One year ago, the Center for the Arts of Homer had one stage production licensed and planned. Now it plans eight, and more may be added.
“We might have just about doubled our total theater offerings from 2023 to 2025, and without coming anywhere close to doubling the costs,” program director Ethan Zoeckler said. “It’s something I’m proud of.”
The center has so many shows that it is trying a new ticket deal – offering people a way to save money, while giving the Center a way to bring in income prior to the shows.
Until April 12, theater lovers can buy discounted season passes: two tickets to each show for $200, or two tickets to either the three musicals or plays for $100.
“It gives a little bit of income to us before we start the whole season, which never happens in theater,” Zoeckler said.
‘GUTENBERG: THE MUSICAL’
Many high schoolers save their money for things like a car, or a video game console. Braxton Towle, a Cortland High School junior, saved his money to put on one of his favorite musicals.
The two-person show “Gutenberg: The Musical” will open the season from April 12 to 14. It tells the story of two aspiring playwrights devising a musical about Johann Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press.
“I listened to the soundtrack on Spotify, and I thought it was the funniest show I’ve ever heard,” Towle said.
Towle approached the center about starring in the show with a friend, but figured out a different approach to include others. Several people will be cast for each role, with the casts rotating.
“We’re going to be coming up with ideas, and directing each other at the same time,” Towle said.
‘IRENE’
The season’s first premiere, “Irene” by Greg Moller, runs May 15 to 18. Moller has developed several radio plays the center has produced, but this is his first page-to-stage concept developed there.
“The community has rallied behind him and are leading the charge,“ Zoeckler said. “I was pretty excited when I witnessed the community support for this project first-hand, especially because we have not one, but two, world stage premieres this year.”
The play tells the story of a family, its dynamics and imperfections, he said.
‘EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE MOTHERS’
A community presentation of the play “Everybody’s Favorite Mothers” will be staged June 13 to 15, in honor of Pride month.
“This modern piece is slated for a 35-seat space, so it’s going to be up-close and personal,” Zoeckler said. “We’re going to fully stage it, but for a small, niche audience.”
It tells the story of Morty Manford, a gay rights activist from the 1970s, and his mother, Jeanne Manford, who protested alongside him. “It’s his story, but through glimpses of modern media,” Zoeckler said.
The show is in collaboration with PFLAG Cortland, a support and advocacy group for family and friends of queer people.
‘JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT’
A half-dozen summer theater camps will help stage a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” from July 17 to 20.
“With this show, a lot of the people that bear the brunt of the effort that it takes to accomplish one of these larger projects, we have a good runway to alleviate some of that pressure,” Zoeckler said. “That ultimately allows them to shine more creatively. That’s probably, in a nutshell, one of the biggest things about this whole year.”
‘MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING’
This year’s summer Shakespeare in the Park production will be “Much Ado About Nothing,” a comedy that runs Aug. 15 to 17 on the Homer Village Green.
“We’ve been doing big, dramatic battle sequences,” Zoeckler said. “This year, we’re doing a much more casual, modern, chill hang-out-in-the-park presentation. It’s going to be super refreshing to go back to the basics.”
The light, contemporary nature of the show makes it especially inviting to people who have never experienced Shakespeare, he added.
‘OUR BELOVED IAGO’
Deborah Goemans’ play “Our Beloved Iago” will premiere at the center Aug. 22 to 24.
The play, which has already been made into a short film, is a modern depiction of Shakespeare’s “Othello,” Goemans said. It is being funded by a $10,000 grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Goemans, a Tully resident from Cape Town, South Africa, was taught the story of “Othello” her senior year of high school, while she was experiencing apartheid, she said.
“Our Beloved Iago” follows Otto, who was adopted from Iraq by an American peace activist, and raised on a flower farm on Song Mountain in Tully.
“For most people, war is something that’s only shown on the news,” she said. “The 9/11 terrorist attacks brought changes to the small towns. Villages snatched back their children from school, as terror attacks were shown in their living rooms.”
Otto started facing racism and attacks after 9/11, and decided to join the military. He was deployed to Iraq, and fought his own people. The play follows him after returning home, and facing post traumatic stress disorder from an incident where he accidentally killed an Iraqi girl.
“It’s all about jealousy and war, and the themes of war,” Goemans said. “Wars don’t start or end, they just take breaks, and it doesn’t matter who wins or loses. The memory of evil done in the name of fighting evil will lie around in some way.”
‘LITTLE WOMEN: THE MUSICAL’
“Little Women: The Musical,” based on the Louisa May Alcott novel, will run Nov. 19 to 23 in the center’s community room.
Directors Haley Georgia and Mary Colomaio wanted to put it on to feature the community’s female actors in strong, leading roles, Georgia said.
“We are so lucky to have such a wealth of talented women in this community, who deserve the opportunity to have their talent showcased,” she said.
“It is a beautiful musical, with a beautiful message of joy, love, perseverance and sisterhood,” Colomaio said. “I think now, more than ever, everyone needs a story like that to connect with.”
‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’
Jim Coon’s version of “A Christmas Carol” will run in December. It has been staged several times as a radio play, often at the 1890 House Museum in Cortland.
Each production, Coons gives Bob Cratchit another child.
“We try to have fun with it and not make it completely gloomy,” Coon said. “I try to follow a traditional storyline for it, but I try to throw in a couple of things that are a bit more humorous, and things that you might hear and think ‘Oh, that relates to today’s world.’”
