May 26, 27, June 1,2,8,9,15,16 1991
Anne of Green Gables, based on the book by L. M. Montgomery, was adapted by Donald Harron with music by Norman Campbell, lyrics by Donald Harron, Norman Campbell and Elaine Campbell. Diane Englert directed, and Brian K. Stratton was musical director.
Matthew (Doug Reade) and Marilla Cuthbert (Tracy Maher) of Green Gables decide to adopt an orphan boy to help Matthew with the farm chores. But the orphanage sends a girl, Anne Shirley (Gail Wamba), a talkative redhead with an overactive imagination. She would have to go back, but the longer Anne is at Green Gables, the less anyone can imagine the place without her.
Directors generally try to cast slender people for characters who die onstage during a show. In Anne of Green Gables, Matthew dies slumped in his rocking chair. Doug Reade is a big man. There was some good natured complaint about this by the “villagers” who carried him out. During one rehearsal the cast, instead of entering on cue to carry Matthew out, arranged themselves on a wheeled platform to resemble the painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware. They poled the “boat” onstage and dumped Doug unceremoniously in it.
An offstage romance, the actors who played the schoolmaster and schoolmistress, Walt Foster and Gail Johnson, were married July 13, 1991. The play showed to 3,907 in eight performances.
