NC Stage Company announces 2017-18 season

The North Carolina Stage Company in downtown Asheville, North Carolina announces its 2017-2018 Season. Voted best local theatre by the Mountain Xpress Best of WNC Poll on ten different occasions, North Carolina Stage Company has been producing professional theatre for Asheville residents and visitors since 2001. The upcoming season productions includes witty comedies, insightful dramas, heartwarming stories, music and more!

Season Passes for the 2017-2018 season are on sale now at www.ncstage.org and offer several wonderful benefit. Subscribers can see all six mainstage productions for the cost of five, receive advanced notice and special discounts to the inaugural Summer Series, priority seating and free unlimited ticket exchanges.

2017/2018 Season

King Mackerel and the Blues are Running by Bland Simpson & Jim Wann with Don Dixon & J.L. Mills September 20-October 8, 2017

Tall tales and rollicking songs transport audiences to the Outer Banks for a pleasant spate of fun and fishing. Staging a benefit concert to save the Corncake Inlet Inn, the lively cast of fishermen musicians sing up a storm, tell fish stories and ghost stories, and relate accounts of first loves and ones that got away. 

"A pure salt watered delight...For a near vacation experience, it would be hard to beat." - N.Y. Times

Rapture, Blister, Burn by Gina Gionfriddo — October 25-November 19, 2017.

After grad school, Catherine and Gwen chose opposite paths. Catherine built a career as a rock star academic, while Gwen built a home with her husband and children. Decades later, each woman covets the other’s life, commencing a dangerous game of musical chairs—the prize being Gwen’s husband. With searing insight and trademark wit, this comedy is an unflinching look at modern day gender politics.

“…intensely smart, immensely funny…RAPTURE more largely illuminates how hard it can be to forge both a satisfying career and a fulfilling personal life in an era that seems to demand superhuman achievement from everyone.” —NY Times.

All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 by Peter Rothstein — December 6-December 30, 2017. This captivating story relives a poignant moment in history when Allied and German soldiers laid down their arms to celebrate the holiday together during WWI — with traditional patriotic and holiday songs from both sides of the Western Front interspersed with the actual words of the soldiers who lived it.

“These miracles are what make All Is Calm such a pure example of what was meant when angels first declared, ‘Peace on Earth.'” –Star Tribune

The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Gina Hoben — November 29-December 23, 2017.

After seeing her fiancé kiss another woman at the televised Thanksgiving Day Parade, Mary’s life falls apart — just in time for the holidays. Over the next year, she stumbles back into the dating world, where “romance” ranges from weird and creepy to absurd and comical. It seems nothing can help Mary’s growing cynicism, until… This heartwarming story offers a hilarious and modern alternative to the old standards of the holiday season.

Jeeves Takes a Bow Adapted by Margaret Raether—January 24-February 18, 2018.

British upper crust meets the New York mob in the witty play JEEVES TAKES A BOW. Everyone’s favorite hapless hero, Bertie Wooster, embarks on an American adventure armed only with his handsome fortune, his talent for trouble, and his remarkable manservant, Jeeves. In less than a New York minute, Bertie finds himself knee-deep in troubles with vengeful gangsters, chorus girls, and a new Broadway musical.

Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz — March 14-April 8, 2018.

Brooke Wyeth returns home to Palm Springs after a six-year absence to celebrate Christmas with her parents, her brother, and her aunt. Brooke announces that she is about to publish a memoir dredging up a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history—a wound they don’t want reopened. In effect, she draws a line in the sand and dares them all to cross it.

“Spending time with these messed-up, complicated people is a genuine pleasure.” —NY Post.

Burden by Ron Bashford and Willie Repoley – April 25-May 20, 2018.

What do you gain by lying to yourself? An original play four years in the making, Burden tells the story of a journalist in pursuit of truth and justice, while being unwittingly blind to both. It is a new American play inspired by classic American themes, created by frequent NC Stage collaborators Ron Bashford and Willie Repoley.

"And the old hunger returned – the terrible and obscure hunger that haunts and hurts Americans, and that makes us exiles at home and strangers wherever we go." – Thomas Wolfe

The North Carolina Stage Company is located at 15 Stage Lane in downtown Asheville and has been producing professional theatre in its 125-seat playhouse since 2001. It continues its commitment to artistic excellence, intellectual exploration and education during the 2017/2018 Season. For information on season passes, upcoming productions, educational opportunities and much more, call the theatre’s box office at (828)239-0263 or visit www.ncstage.org.