How relevant is theater today? That’s a question that we at Pegasus ask ourselves constantly.
Why do we work so hard to choose significant plays, build complicated sets, memorize pages of
lines and dig deeply for meaning, create energetic sound designs, plot subtle lighting, create
just the right costume, or direct and inspire actors? Why care about putting on the highest
quality we can muster? The competition we face is stiff. TV, Movies, and the Internet are just
a few examples. It takes many volunteers to put together a show. We do it for the love of it,
but would we still do it if there weren't any audiences?
The fact that our audience still shows up and suspends their disbelief and lose themselves in
the magic of live performance is the mystery of theater.
Considering that, we think the stage does have a place in our lives. It is significant—relevant. We
thank you for continued support of Pegasus Theater. You are what makes it worth our time.
Please enjoy our offerings and tell your friends about us.
Thank you!
Russell Kaltschmidt and Jacquelyn Wells
Artistic Directors
Driving Miss Daisy
This Pulitzer Prize winning play by Alfred Uhry explores a pivotal time in the history of American race relations through the evolving friendship between elderly southerners, one Black and one White. It will open July 10 at the Guerneville Community Church, directed by Nancy Hansen.Please go to our Current Season Page for more information about this play.
Big changes at Pegasus Theater Company
As you may have heard, Pegasus Theater has not been able to renew its lease on its long time venue, Pegasus Hall in Monte Rio. So we are turning this unexpected development into an opportunity to re-examine what it means to be a "community theater".
Now that we are without a stack of monthly bills to maintain a theater space, we have the freedom to reconsider how we can best serve our community, fulfill the dreams of our theater artists and explore ways to bring a wider spectrum of our community into the theater.
We’re investigating non-traditional venues, such as the lovely little sanctuary-in-the-round at the Guerneville Community Church where we will be staging “Driving Miss Daisy” in July.
We’re also talking about doing theater in storefronts, public parking lots, resort lobbies and circus tents, maybe even outfitting a flatbed truck for traveling shows. "All the world’s a stage", and in these hard economic times we're aiming to keep our overhead — and our ticket prices — low by using "whatever works". We’re even considering expanding our pay-what-you-can performances to make our productions more accessible.
This freedom will allow us to take greater risks, such as developing and producing more original material. The success of our new short play festival, Tapas, now in its fourth year, shows us that there is an audience for new work, especially when it comes from local (Greater Bay Area) playwrights.
We are also looking forward to experimenting with ways to reach people in our community who typically do not attend live theater. And we are nurturing new theater artists from the community in artistic director Nancy Hansen’s acting classes as well as play writing workshops conducted by Tapas playwright, David Beckman.
Theater can play a vital role in bringing people together, so Pegasus Theater is interested in exploring partnerships with schools, social service agencies, businesses and others, to accomplish this goal.
But before we get too carried away with visions of the long-term future, here is a schedule of what we have already planned for the summer and early fall.
Tapas submissions
Tapas: 8 New Short Plays is seeking submissions of 10 to 15 minute plays, a maximum of two per playwright, with a deadline of Jan. 31, 2010. We expect to complete our selections by Feb. 28, 2010 and open the production in mid-summer 2010. Please see our Training Page for more information
Play reading sessions
Tapas, at Pegasus, is offering work-shopping sessions for playwrights who want to hear their short plays read by experienced actors. We have scheduled two full months of workshops, every Wednesday evening in June and October. They will all be held at the Village inn, 20822 River Blvd. in Monte Rio, beginning at 7 p.m. They are free and open to the public.
Playwriting workshop
This short play writing workshop, facilitated by one of our Tapas 2009 playwrights, David Beckman will be held at the Village Inn, Saturday July 18 and 25, during the day. The fee for the two-session workshop is $25.
