For 2019-2020, West End Players Guild offers an exciting menu of plays never or rarely seen in St. Louis, including a world premiere commissioned exclusively for WEPG.
September 27-October 6, 2019: Bill Cain’s Equivocation is a Shakespearean tale of intrigue starring the Bard himself. The King offers Shakespeare a commission he can’t refuse, to write a play about the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament. Shakespeare discovers it is a perilous assignment, as he learns that the King’s version of the story does not quite square with the facts. Shakespeare is torn between the between the truth and the Crown. Can he walk this tightrope without losing his head (literally)? Tom Kopp directs.
December 6-15, 2019: It’s the world premiere of Vladimir Zelevinsky’s The Cricket on the Hearth, an adaptation of the Charles Dickens story, commissioned and written especially for WEPG. Steve Callahan directs this tale of unlikely but undying love, a holiday heart-warmer that will both entertain and move you.
February 21-March 1: Sharon’s husband and son are gone and her big Iowa house feels very lonely. Maybe a roommate will help. Enter Robyn, who turns out to be someone quite different than she appears to be. Sean Belt directs Jen Silverman’s The Roommate, a very funny show about standing up to life and daring to do something totally new. It’s a lesson in life and a quirky “buddy comedy” all rolled up in one.
April 17-26, 2020: What if you could go back in time and change the one moment that reshaped your life forever? What if you could see a lost love of 40 years ago just one more time, to learn how her life turned out? Would you? Steven Dietz’s bittersweet Bloomsday poses the questions – the answers are for you to discover. Jessa Knust makes her WEPG directing debut.
Season tickets for the upcoming season go on sale May 1st online at www.WestEndPlayers.org/tickets. Individual show tickets will go on sale in August. All shows are at the theatre in the Union Avenue Christian Church, 733 Union Boulevard in the Central West End. Actors, take note: Auditions for Season 109 will begin in June. Watch for further announcements and check for more information at www.WestEndPlayers.org/auditions.
West End Players Guild is the region’s oldest continuously-operated theatre company, presenting “big theatre in a small space” since 1911.
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.