Door County’s Peninsula Players Theatre, America’s oldest professional resident summer theater, has announced the lineup for its 83rd season.

“On the heels of having successfully completed our 82nd season, I’m very happy to announce next year’s 2018 season,” said Artistic Director Greg Vinkler. “People sometimes ask me if I plan seasons around a theme. The answer is no, I don’t. The only things that connect these shows are variety and entertainment – plus they’re all shows about which I care a great deal. And I find that feeling that way about a slate of shows makes my job and everyone else’s much easier and much more fun!”

Peninsula Players Theatre’s 2018 Season (from the press release): 

NOW AND THEN
By Sean Grennan
June 12-July 1
World Premiere

We’re in an Irish ‘neighborhood’ bar in 1981. Jamie, the young bartender, is closing up for the night when an older gentleman, who seems to know the bar very well, enters. They engage in a friendly conversation. Then Jamie’s girlfriend Abby comes in, and before you know it, the gentleman offers each of them a thousand dollars if they’ll sit and talk with him for just an hour. After some persuasion, they agree. And then he tells them an unbelievable story. It’s a story of romance, aspirations and life, told with a huge amount of love and humor.

MISS HOLMES
By Christopher M. Walsh
Based on characters by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
July 4 – July 22

In this murder mystery with a twist, Walsh’s Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are intelligent, independent woman in 19th Century England, a time when society did not value those attributes. Social class distinctions were explicitly set and the rebellion of these social norms was not tolerated. Neither woman abides by the conventions of the times. Instead, they forego domestic accomplishments in the pursuit of helping other women in peril. Trapped in an era that refuses to accept them, these unconventional women work together to uncover the secrets surrounding the past of a corrupt Scotland Yard investigator whose previous two wives turned up dead.

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
Music and Lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Don McKellar with a book by Bob Martin and Greg Morrison
July 25 – August 12.

The show begins with the house lights down. A man in a chair appears on stage and puts on his favorite record: the cast recording of a fictitious 1928 musical. Voilà, THE DROWSY CHAPERONE begins as the man in the chair looks on and the musical comes to life onstage in his apartment. With a young couple on the eve of their wedding, a harried best man, a Broadway impresario, an absent-minded dowager, two gangsters posing as pastry chefs, a ditzy chorus girl, a very misguided Don Juan and a tipsy chaperone, you have the ingredients for an evening of absolute fun.

LIVING ON LOVE
By Joe DiPietro, based on the play “Peccadillo” by Garson Kanin
August 15 to September 2

When a demanding diva discovers that her larger-than-life maestro husband has become enamored with the lovely young lady hired to ghostwrite his largely fictional autobiography, she hires a handsome young scribe of her own. Sparks fly, silverware is thrown, and romance blossoms in the most unexpected ways in this delightful and hilarious romantic comedy.

SALVAGE
By Joseph Zettelmaier
September 5 to October 14

Danny’s sister and mother have just laid him to rest and now find themselves racing against time to rescue his prized possessions from the family basement before a flood hits. Enter Danny’s high-school sweetheart to lend a hand – but is she here to pay her last respects or to keep Danny alive forever?

More information on the 2018 season will be forthcoming in the new year, including cast and creative teams. For more information on Peninsula Players visit peninsulaplayers.com.