Northwood News ♦ December 2017
This Year’s Season at Our Local Silver Spring Stage
The Best Worst Christmas Pageant Ever
By Barbara Robinson; Directed by Andrea Spitz
December 8–17, 2017
Adapted from the best-selling Young Adult Book, this hilarious Christmas classic of a couple struggling
to put on a church Christmas pageant faced with casting the Herdman kids — probably the most inventively
awful kids in history. Audiences will delight in the mayhem and fun when the Herdmans collide with
the Christmas story head on!
Wit
By Margaret Edson; Directed By Jeff Mikoni
January 12–February 03, 2018
Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize, ‘Wit’ is a remarkable play both intellectually challenging
and emotionally immediate. A renowned professor of English — who has spent years studying and
teaching the brilliant and difficult metaphysical sonnets of John Donne — has been diagnosed with
terminal ovarian cancer. She applies her aggressively probing and intensely rational approach of poetry
to her illness and treatment with a profundity and humor that are transformative both for her and the audience.
All in the Timing
By David Ives; Directed by Rob Gorman
February 23–March 17, 2018
This critically acclaimed, award-winning evening of comedies combines wit, intellect, satire, and just
plain fun in its portrayal of relationships, language, music, a revolutionary, and a Philadelphia
“Twilight Zone” experience.
The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence
By Madeleine George; Directed by Charlie Marie McGrath
April 13–May 05, 2018
These four constant companions — Watson, the trusty sidekick to Sherlock Holmes; Watson, the loyal
engineer who built Bell’s first telephone; Watson, the unstoppable super-computer that became reigning
“Jeopardy!” champ; and Watson, an amiable techno-dweeb who, in the present day, is just looking
for love — become one in this brilliantly witty, time-jumping, loving tribute (and cautionary tale)
dedicated to the people (and machines) upon which we all depend.
A Delicate Balance
By Edward Albee; Directed by Fred Zirm
June 1–23, 2018
Winner of the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award winner, this powerful, beautiful play is filled
with humor and compassion and touched with poetry. A wealthy, middle-aged couple has their complacency
shattered when longtime friends appear at their doorstep claiming an encroaching, nameless “fear”
has forced them from their own home. Their arrival sets off a firestorm of doubt, recrimination, and
— ultimately — solace, upsetting the “delicate balance.”
The House of Blue Leaves
By John Guare; Directed by Clare Shaffer
July 13–August 4, 2018
A brilliant play, beautifully fashioned, sometimes wacky and sometimes sad, combined with hilarity, poignancy,
outrageousness, and tragedy. A songwriter with visions of glory toils by day as a zoo-keeper and, by night,
sings at piano bars in Queens, New York, where he lives with his wife. Meanwhile, downstairs lives his
mistress. Chaos ensues on one day when the Pope makes his first visit to the city, his soldier son Ronny
goes AWOL, an old-school chum, now a successful Hollywood producer, shows up with his starlet girlfriend in tow,
and a group of nuns all descend on the apartment in this enchanting, zany farce.
Silver Spring Stage is located in the Woodmoor Shopping Center, 10145 Colesville Road. Parking is in
the rear, but you enter through the doors in the front, facing Colesville Road and nestled amid the CVS store.
Now in its 49th season, Silver Spring Stage is a community theatre with a mission to present the best in contemporary
plays, including compelling, intellectual, progressive works. Over the years, the Stage has built a reputation
for taking risks while producing shows that regularly receive top honors and awards. For details, see
www.ssstage.org. ■
