Carmel Community Players’ 2022-23 schedule features a variety of shows and venues.
“It is a great combination of comedies, dramas, musicals and straight plays that come from some of our country’s best-known playwrights and composers,” said Rich Phipps, vice president of the CCP board. “Our season promises to bring compelling entertainment to patrons of all ages.”
The season opens with “Jerry Girls,” a Broadway Musical Review, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at PrimeLife Enrichment in Carmel. The night will serve as a capital campaign fundraiser as CCP seeks to raise funds for a permanent venue.
“Tick, Tick … BOOM!” is set for Oct. 14-23 at Switch Theatre in Fishers. “Uh Oh Here Comes Christmas” is set for Dec. 9-18 at The Cat in Carmel. The final four shows will be at Ivy Tech Noblesville Auditorium. “Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” will be presented Feb. 24 to March 5, 2023. “True West” is set for April 21-30, 2023. “Godspell” will be staged June 16-25, 2023, and “Murder on the Orient Express will be presented Aug. 4-13, 2023.
“We have not done any of the shows before at CCP, and that was the idea,” said Lori Raffel, CCP board president. ‘’I chose Ken Ludwick‘s ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ because I read some reviews about it and how it captures the tongue-in-cheek quality of Ken Ludwick along with the great characters of Agatha Christie. I think any more when you do Agatha Christie, you can’t take it too seriously and the script is unique and fun, and I think audiences will really like it.”
Raffel said CCP performed “Ragtime” at Ivy Tech in April 2018.
“We really liked the venue and we’re hoping to sell lots of tickets this coming season, so that’s why we chose it for the last four productions,” Raffel said.
The ‘Godspell’ production is for rising young stars. Tanya Haas will direct the youth productions as she did earlier this summer.
“We didn’t used to do very much for youth, and I like the idea of training little actors and techies for the future by putting them in these kinds of productions,” Raffel said.
CCP had been using The Cat more in recent seasons. There are certain adult language restrictions at The Cat that make some shows like “True West” hard to present. Raffel said dates are harder to get as The Cat has become busier.
Eric Bryant will direct “True West,” a play by Sam Shepard.
“Eric Bryant is a new director for us but is certainly well known around town,” she said. “I’m a huge Sam Shepard fan, so that one was a pretty easy decision.”’
