Starring David Payne

Dates: Tuesday and Wednesday

September 19 and 20

Venue: SPI Convention Center

Style: One Man Show

Run time: 2 Hours

Show Summary:

Winston Churchill has just been awarded honorary US citizenship by President John F. Kennedy. In recognition of this unprecedented occasion, The American-Oxford Society has asked the former Prime Minister to address them and discuss what this honor means to him. In this often funny, sometimes touching and always engaging one-man-show… veteran British actor, David Payne brings Churchill to life onstage. Audiences will be delighted to hear of his exploits during the Boer War, his constant battles with Britain’s fellow politicians, and his special relationship with America and America’s presidents. But most telling of all, Churchill enlightens the audience with intimate and touching details of the two special women in his life—his wife Clementine and Queen Elizabeth. With elements of The Crown and The Darkest Hour, David Payne gives audiences an opportunity to spend an evening with one of the greatest historical figures in the world—Sir Winston Churchill.

By Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope, Jamie Wooten

Dates: October 4, 5

Venue: The Courtyard at 2500 Padre

Style: Comedy, Chamber Theater

Run Time: 2 hours

Show Summary:

In this delightful, laugh-a-minute comedy, four unique Southern women, who all need to escape the sameness of their day-to-day routines, are drawn together by Fate – and an impromptu happy hour. They decide it’s high time to reclaim the enthusiasm for life they’ve lost through the years. Randa is struggling to cope with a surprise career derailment. Dot, still reeling from her husband’s recent passing, faces the unsettling prospect of starting a new life from scratch. Marlafaye, a good ol’ Texas gal, has blasted into Savannah in the wake of losing her tom-cattin’ husband to a twenty-three year old dental hygienist. Jinx, also new to town, offers her services as a much- needed life coach for these women. Over the course of six months, filled with laugher, hilarious misadventures, and the occasional liquid refreshment, these women successfully bond and find the confidence to jumpstart their new lives.

Book by Tom Stoppard

Music by Andre Previn

Lyrics by Tom Stoppard

Freely Adapted from Ferenc Molnar’s Play at the Castle

Dates: Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday

October 15, 16, 17

Venue: SPI Convention Center

Style: Farce with Music

Run Time: 2 hours

Show Summary:

Two established playwrights hoping to refresh their careers take their show on the road. Or, rather, on the high seas, along with their two established stars who also happen to be former lovers. The plan is to ride the wake of a brilliant, young composer – who happens to be engaged to the leading lady – who will compose their new musical. But when the writer and the composer stumble across a tryst between the actors, the writers need to pull out all the stops to keep their young musical phenom from going overboard. Stoppard’s sharp and sparkling wit is on full display, punctuated by pratfalls, and led by a cast of characters teetering just on the edge of ridiculous. Even when they’re behaving badly you can’t help but cheer them on. Their hearts, after all, are in the right place – mostly. It’s about as much fun as you can have on a stage.

Important Update: Due to multiple Cast and Crew Members of Rough Crossing testing positive for Covid-19 the October 15th through 17th shows have been cancelled. Online tickets will be refunded, physical tickets can be exchanged for a ticket to a future show at the Art Business Incubator in SPI.

Music by Richard Rodgers

Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II

Music Arrangements by Fred Wells

Conceived by Walter Bobbie

Dates: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

November 6, 7, 8

Venue: SPI Convention Center

Style: Musical Revue

Run Time: 2 ½ hours

Show Summary:

Taste and imagination, the two key ingredients for a first-rate revue, abound in this fresh take on the Rodgers & Hammerstein canon conceived by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie. Over three decades after the duo’s final collaboration, The Sound of Music, took Broadway by storm, this new R&H musical opened the 1994 Broadway season with flair and distinction, garnering wildly enthusiastic notices and earning two Tony Nominations including Best Musical. The brilliant invention lavished on this revue, with innovative musical arrangements, including a sultry Andrews Sister-esque “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,’ a swingin’ “Honeybun: worthy of the Modernaires, and a jazzy “Kansas City,” prove how terrifically up-to-date the remarkable songs of R&H remain.

By: Sam Broderick

Dates: January 22, 23, 24

Venue: The SPI Convention Center

Style: Romantic Farce

Show Summary:

Baggage is a superbly written comedy by award-winning playwright Sam Bobrick. In this play, two un-centered, single people, Phyllis Novak and Bradley Naughton, both trying to heal from their respective disappointing relationships, get their luggage mixed up at the airport. After a very disagreeable first encounter to exchange their bags, the two decide to help each other get over their heartaches by forging a friendship. The friendship eventually leads to the two discovering that, while they may be too difficult for everyone else in the world, they are right for each other. Throw in Dr. Jonathan Alexander, a book hustling analyst and Phyllis’ outrageous, kooky friend Mitzi Cartwright, both of whom bounce in and out of the action dispensing unwanted advice. Add some audience interaction and some splendid surprises and you have the makings of a very fun and funny romantic comedy. Sam Bobrick is a prolific and award-winning television and film writer who wrote more than thirty stage plays including comedies and mystery plays. El Paseo patrons may remember the fun and laughter they enjoyed with EPAF’s production of his farce, Murder at the Howard Johnson’s.

By: Bernard Slade

Dates: February 5th 6th and 7th

Venue: SPI Convention Center

Same Time Next Year ran four years on Broadway, playing 1463 performances. It was nominated for three Tony awards: Best Play, Best Direction and Outstanding Performance by an Actress, winning the Tony for lead actress Ellen Burstyn, who later recreated her role in the successful motion picture. It remains one of the world’s most widely produced plays. The plot follows a love affair between two people, Doris and George, married to others, who rendezvous once a year. Twenty-five years of manners and morals are hilariously and touchingly played out by the lovers.

“Delicious wit, compassion, a sense of humor and a feel for nostalgia.”- The New York Times

“Genuinely funny and genuinely romantic.”- The New York Post

By Theresa Rebeck

Dates: February 22, 23, and 24

Venue: SPI Convention Center

Style: One Woman Show

Run Time: 2 hours

Show Summary:

This Idiosyncratic journey of self-discovery involving the Romanian Mob, a Buddhist rainstorm, a teenage daughter, shoes, and a few very bad dates will take the audience on a wild adventure in this one-woman show starring our very own, Andrea Wright.

By Neil Simon

Dates: Thursday and Friday

May 9, 10

Venue: SPI Convention Center

Style: Dark Comedy

Run Time: 2 hours

Show Summary:

Here is a decidedly French dinner party served up in a chaotic mode that only a master of comedy could create: Five people are invited to dine at a first-rate restaurant in Paris. They do not know who the other guests will be or they have been invited. Tossed together in a private dining room, they have a sneaking suspicion that this unorthodox dinner party will forever change their lives. The males arrive first. Albert Donayn, a used card salesman and painter, Claude Pichon, a bookshop owner, and Andre Bouville, a men’s clothing tycoon. They discover that they share the same divorce lawyer. They guess that he may be their host, and they briefly imagine that they will be meeting three beautiful, single women. Instead, their ex-wives arrive.