Synopses of the shows in our 47th season,
“Family Matters”
Sarah, Plain and Tall
adapted by Joseph Robinette
Performance August 21-30, 2026
Auditions June 29-30, 2026
Set in the early 1900s, this play brings to life the charming, heartwarming story of a Kansas farmer, Jacob Witting, a widower with two children—Anna and Caleb, who places an ad in the newspapers seeking a wife. He receives a letter from a Sarah Wheaton of Maine who says she will visit the family for a month to see how things work out: "I will come by train. I will wear a yellow bonnet. I am plain and tall." Narrated by Anna reminiscing on the eve of her wedding, the story unfolds in a fascinating flashback on that often exciting, sometimes tumultuous month when Sarah and the Wittings came to know one another and learned a few things about themselves as well. The joys and challenges of everyday life are richly depicted in this classic which the New York Times called "an exquisite, sometimes painfully touching tale." The School Library Journal said the book "is filled with wisdom and gentle humor…a tender story about the fragile beginnings of a family relationship on its way to permanence."
The Addams Family - Musical
by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice
Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Performance October 23-November 1, 2026
Auditions August 10-11, 2026
The BACP is also accepting applications for a musical director for this show.
A comical feast that embraces the wackiness in every family, features an original story and a dilemma that’s every father’s nightmare: Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of darkness, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a respectable family—a man her parents have never met. And if that wasn’t upsetting enough, Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he’s never done before—keep a secret from his beloved wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s “normal” boyfriend and his parents.
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
by Barbara Roginson
Performance December 11-20, 2026
Auditions October 19-20, 2026
Beth Bradley's church's Christmas pageant is predictable every year -- the angel choir wears too much lipstick, the shepherds are all in their father's bathrobes, the minister's son is permanently cast in the role of Joseph -- hardly "four-star entertainment." But when seasoned and authoritative pageant director Mrs. Armstrong breaks her leg, it is up to Beth's inexperienced mother Grace to step in. In this hilarious Christmas classic, Grace, struggling to put on a church Christmas pageant and faced with casting the Herdman kids-probably the most inventively awful kids in history. You won't believe the mayhem - and the fun - when the Herdmans collide head -on with the story of Christmas!
Charlotte's Web
adapted by Joseph Robinette
Performance April 2-11, 2027
Auditions February 8-9 2027.
There was nothing special about Somerset County. It was a deeply ordinary place. No astonishing thing ever happened there. The people who lived there were just regular people. And the animals... Well, they were just plain old animals. Or, are they?? All the enchanting characters are here: Wilbur, the irresistible young pig who desperately wants to avoid the butcher; Fern, a girl who understands what animals say to each other; Templeton, the gluttonous rat who can occasionally be talked into a good deed; the Zuckerman family; the Arables; and, most of all, the extraordinary spider, Charlotte, who proves to be “a true friend and a good writer.”
To Kill a Mockingbird
dramatized by Christopher Sergel
Performance June 4-13, 2027
Auditions April 5-6. 2027
This play opens in a sleepy Alabama town in the midst of the Great Depression, where Scout and her brother, Jem, live with their widowed father, Atticus Finch. Reminiscent of a bygone era, the play immerses us in a simpler time as the children play outside in the summer, act out stories and muse about their mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. The facade of the seemingly peaceful town begins to crack when a young black man is accused of a terrible crime. Driven by an unshakeable moral conviction, local lawyer Atticus defends the man in a trial that sends violent waves through the community. Timeless and lingering, this hard-hitting work explores prejudice, compassion and the courage to do what is right.
To access a Director's Application: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HGUhRH59AbpLe8pPklE2krJW7tQ1cQXox6s_0RyqK7o/edit