Monster season

All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre

All-of-Us Express’ 26th season features well-known titles starting with the doublebill “The Frog Prince” and “The Truly Remarkable Puss-in-Boots,” but artistic director Sarah Willis says change is in the air. Willis took the reins in January after graduating from college. She’s already utilizing her degree in playwriting and minor in theater within the organization.

“We did a show for Renegade Theater Festival this year and the kids helped write it,” says Willis. “It was a one-act but it was really fantastic that it helped them out with their writing process and we are in May watching a playwrights festival.” All-of-Us Express rounds out its season in the spring with “The House at Pooh Corner” and “The Pied Piper of Hamelin.”

Lansing Community College Performing Arts Department

LCC’s first main stage production, “A Room with a View,” will certainly appeal to Masterpiece Theater fans, but director Andy Callis said he’s taking a minimalist approach to the country-hopping Edwardian-era comedy of class and romance.

“The more specific you get (with set details), the more you have to do,” says Callis. “As soon as you put a door, where is the door mat?” Callis hopes an uncluttered set and lots of light cues will evoke the time and place without slowing down the pace of the show.

LCC’s season also includes the black box show “Animals Out of Paper” and Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” with “A Streetcar Named Desire” slated for spring.

Ixion Ensemble

After a condensed season last year, Ixion Ensemble is poised to launch its first full schedule in the AA Creative Corridor on South Washington Avenue. But founder Jeff Croff seems most excited about its debut show “Topdog/Underdog.”

“I’ve been waiting to (stage this show) for almost 10 years,” Croff said. The two-person cast features Rico Bruce Wade and Sineh Wurie.

Croff said Ixion will continue to encourage new playwrights with next spring’s “Goddesses” (he’s accepting goddess-themed scripts from local writers through the end of September) in concert with his new theater troupe’s mission. Ixion’s season also includes the maritime comedy “Shipwrecked!” and the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.”

Michigan State University Department of Theatre

In sync with MSU’s yearlong celebration of Brown v. Education’s 60th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, Rob Roznowski, head of acting and directing, co-wrote the season’s opener, “60/50 Theater Project,” with fellow MSU faculty Daniel Smith.

“It’s an examination of the diversity and inclusion that we have here on campus and some of the struggles we’ve had with it,” Roznowski said. While MSU bookends its season with inclusion and diversity, the theme is “Power Plays.”

“We always think of someone as the victim or the aggressor, and I think it’s much more fluid than that,” Roznowski said. From bullies and an overbearing mother in “Carrie the Musical,” a scheming wife in “Macbeth” to the hippies versus “the Man” in “Hair,” Roznowski said each selection examines “the gray areas of power.”

Mid-Michigan Family Theatre

Leave it to children’s and family theater directors to follow pop culture trends.

“We picked out ‘The Snow Queen and the Goblin’ because of the popularity of the movie ‘Frozen,’ which a lot of young people have seen and enjoyed,” said director Bill Gordon. The Hans Christian Andersen tale starts its season, which shares a bill with “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” But Gordon points out that Mid-Michigan Family Theatre is unique in the area for its intergenerational casting.

“It makes it nice because families can work together on stage,” he said. “Parents don’t have to necessarily just drop their kids off at rehearsal process. (They can join) the acting process too.”

Peppermint Creek Theatre Co.

Peppermint Creek’s 12th season has the theme “Defining Revelation,” and’ it’s full of conflict.

“The shows deal with people and communities who have a deeply held belief and come up against someone or something that forces them to reevaluate and shift what they know or think,” said founder and artistic director Chad Badgero.

Show titles like “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” “Parade” and “Venus in Fur” might not be familiar to Lansing audiences, but directors like Michael Hays, Jane Falion and Rob Roznowski should be. Co-artistic director Blake Bowen credits his company’s collaborative atmosphere for bringing in notable Lansing talent.

“We give our directors complete autonomy,” Bowen said. “We really let them do what they want to do. There’s not a board where they have to prove this is the right thing to do.”

Riverwalk Theatre

For sheer volume and variety of shows, Riverwalk Theater remains the theater in town to beat. Its nine-show season includes comedy classics as well as recently available Broadway hits like the musical “Young Frankenstein,” based on Mel Brooks’ iconic film. Director Tom Ferris said the scale of their production has been the biggest challenge.

“We’ve got more big set pieces than I’ve  ever seen on our stage. We’ve used up all the lumber we had in the shop and most of the paint too,” says Ferris. “This is a huge show. I would like to say monster of a show, but that’s a pun intended.” Riverwalk’s season also includes the Noel Coward standard “Blithe Spirit” and the musical revue “Ain’t Misbehavin.”

Starlight Dinner Theatre

Change is coming to Starlight Dinner Theatre: A new caterer and a new Sunday matinee. But the biggest news for artistic director Linda Granger is her chance to direct the musical “Camelot.”

“I said I would never do ‘Camelot’ if I didn’t have the costumes,” Granger said. “That was one of my biggest obstacles.” Granger not only lined up the costumes and a costumer, but she also landed her dream leading man: local actor Marty Underhill as King Arthur. (Casting for Lancelot and Guinevere is still wide open.) She’s even planning on some secret special effects to create what she calls those “big moments.”

“When people walk out, those are the things they remember and talk about.” she said. Starlight starts its season with “What’s Susan’s Secret?”

Wharton Center

Before “The Phantom of the Opera” makes its fourth appearance in East Lansing, Wharton spokesman Bob Hoffman’s favorite show of the season comes to the Wharton Center.

“I love ‘Pippin’. I saw it in New York last year and it was absolutely incredible,” Hoffman said. The Tony Award-winning musical revival arrives in January, but audiences eager for musicals before then can see the Irish love story “Once” and the returning favorite “Annie” in the fall. Another Tony winner, “Kinky Boots” featuring music by Cyndi Lauper, closes the Wharton Broadway season in May.

Williamston Theatre

Executive director John Lepard says it’s just a coincidence that Williamston ignites another season with a Halloween-flavored story. He admits last season’s “The Woman in Black” was a hit, but he picked “The Gravedigger,” Joseph Zettelmaier’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” because of its themes. “I love broken people, vulnerable characters,” Lepard said. “That’s what draws me to (scripts). There’s nobody more broken in the world (than the creature). And the same thing with the gravedigger — he’s had his life turned around and they find each other and sort of make sense out of the world.”

Other offerings include “Miracle on South Division Street” directed by Rob Roznowski and “Sirens” directed by Tony Caselli.

See page 12 for a guide to upcoming shows through January 2015.