Oddly enough, I'm starting off with a show that is very different from the usual offering. It was called Doubt (there is a description at the link above) and it was a one-act play (there have always been at least two acts with intermission(s)) and it was very tense and dramatic. There was no applause until the standing ovation at the end-- that has never happened before. Unfortunately, the crowd was much smaller than usual and I'm afraid that this may discourage the theater from doing more shows like this in the future. I must send them an email to tell them how much we liked it.
The story is set in the early 60s, shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy, and concerns a nice, friendly priest at a Catholic school who is great with kids and befriends one young boy in particular-- the only black child at the school, who is both lonely at school and abused by his father at home. The priest's antagonist is the head nun, who is cold and cynical and thinks that it's appropriate for the children to be terrified of her. This nun decides that the priest's relationship to the boy is inappropriate, based on hearsay. She avoids proper channels-- feeling that they will get her nowhere-- and confronts the priest herself. She is successful in making him back down and seek a transfer, avoiding scandal and preventing the boy from being kicked out, which would result-- according to his mother's fears-- in him either being killed by his father or killed in the desegregated public school. The priest ends up being promoted to principal of another Catholic school, much to the nun's dismay; but the dialogue in the confrontation is non-committal-- is the priest actually admitting to wrongdoing or just taking the easy way out? The boy's mother likes the priest and appreciates everything he's done for her son; she admits that her twelve-year-old is "that way" and doesn't see any problem with an "inappropriate" relationship, as long as her son has the father figure he needs, and gets the education he needs to move upward. The only other character is the young, idealistic nun who wants to befriend and inspire her students-- and who starts the whole thing by reporting her vague uneasiness to the head nun. Four characters all together.
It was an amazing, heartbreaking story-- very well produced and well acted. The actors must have had a field day doing this one (and there was some strange irony that the actor who played the priest had previously played Rocky in Rocky Horror).
If this ever comes to your local theater, I recommend seeing it. But don't go for laughs.
And read 