Albert Lea Community Theatre announces season lineup for 2024-25

Published 4:34 pm Wednesday, June 19, 2024

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Albert Lea Community Theatre has announced its 2024-25 season.

ACT will open its 59th season with the comedy, “Drinking Habits” by Tom Smith and directed by Christy Fuller. Accusations, mistaken identities and romances run wild in this traditional, laugh-out-loud farce. Two nuns at the Sisters of Perpetual Sewing have been secretly making wine to keep the convent’s doors open, but reporters Paul and Sally are hot on their trail. They go undercover as a nun and priest, but their presence spurs paranoia throughout the convent that spies have been sent from Rome to shut them down.

The second show is a holiday favorite, “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.” Mirroring the 1954 movie, the story follows veterans Bob and Phil, who have a successful song-and-dance act after World War II. With romance in mind, the two follow a duo of singing sisters en route to their Christmas show at a Vermont lodge, which happens to be owned by Bob and Phil’s former army commander. With a dazzling score featuring well-known standards, including “Blue Skies,” “I Love a Piano,” “How Deep Is the Ocean” and the perennial title song, “White Christmas” is an uplifting musical that will delight audiences. Gordy Handeland will direct.

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“All My Sons,” by Arthur Miller, is the third play of the season. Directed by George Favell, this drama delves into the complexities of family and friendship in the aftermath of World War II. Chris Keller returns from serving in World War II, hoping to pick up the pieces of his life. He discovers that there is no going back to the way things were. As he deals with his own adjustments to civilian life and his attempts to build a future, he slowly uncovers a deeply buried family secret that will alter all his relationships and call on his idealism for himself and his family. In so doing, he and all the family members must grapple with the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

For its final production of the 59th season, ACT presents the enchanting “Roald Dahl’s Matilda – The Musical,” directed by Gordy Handeland. Matilda is a little girl with astonishing wit, intelligence and psychokinetic powers. She’s unloved by her cruel parents but impresses her schoolteacher, Miss Honey. During her first term at school, the two forge a bond as Miss Honey begins to recognize and appreciate Matilda’s extraordinary personality. Matilda’s school life isn’t completely smooth sailing, however — the school’s mean headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, hates children and loves to punish those who don’t abide by her rules.

Season tickets can be purchased at actonbroadway.com or by filling out a season ticket brochure form, available at the Marion Ross Performing Arts Center box office or at the Albert Lea Convention and Visitors Bureau. The box office is open from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Thursdays. A season ticket is $60 for all four shows — a savings of $10. Beginning Aug. 1, individual show tickets may be purchased online, at the box office or by calling 877-730-3144, a toll-free, 24/7 automated service.