Matthew. The songs are by Ridgefield-based composer Stephen Schwartz, whose other Broadway hits include “Wicked” and “Pippin.”
The season continues with “The Wedding Singer,” the musical based on the Adam Sandler romcom, July 23 through Aug. 1; “Nunsense A-Men!,” the drag version of Dan Goggin’s Off Broadway hit “Nunsense!,” Sept.
3-19; “Boeing Boeing,” the 1960s French farce about a man carrying on relationships with three flight attendants, Oct. 8-24; and “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” based on the 1954 musical movie, Dec. 3-19.
Center Stage Theatre, which was founded in
2005 and operates out of its own building at 54 Grove St. in Shelton, also runs year-round youth theater programs. It plans to hold in-person theater camps this summer.
More information can be found on the Center Stage Theatre website, centerstageshelton.org. The site contains a lengthy explanation of health and safety protocols in place at the theater.
Center Stage is ahead of the curve in planning a full indoor season. The new Legacy Theatre in Branford, which opened last month, has also announced a slate of indoor performances; its mainstage theater season began April 28 with “Barefoot in the Park.”
Reopening theater buildings can be complicated for professional companies working with unions such as Actors Equity, which have their own COVID safety conditions. Community theaters, which use local non-union talent, have more leeway in determining their own reopening strategies. TheaterWorks Hartford, which has been producing virtual shows steadily since the pandemic began, will do its first Equity-contracted live in-person performances in July, outdoors for the drama “Walden.”