School has started, football season has started, annual festivals (SC Pride, Rosewood Arts, Greek Festival) are only weeks away, which can only mean one thing: Midlands theatres are about to kick off their new seasons as well!
That's right - while you were lounging at the lake or the beach, or visiting Disney World or 
your great-aunt Sophie, several hundred local singers, dancers, actors, musicians, and behind-the-scenes artists and technicians were in rehearsals at the numerous professional and community theatres that fill Columbia, just so that you will have plenty of opportunities for live entertainment this fall. Here's a very quick, incomplete, and imperfect roster of some of the shows coming up. (Disclaimer: these are simply some of the local theatre groups that have announced seasons, but this is not meant to represent anything definitive. )
Lexington Arts Association (at the Village Square Theatre)
- Grease - September 26 - October 12
- Cheaper by the Dozen - November 7 - November 16
- Christmas in Lexington (non-season, holiday-themed revue) - December 5 - December 14
- Disney's Peter Pan, Jr. - January 30 - February 15
- Neil Simon's The Odd Couple (female version) - March 20 - March 29
- Annie Get Your Gun - May 1 - May 17
- Oklahoma! - Sept. 19 - 11 Oct. 11
- White Christmas - November 14 – December 7
- Always...Patsy Cline (non-season show) - January 8 – 18
- Driving Miss Daisy - January 30 – February 14
- Sugar (the musical version of the film Some Like It Hot) - March 6 – 21
- Spamalot - May 8 – 30
Workshop Theatre (now performing at the 701 Whaley Market Place, i.e. the one-story structure adjacent to the main event hall, facing Whaley Street)
- Five Guys Named Moe - September 18-21
- The Dining Room - November 6-9
- Neil Simon's Broadway Bound (3rd in the trilogy that has included Biloxi Blues and Brighton Beach Memoirs) - January 15-18
- Stick Fly - March 12-15
- Lend Me a Tenor - May 7-10
South Carolina Shakespeare Company
- King Lear - October 1 -11 at Finlay Park
- The Taming of the Shrew - May (dates tba)
On Stage Productions (located at 680 Cherokee Lane in West Columbia)
- Legends Country Music Show (a country music revue from Broadway to the Grand Ole Opry) - September 19- 28
- A Very Second Samuel Christmas - December 12 -20
- Twelfth Night (yes, the Shakespearean comedy!) - February 13-22
- The Secret Garden - April 17-26
Columbia Children's Theatre (upstairs in Richland Mall)
- How I Became a Pirate - September 19-28
- Jack Frost - December 5-14
- Bunnicula - Feb. 20 - Mar. 1
- Skippyjon Jones in Cirque de Olé - April 10-19
- Brer Rabbit - June 12-21
Chapin Theatre Company (performing at the Harbison Theatre at Midlands Technical College)
- Last Stop Chapin - Sept. 5 - 20
- 'Tis the Season - October 31 - November 9 (non-season show, performed at the Firehouse Theatre at the American Legion Post - 102 Lexington Avenue in Chapin)
- Suite Surrender - February 2015
- Into the Woods - June 2015
- Noises Off - Sept 2015
USC's Theatre South Carolina (main stage season)
- Ajax in Iraq - October 3-11 - Longstreet Theatre
- Thornton Wilder's Our Town - November 14-22 - Longstreet Theatre
- Brian Friel's Translations - February 20-28 - Longstreet Theatre
- The Three Musketeers (by Alexandre Dumas; adapted by Ken Ludwig) - April 17-25 - Drayton Hall Theatre
USC's Lab Theatre (at 1400 Wheat Street)
- Good Boys and True - October 9-12
- The Women of Lockerbie - November 20-23
- The Trojan Women (by Euripides) - February 26 – March 1
- Player King (original play, written and directed by student Ryan Stevens) - April 23-26
USC's Center for Performance Experiment
- Balance (original play by Robyn Hunt, conceived/directed by Steven Pearson, both faculty members) - February 23 - 28
- Macbeth - April 27 & 29
Theatre Rowe's Southeastern Theatrical Arts Bandits (S.T.A.B.) (not a traditional season, and presenting shows in alternating venues)
- Going Once, Going Twice...Murder! - August 22 - October 3
- Haunting at the Old Mill - October 10 - November 1
- John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men - November 8 - 23
Trustus Theatre - Thigpen Main Stage
- Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike - Sept. 12 - 27
- A Christmas Carol - Nov. 21 – Dec. 20
- In the Red and Brown Water - Jan. 23 – Feb. 7
- Godspell - Mar. 27– Apr. 11
- Other Desert Cities - May 8- 23
- Dreamgirls - Jun. 26 – Aug. 1
- Big City (Playwrights' Festival winner) - Aug. 15-22
Richard and Debbie Cohn Side Door Theatre at Trustus
- The Other Place - Oct. 17 - Nov. 1
- Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays - Jan. 3 - 17
- You Better Sit Down: Tales from My Parents’ Divorce - Feb. 27 – Mar. 14
- Bill W. and Dr. Bob - May 29 – June 13
...............
Additionally, there are a number of performing groups that do one or more shows a year, including High Voltage Theatre, the NiA Company, Blythewood Community Theatre, WOW (Walking on Water Productions), La Tropa, and New Life Productions - click on the links to their sites for details on upcoming productions. WOW, in fact, has an event this coming weekend, Fri. Sept. 5 - Sun. Sept. 7, with scenes from past and future productions; details are here.
~ August Krickel