Building a “season of laughter” was the primary mission of Theatre Workshop of Owensboro’s Executive Director Todd Reynolds, as the company filled September to April with eight shows of “side-splitting comedy.”
With a season of dinosaurs, Santa Claus, Dracula, and Dr. Seuss, Reynolds said they wanted to have something for everyone to laugh at and enjoy the season.
“We try to make it still varied and not hit the same note over and over again, so we always try to have something a little bit different and something for everybody,” Reynolds said.
The season kicks off in September with three weekend shows of ‘The Dinosaur Musical’ and ‘Fairy Tale Trail.’ ‘The Dinosaur Musical’ follows a comedic telling of World War II through the lens of herbivorous dinosaurs while their carnivorous kin broke their Treaty of Meat, a la Versailles.
The show will debut on September 6 and run Friday, Saturday, and Sunday until September 15. Director Wes Bartlett has more about the show here.
But on Saturday, September 28, TWO will fill Jim Lambert’s Pioneer Village at Yellow Creek Park with a walking trail of fairy tales. These debuted during the pandemic, but Reynolds is proud to find different ways for people to experience the theatre.
Each monologue is performed and written by a member of the youth theater. The format loosely relates to Voices of Elmwood, which Reynolds helped plan. Each walking tour is about 30 minutes long and starts at 3. The last show begins at 4:30 p.m.
The theatre group wants to ring in Halloween in the best way possible by telling the story of Dracula. With the story taking a turn for the comedic side, ‘Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors’ will take the stage at the Trinity Centre as the cast of vampire hunters chases Dracula from Transylvania to the British countryside.
Auditions for Dracula are being held on August 19 and 20 at 7 p.m.
Fittingly, the show will be performed on the classic gothic-designed stage at the Trinity Center, which was intentional to add to the Halloween spirit.
“It just seemed like a perfect venue. We’ve done Dracula in here before, and it’s just a lot of fun. But it’s a season of comedy, so we got to spin it, and this, this script just seemed perfect for the season,” Reynolds said.
After the spooky season has ended, they open with another twist to a story known by many over the years: ‘Twinderella,’ not to be confused with Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
This beloved fairy tale follows Cinderella and her long-lost twin brother on a quest to get themselves invited to The Royal Ball. With the help of both Fairy Godmother and Godfather, Cinderella and her brother smack a homerun at the All Kingdom Baseball Game.
This is a youth production show ready to spotlight some of the budding younger talent in Owensboro. There will only be three performances from November 8 to 10 at the Empress Theater.
To round out the 2024 year, TWO will take a trip to the North Pole with ‘The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus,’ a story of how young Santa Claus came to be. The story follows the Holly Jolly Man from building his first toy to how he climbs down chimneys.
“The last three Christmases, our shows have been fun, but they’re not for little kids necessarily; this one is aimed right at the kids, but adults will really enjoy it,” Reynolds said.
It comes at just the right time for the holiday season, with 6 shows on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from December 6 to 15.
After taking a month off of shows in January, the organization returns in February with the romantic comedy ‘Loose Knit’ on Valentine’s Day weekend.
The show features 5 female friends in a knitting club who all have something unweaving in their personal lives. This leads to a series of blind dates and a clever take on the dating world.
With just two more shows in the season, they will present their second youth production, ‘The Suessification of Romeo and Juliet,’ on March 14-16. There is only one weekend to watch the show.
The literary talents of Dr. Suess and the fated story of William Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers “run at each other full speed” as Reynolds tells it into a comedic show for a story with something for children and parents alike.
For the last show of the 2024-25 season, Reynolds said they are closing with ‘Boeing Boeing’ a play about bachelor Benard who is simultaneously engaged to three airline stewardesses when all three surprise him in town at the same time due to weather conditions. The show is a remake of the 1965 farce movie of the same name.
The season’s closer will run from April 11 to 20 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Looking back at a packed season with 8 different performances is exciting for Reynolds, as he remembers just four seasons prior when things were moving a lot slower for everyone.
“It takes me back to those COVID days and being unable to do anything. It’s just good to be back and doing theater and providing those opportunities for people to shine and be creative,” Reynolds said.
All tickets to shows can be found here.
