New artistic director Steve Scott set to lead Dunes Summer Theatre into 7th decade
When Dunes Summer Theatre in Michigan City reopened after its 2020 season pandemic pause for a relaunch in 2021, all performances were moved to an outside stage to accommodate eager audiences.
For 2022, a new artistic director and a full schedule of main stage shows is welcoming audiences back inside the historic seasonal stage space.
“Last year was the 70th anniversary of our founding in 1951 as the Dunes Arts Foundation, but we got our 501c3 status in 1952, so we classify 2022 as our 71st season,” said Elise Kermani, managing director of the Dunes Arts Foundation.
“Dunes Arts Foundation’s theatre productions have entertained generations of audiences, in addition to the countless kids summer theatre and arts camps for fostering young talents.”
Last fall, the Dunes Arts Foundation board of directors named Steve Scott as the new artistic director for Dunes Summer Theatre. An artistic associate at Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Scott lives in Michigan City and has directed four previous Dunes Summer Theatre productions, including the 2021 outdoor performances
of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Cabaret at the Gardens.”
“I directed ‘Spitfire Grill’ on the Dunes stage in 2018, and then returned again in 2019 to direct a run of ‘Working,’ the musical adaptation of Studs Terkel’s bestselling book,” said Scott, an award-winning producer at Goodman Theatre for 30 years before retiring in 2017.
Last summer, Scott worked closely with Tito Sanchez-Williams, who served as Dunes Summer Theatre artistic director for one season before departing last fall to pursue a full-time teaching career.
“I’ve fallen in love with Dunes Summer Theatre’s rich history and its potential for the future,” Scott said.
“I’m thrilled to have the chance to lead the company into its next exciting chapter, and work with talented young performers who want to hone their skills.”
The Dunes Summer Theatre 2022 Season begins
in May and includes:
May 27-June 12: ”Next to Normal” is a contemporary rock musical with score written by Tom Kitt tackling themes of family loss, acceptance and society’s discomfort discussing issues related to mental illness and depression. The story, conceived by Brian Yorkey
, focuses on central character Diana Goodman, who lives with a bipolar depression disorder with triggers associated with the loss of her son
Gabe. Songs and subplots explore how Diana’s husband, daughter, her doctor and others relate and respond to her unpredictable behavior and help address her condition and concerns.
June 17-July 3: ”God of Carnage” follows the overlapped lives of two couples, residents of a Brooklyn neighborhood, who face off to discuss a playground incident involving their elementary school children. Both pairs of protective and defensive parents debate and recount the events that resulted in two broken teeth. Yasmina Reza’s play, which won a Tony in
2009, unfolds “in real time” over the course of one evening as the parents, and later spouses at odds with one another, engage and enrage in heated discourse, fueled by cocktails, about who’s right and who is wrong and why, after promising to remain civil and mature about the facts and accusations presented.
July 15-31: ”Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Grand Night of Singing” celebrates more than 30 hit songs from all the musical favorites such as “Oklahoma!,” “South Pacific,” “The Sound of Music,” “Carousel,” “The King and I,” “Cinderella” and
others in a musical revue.
Aug. 12-14: “Dunes Broadway Cabaret” is the latest installment of the popular dunesARTS annual cabaret series. Dunes Artistic Director Scott will be master of ceremonies with music direction by Andrew Flasch. The program showcases songs from familiar Broadway productions performed by the artists and cast members from Dunes Summer Theatre’s productions, as well as guest artists.
The focal point of the 19-acre Dunes Arts Foundation wooded campus is the 240-seat theater performance space. The landscape
also includes eight cabins, all originally constructed in the 1930s from Sears and Roebuck catalog camping cabin kits, which have been remodeled for modern comfort for actors and crew, many of whom opt to live on the property during a show run.
“While I love our rich 71-year history, my focus and priority is to look ahead,” Scott said.
“It’s not the past, but the future of the Dunes Summer Theatre that excites me.”