PCPA’s 51st Summer Season Santa Maria & Solvang June 11 – October 3, 2015

“outstanding” “brilliantly directed” “dazzling”
“rich details and even richer performances”
“it has everything going for it”

The stellar cast includes Karin Hendricks as Eliza Doolittle, Andrew Philpot* as Henry Higgins, Peter S. Hadres* as Colonel Pickering, Erik Stein* as Alfred P. Doolittle, Kitty Balay* as Mrs. Higgins, Matt Koenig as Freddy   Eynsford-Hill, George Walker as Jamie, and Elizabeth Stuart* as Mrs. Pearce. And, it includes some of the most memorable Golden Age of Theatre tunes ever penned, “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?,” “With a Little Bit of Luck,” “I Could Have Dance All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”

Experience My Fair Lady under the stars in Solvang June 11 through July 12.

This classic musical Man of La Mancha, is a play within a play, presenting us with Miguel de Cervantes who has just been imprisoned during the Spanish Inquisition. In the dungeon, the other prisoners hold a mock trial and Cervantes must defend himself to save a precious manuscript. He tells the court a fantastic story of an aging nobleman, and while doing so, he transforms himself into knight-errant Don Quixote de la Mancha. Don Quixote duels windmill monsters and defends the lady of his dreams, Dulcinea, who is actually a peasant “kitchen wench” named Aldonza. He travels with his squire, Sancho Panza, who does his best to keep Quixote out of trouble, but usually is picking him up after a fight. Our “mad knight” has a heart of gold and sees what others cannot. His quest is to right all the wrongs in the world; he knows neither defeat or failure. And through his vision of hope and possibilities, he inspires goodness in others, which is personified in the anthem “To Dream the Impossible Dream.” Don Quixote will be played by guest equity artist David Studwell.

Man of La Mancha plays in the Marian Theatre July 8 & 11, 2015, then under the unreachable stars in the Solvang Festival Theater July 17 – August 16.

Later this summer Peter and the Starcatcher takes us on a madcap adventure on the high seas. This multi-Tony winner by Rick Elice is the grown-up’s prequel to Peter Pan. Apprentice starcatcher – 13 year-old Molly Aster – and three orphan boys take to the high seas with a trunk full of magic starstuff while pursued by a boat-load of pirates under the leadership of the notorious and hook-less Black Stache. Along the way Molly learns what it means to grow-up while a nameless orphan and his friends take up residence on an island where dreams are born and time is never planned – the island where that nameless orphan is christened Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. A dozen actors play more than one hundred characters, employing inspired stagecraft and the limitless possibilities of imagination.

“Peter and the Starcatcher has the magical ability to transform…a mostly adult audience into a crowd of delighted kids.” – Tribune

Peter and the Starcatcher plays August 21 – September 13 in the Solvang Festival Theater.

Other Desert Cities is set in a comfortable Palm Springs home which turns into the battle ground for conservative against liberal. Verbal blows and jabs hit deep, opening old wounds in this family’s past that contain a closely guarded secret. Brooke Wyeth is a middle age writer and the liberal daughter of prominent Republican parents who returns home after a six year absence. She throws the Christmastime reunion into turmoil when she announces her plans to publish a tell-all book that dredges up a pivotal and tragic event in the family’s history that would surely tarnish their political and social reputations. This searing comedy-drama by Jon Robin Baitz shows us a family struggling to keep their fragile façade from shattering.   (Adult Language)

Other Desert Cities plays in the Marian Theatre September 18 – October 3.