GRT announces 2019-2020 season

Graham Regional Theatre recently announced their 2019-2020 schedule, with nine shows filling the season which kicks-off Sept. 7 with “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

GRT is a nonprofit community theater located on the Graham downtown square in The Perry theater. The group hosts a variety of shows and performances year-round with a goal of bringing a genuine theater experience to the area, GRT Director Christian Sanders said.

“My goal is to bring professional-level theater to our community and even though it is a community theater, we are here to support Graham and do the things that we think are best for the community,” he said. “I want people not to feel like they are having to settle for anything less than the absolute best show they can possibly see and part of that is the technical aspects.”

Sanders said around 30 actors showed up in July to auditions for the season opener “The Importance of Being Earnest.” He said a goal he sets each year is improving upon the previous season and part of that improvement is in the growth of the actors.

“Our goal every year is to improve on some aspect of what we are doing and sometimes it is really small and incremental, but when you look back over things for a two, or three, or four year period, you recognize that growth and you see what has happened,” he said. “Our actors are so strong and the people who audition for the shows and are in the shows are so powerful. What is nice to see is when see someone who started with us four or five years ago and you see their growth and much stronger they have become as a performer and they still involved in doing what we are doing.”

Sanders said at one point he was begging for actors to be a part of theater, but now he has more actors than he has roles to fill.

“Having that larger pool to choose from allows us to try to fit things better,” he said. “I still try to make sure that we spread out as many roles as we can and don’t use the same actors for every show, because I want people to know that they have a spot here.”

The theater is hosting two youth musicals this year, starting with ‘Disney’s Winnie the Pooh’ for elementary-age performers and following with ‘Disney’s Frozen Jr.,’ for junior high and high school age students.

GRT 2019-2020 Season
The Importance of Being Earnest - Sept. 7-22
Miss Electricity - Oct. 5-20
The Game’s Afoot or Holmes for the Holidays - Nov. 9-17
A Christmas Carol - Dec. 6-15
La Rue’s Return or How’s a Bayou - Jan. 31-Feb. 9
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee - April 10-26
Disney’s Winnie the Pooh - June 5-6
Disney’s Frozen Jr. - June 12-13
Into the Woods - June 26-28

For the rest of the story, see the Saturday, Aug. 24 edition of The Graham Leader.