The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie

September 13 through October 13, 2019
Thursdays 7:30PM, Fridays and Saturdays 8PM, Sundays 2PM

A radio broadcast announces a grisly murder, and the perpetrator is at large. Seven (mostly) strangers are trapped in Monkswell Manor guesthouse by a fierce snowstorm, which closed all roads and appears to have cut off telephone service. In this isolated atmosphere, can more murders not follow? Of course they do. Is everyone who they seem to be? Of course not.

The Mousetrap is the show that sets the record for the longest consecutive run of any show anywhere. It is currently running in London, where it opened in October of 1952 – and audiences today are just as intrigued, delighted and amazed as they have been for years. Our matinee on October 6th will celebrate the 67th anniversary of the original opening night.

As has been the case with that production, you are asked not to reveal the ending after you have seen the show. Why spoil a classic? 

She Loves Me Based on a play by Miklos Laszlo (***Not included in season subscription***)

November 13 through December 22, 2019
Wednesdays and Thursdays 7:30PM, Fridays and Saturdays 8PM,
Sundays 2PM

Inspired by the same source material as the classic films The Shop Around The Corner and You’ve Got Mail, this musical theater treasure is about perfectly ordinary people in a story you may have heard before, but never quite like this. Based on a play by Miklos Laszlo, She Loves Me brings the magic of a soaring score by Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof) and Jerry Bock (Fiorello!, Fiddler on the Roof) to a classic story by Joe Masteroff (Cabaret). Hearts will be captivated by the plights of Georg, Amalia, and their co-workers in the Parfumerie. These characters remind us that the most important things in life are not the work or making money, but family, friends and those we truly love.

Join the Ross Valley Players and the Mountain Play this winter for a delightful musical treat. This co-production partners the talents and passion of two of the oldest Marin County community theatre companies to provide a new experience for their audience. The friendship of these companies has long been behind the scenes, but in November 2019, it steps center stage with She Loves Me.

Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson

January 17 through February 9, 2020
Thursdays 7:30PM, Fridays and Saturdays 8PM, Sundays 2PM

Based on real people and real events, Silent Sky is the story of some of the first woman astronomers who helped pave the way to our understanding of both the universe and Earth. Three exceptional women are hired in the early 1900’s at the Harvard University Observatory in jobs called “computers.” Prohibited from actually looking through the giant telescope (that’s for the men), they undertake to discover the answer to “Where do we fit in space?”. Their sources are photographic plates of images gathered by others.

The compelling central characters proceed with humor and determination toward their goals, while handling the very contemporary challenge of balance between families and potential romance – and their absorbing scientific quest. The triumphant result of their efforts was the discovery of the key to measuring the distance between objects in space, previously unknown.

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

March 6 through April 5, 2020
Thursdays 7:30PM, Fridays and Saturdays 8PM, Sundays 2PM

The play, The Glass Menagerie is a memory play, narrated by Tom Wingfield about his family, living in reduced circumstances in a St. Louis basement apartment in the late 1930’s. His father has long since abandoned them, leaving his mother, Amanda, and sister, Laura, with only Tom’s meager salary to support them. Amanda is unwilling to forget her earlier life as a popular Southern belle and tries to re-create that world for her very shy daughter by attracting “gentleman callers” to court Laura.

The Glass Menagerie was Williams’ first successful Broadway play and received the Drama Critics Circle award when it first appeared on Broadway in 1945. It is also Williams’ most autobiographical work, reflecting in heartfelt and poetic language much of his own background. To quote Tom: “I give you truth in the pleasant guise of illusion.” A moving and memorable American classic.

The Packrat Gene by Margy Kahn

April 24 through May 10, 2020
Thursdays 7:30PM, Fridays and Saturdays 8PM, Sundays 2PM

READING – La Sirena by Eleya Trindad directed by Ann Smith

Sunday, September 22, 2019 at 7pm

READING  – Potatoes and Vodka by L.H. Grant,  The Salmon Run by Richard Friedlander directed by Michael Sally

Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 7:30pm

READING 2 – Time and Time Again by Madeline Daly Puccioni

Thursday, May 7, 2020 at 7:30pm

ROSS ALTERNATIVE WORKS presents the fully-staged production of The Packrat Gene by Margy Kahn. Leigh wants her aging mother Esther to move out of her overstuffed apartment. But her mother and daughter Rachel, both ardent packrats, want her to stay. A cross-generational struggle over possessions and end-of-life choices morphs into a much deeper struggle, revealing the toll the past takes on us, whether we choose to hold onto it or not.

Join us for four staged readings in addition to Ross Alternative Works’ fully staged production of The Packrat Gene. Suggested donation of $15 at the door. Click here for more details about our mission and how you can get involved!

The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol, adapted by Jeffery Hatcher

June 5 through June 28, 2020
Thursdays 7:30PM, Fridays and Saturdays 8PM, Sundays 2PM

Gogol’s classic 19th Century comedy of errors and mistaken identity has been updated for today’s audiences by Jeffrey Hatcher, not unlike a Marx Brothers comedy. When local officials in a small Russian town learn that an undercover government official is coming, the whole village is sent into a world of panic, hasty cover ups and greed. A low-level clerk from St. Petersburg, with his own larcenous bent, is misidentified as the inspector.

Fearing the visit will uncover the town’s well-established pattern of corruption, local officials from the Mayor down set off in a flurry of activity to cover up their various histories of public misdeeds. The result is a frantic and hilarious merry-go-round of corruption, lust and certifiable self-delusion. An evening of pure fun.

Pride & Prejudice: The Musical adapted from Jane Austen by Josie Brown

July 12 through August 11, 2020
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 8PM, Sundays 2PM

Elizabeth Bennet and her four sisters sing! Mr. Darcy dances! And so do most of the others you may know. Jane Austen’s colorful Regency period romance comes to the stage in all its glory in this wonderful musical that will please newcomers to the tale as well as those steeped (like good cup of tea) in the classic tale of great romance.

The Bennets have five daughters, and Mrs. Bennet wishes to marry them off to suitors of appropriate social status. A tangle of suitors do appear – including the somewhat dodgy George Wickham and somewhat ingenuous Mr. Bingley – and the very intriguing Fitzwilliam Darcy. The ensuing romances and complications have delighted readers and audiences in book, plays and movies for centuries.

The script by Josie Brown and music and lyrics by Marin’s own Rita Abrams is “Close to perfect… a musical treatment of a famous literary milestone that, although modern in form, carefully preserves the vision of the original.” Charles Brousse, Pacific Sun.