Penobscot Theatre leads ’06-’07 season with ‘Falsettos’ ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ premieres in Bangor in November

BANGOR – Penobscot Theatre, Bangor’s professional theater company, has announced its 2006-2007 season. Three Maine premieres are among the performances at the Bangor Opera House, downtown’s historic theater at 131 Main St.

“This promises to be the most diverse, the most dramatic and the most dynamic season ever for the Penobscot Theatre Company,” said producing artistic director Scott R.C. Levy.

The season opens Sept. 20-Oct. 1 with Maine’s first professional production of the Tony-Award winning musical “Falsettos.” Nathan Halvorson, who directed “Spinning into Butter” and “Uncle Vanya,” directs the tale of a dysfunctional family’s unorthodox relationships, a coming bar mitzvah and the twist of a sudden terminal illness. Levy joins the seven-character cast of “Falsettos.”

Levy will direct the Maine premiere of Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays With Morrie.” Albom’s autobiographical story, a New York Times best-seller for the past seven years, revolves around his reunion and weekly meetings with his Brandeis professor, Morrie Schwartz, who is battling Lou Gehrig’s disease. The play will be staged Nov. 1-12.

A tradition returns to Bangor when the Penobscot Theatre presents its annual adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” Dec. 13-23. Scrooge is due a visit from four ghosts in total – Christmas Past, Present and Future, as well as Jacob Marley – in this holiday tale. This year, “A Christmas Carol” appears with David Sedaris’ “The Santaland Diaries,” the sometimes subtle and often outrageous observations of a Yuletide elf employed at Macy’s. Both performances run Dec. 13-23.

The twisted “Communicating Doors” comes to the historic Bangor Opera House Feb 7-18. Writer Alan Ayckbourn sends his heroine back through time to keep two yet-to-be-murdered women and herself from their deaths in this farcical comedy that delighted audiences in London and New York.

The 2004 Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning drama “I Am My Own Wife” brings actor Gabriel Sigal, last seen as Einstein in “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” back to Maine. He’ll play more than 40 roles in the true story of Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf, a real-life German transvestite who survived the Nazi onslaught and the repressive East German Communist Regime. The play will be presented March 14-25.

Writer Rinne Groff’s stunning new play about the birth of television, “The Ruby Sunrise,” flips between 1927 Indiana and 1952 New York for a show that’s part powerful drama, part side-splitting humor and part compelling intrigue. The play makes its Maine premiere April 25 and runs through May 6.

Beginning this season, Penobscot Theatre Company will present its new-play festival, Northern Writes, showcasing readings and workshop productions of new theatrical work in development. The two weeks of 10-minute plays, one-acts, full-lengths and a 24-hour play festival, will run May 9-25.

While they last, the Penobscot Theatre Company is mailing season brochures. To receive one, call the box office at 942-3333.

Subscriptions to the Penobscot Theatre Company’s 2006-2007 season begin at $75 and include one ticket to each performance, except for “A Christmas Carol.” To order a subscription or individual tickets, call 942-3333 or visit www.penobscottheatre.org.