Curtain Times

Thursdays & Fridays
8:30 P.M.

Saturdays
3 P.M. & 8:30 P.M.

Sundays
2 P.M. & 7:30 P.M.

Engagement Rules is a comical look at that old nemesis called “love.” Tom and Donna each have tripped over love in the past but have found each other. They have decided to create their own rules of engagement, shoot the dice and get married. On the other hand, Phil and Rose have been married over 50 years. Tolerance rules their mutual foibles until both decide to alter their rules of engagement.

But rules always have a way of going awry especially where there is love. There seems to be no exemption for age and no exception for youth. These two couples are friends but the advice they share about love is laughable no matter how straight faced it is delivered.

Wisdom and love are seldom companions and love seldom triumphs without tribulation. Tom and Donna face a crisis that could tear their love asunder. But they learn that love will triumph when Engagement, not avoidance, Rules.

Burying the Bones is a ghost story, of sorts. In post-Apartheid South Africa, Mae is haunted by apparitions of her husband, James, who has been missing for two years. Against the advice of her more politically active sister, Mae goes to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, hoping to learn what happened to James. While there, she must face the white policeman accused of killing James, and learns that the truth is more painful and complicated than she ever thought, and that history’s ghosts are not easily set to rest.

In this period of rampant rebellion throughout the Mideast, Burying the Bones is timely, thought-provoking, scary and relevant. Terror and torture dig at us deeply and the play raises the question, “When the dust of change settles will the winners and losers be able to Bury the Bones?”

It’s no surprise that Dead and Buried is a play about a cemetery. But, the story is not simply about corpses and the bereaved. It is about the Cemetery Supervisor, Bid, and the workers she hires. Bid is an ex-marine who was stationed in a Mortuary Affairs Unit. Rob is the young man who works the backhoe and digs graves. Perdue is a young woman hired by Bid to work with Rob. However, all of them have hidden agendas and secrets.

Cemetery humor and ghoulish pranks fail to bury the deep rooted need in all of them to overcome fate’s cruelties and recover abandoned love.

In the end, together, all three find camaraderie as they toss dirt, shovel by shovel, into an uncovered grave.

Detective Helms has to investigate Mimi’s death. She died by unnatural means and the murderer must be found.

Mimi was a vital, sharp and active mother until she fell into the decimating clutches of Alzheimer’s. The family, two daughters, Susan and Harriet and Susan’s son, Mimi’s grandson, had to deal with the deteriorating long term results of the disease and had the task of Taking Care of Mimi.

Harriet’s employer, Veterinarian Dr. Luis Ferraro’s practice makes us wonder why we can’t deal with our loved ones as humanely as we do our pets. Does his practice provide Detective Helms with the motive for Mimi’s demise?