'Grease,' 'Phantom of the Opera' to show

BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN

dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563

Durham, Chapel Hill and Carrboro are known to be thriving arts communities. For those who enjoy theater, our community offers a range of experiences, both high dollar and affordable, grand scale and intimate, works in progress and polished veteran productions. This fall season offers a smorgasbord of theatrical variety.

Here are highlights of the fall theater season, by venue:

Durham Performing Arts Center

123 Vivian St. Durham

www.dpacnc.com

680-2787

Durham Performing Arts Center, now in its second season, has pulled off bringing a big-name traveling show to Durham for its world premiere. Cirque Dreams Illumination premieres at DPAC Sept. 15, with nightly shows through Sept. 20. The cirque, musical, variety and Vaudeville performance will be like no other, according to Cirque Dreams director, producer and founder Neil Goldberg. The large-scale production rolling into town in two weeks starts DPAC's Broadway series season, which continues with traveling Broadway tours of "GREASE" Oct. 6-11, starring Taylor Hicks of "American Idol." Then on Thanksgiving, legendary Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera" comes to DPAC for nearly a month, from Nov. 26-Dec. 20.

Just for kids, "Imagination Movers" will come to DPAC for its first national theater tour on Oct. 15. "Imagination Movers," a pop quartet, have a show on the Disney Channel and a CD out.

Manbites Dog Theater

703 Foster St., Durham

www.manbitesdogtheater.org

682-4974

For information on shows and tickets, visit Manbites Dog Theater's website at www.manbitesdogtheater.org.

Manbites Dog's 23rd season opens Oct. 29 with the world premiere of a play by a North Carolina playwright, Howard Craft. "Caleb Calypso and the Midnight Marauders" will be directed by Joseph Megel. It is about an American soldier in Germany in 1989 as the Cold War ends and he tries to plan his future. The play runs through Nov. 14.

The stage at Manbites Dog Theater will be used earlier by another company, however, when Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern presents "The Italian Actress" Sept. 17-26 written by Jody McAuliffe and based on the novel by Frank Lentrichhia. Dana Marks will direct the play about a video artist trying to reclaim his glory through the ultimate transgressive artwork. Billed as a "kinky meditation on our fear of physical and spiritual decay."

McAuliffe will return to the Manbites stage a week later for a staged reading she directs of "The Rule of Fate" by Marlane Meyer Oct. 2 and 3. Billed as "Dante's Inferno inspires an expose of a contemporary fictional Hollywood film family in this gritty, funny, shrewd journey in search of the secrets of the bedroom."

Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern will present Charlotte Bronte's "'Jane Eyre" Dec. 3-19. Melissa Lozoff adapted the book for a play directed by Tom Marriott.

PlayMakers Repertory Company

UNC Center for Dramatic Art, Chapel Hill

www.playmakersrep.org

962-PLAY

PlayMakers will take on a rotating repertory again this year, but with a twist. Rather than two complementary plays, the plays will be parts one and two of the Charles Dickens novel "The Life and Times of Nicholas Nickleby" by David Edgar. PlayMakers artistic director Joseph Haj will direct the east coast premiere of Edgar's version. The cast will feature 24 actors performing on stage at Paul Green Theatre.

But the main stage season begins Sept. 23 with "Opus," which explores the lives artistic and otherwise of a quartet, Haj said. It will be performed through Oct. 11.

PlayMakers' second stage, called PRC2, will begin its season with "The Last Cargo Cult" Sept. 16-20 in Kenan Theatre. It is a monologue by Mike Daisey about South Pacific islanders who worship America.

Deep Dish Theater

University Mall, Chapel Hill

www.deepdishtheater.org

968-1515

Deep Dish artistic director Paul Frellick will direct "Glengary Glen Ross," David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy about unscrupulous real estate salesmen in the theater second play this season [see story on season opener "Summer and Smoke."] The play runs Oct. 23-Nov. 14.

Common Ground Theatre

4815B Hillsborough Road, Durham

www,cgtheatre.com

384-7817

Common Ground, a black box theater, has several resident companies. Ghost & Spice Productions will present the Triangle premiere of Edward Albee's "At Home At the Zoo" sept. 11-26. The dark comedy pair "The Zoo Story" from 1958 with a recently written prequel, "Homelife."

Transactors Improv presents "City of Medicine -- Season Three" on three Fridays this fall beginning Sept. 4. Another improv group, FatMouth Improv, presents a show Oct. 17.

Bare Theatre will present William Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" Oct. 8-10, followed by a Turbulence presentation of "The Insanity of Mary Girard" by Lanie Robertson. Common Ground's rotating companies continue with a presentation by Curtain Calls Productions of "The Laramie Project."

Common Ground Theatre itself presents a return holiday engagement of "A Trailer Park Christmas" by Jeffrey Moore and Rachel Klem, set in West Durham.

And to make things even more interesting, Common Ground hosts a dance performance, "Oh Beautiful, My Patriot Act" by Rachel Brooker and presented by Anima Dance and Common Ground.