Well another successful season comes to a close on a high note with the closing of a very successful run of Fiddler on the Roof. This show set attendance records for RSP as our all time highest attended show. Congratulations to a fantastic cast, crew and orchestra, you all deserve a standing ovation. To you the audience, we thank you very much for your support through out this season, and we hope you will join us for our next blockbuster season.

RSP is pleased to announce that season tickets to our 2005 Broadway season of great shows are now on sale at a big savings over our single ticket price. With costs of theatre rental and production costs rising, RSP has been forced to increase our single ticket price to $17 for Adults, $15 for Students and Seniors and $12 for children and groups of 10 or more. However, as a season subscriber you receive all six shows for the one low price of $75 for the entire season. That is a $27 dollar savings over the single ticket price – over a 36% discount, and you know that you’ll have your tickets guaranteed for one of the best - award winning community theatre companies in the Sacramento area.

Subscriber Benefits

• Save Over Single-Ticket Purchases - Season tickets at Runaway Stage Productions are discounted 36% off the price of adult tickets and 20% off the price of Senior tickets. Subscribers save up to $4.50 per show. It's like getting one and half shows free!
• The Best Seats In The House - All season subscription orders are filled before individual ticket orders, giving you the best locations available at the time you make your season ticket holder reservations. Let us know the area of the theatre that you prefer and we will do our best to seat you there!
• Guaranteed Renewal Privileges - In seasons to come, you will be sent an invoice allowing you to renew your subscriptions, guaranteeing your tickets before any new subscribers.
• Ultimate Flexibility - With our VIP Season Subscriber Card you can choose the date and performance you wish to attend. You are not locked into a certain week of the run; you simply call the box office and make your VIP reservations 48 hrs. in advance of the performance you want to attend.
• Bring A Friend For Less - Purchase up to 4 additional single tickets to any show at the discounted "House Seat" price - the lowest price we offer to VIPs (based on availability, limited quantity per performance). They don't replace a guaranteed seat like a season ticket does, but when available they are a great way to introduce a friend to RSP!
• Exclusive Invitation-Only Events - you're at the top of our "A List" to be invited to special events and parties.

The 2005 Fantastic Season of Blockbuster Shows

• Steel Magnolias - (January 7 - 30, 2005) Robert Harling's comedic/dramatic tale of a group of women who cry and laugh through life's hardships and triumphs. Set in a beauty parlor in Louisiana, Steel Magnolias follows how the lives of six women interweave via the small town gossip that shadows the sweep of the birth, marriage, and death cycle.
• Seussical, The Musical - (February 11 - March 6, 2005) Culled from the many literary works of Theodor Seuss Geisel, known to most as Dr. Seuss, "Seussical" tells the wacky tale of an elephant who discovers a planet on a speck of dust, of a bird who grows a tail so long she can't fly and of a kid who dares to dream. And it is a joy both for children and the adults who dare to envy their childhoods. Created by composer Stephen Flaherty and writer Lynn Ahrens - who also wrote "Once on This Island" and the score for "Ragtime" - the show boasts an exciting soundtrack with a story that cleverly combines many of the good Dr.’s finest themes.
• Pirates of Penzance - (May 6 -29, 2005) Pirates is the story of Fredrick, a young man who was accidentally apprenticed to a band of pirates. He falls in love with a Major General's ward and tries to atone for his past by plotting the destruction of his former comrades. When it turns out the soft-hearted pirates are really "noblemen who have gone wrong," they and a relieved Frederick marry the multitudinous wards of the rather "modern Major General." On December 10, 1879, Sullivan wrote a letter to his mother about the new opera, upon which he was hard at work in New York. "I think it will be a great success, for it is exquisitely funny, and the music is strikingly tuneful and catching." True enough! The Pirates of Penzance was an immediate hit and Gilbert and Sullivan's classic takes its place today as one of the most popular and enduring works of musical theater.
• The Music Man - (July 1 - 24, 2005) The Music Man is the story of a phony traveling salesman who's plans to flim-flam an Iowa town in 1912 are thwarted by his love for the town librarian. The score is a disarming potpourri of period styles including the Sousa-style march "Seventy-Six Trombones," the preacher-like exhortation "Trouble," several barbershop quartets and the shamelessly romantic "Till There Was You." The book captures a time of innocence with humor, charm, and sentimentality. The Music Man remains one of the world's most popular musicals, an all-American explosion of hokum and heart.
• Grease - (September 2 - 25, 2005) Grease is the word. Since breaking out on Broadway in 1972, Grease's place has been firmly established in the cultural hall of fame. It has seduced the hearts of millions with its back to back sizzling tunes. Grease proved that a love story musical that is bursting with denim, leather, fast cars, slick hairstyles, and raging teen hormones is timeless. Take a blast from the past with Danny Zuko, Rizzo, Knickey, and Frenchy in the musical that idolizes the fifties. This musical features all your favorite songs including Summer Lovin', Hand Jive, and Greased Lightning. "NOTHING AND NO-ONE WILL STOP THIS WHIM-WHAM SHOW ROLLERCOASTING TO A SMASH HIT." - Daily Mail
• Victor/Victoria - (October 21 - November 13, 2005) The glittering and glamorous Broadway musical! Runaway Stage Productions is proud to have in our 2005 season this fabulous run-away hit by Blake Edwards about an out-of-work female singer who finds fame but romantic confusion when she poses as a female impersonator! With music composed by the late, great film composer, Henry Mancini, and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, the show includes for songs, Le Jazz Hot, You & Me, Crazy World and Chicago Illinois from the 1982 motion picture of the same name. Additional music is by Frank Wildhorn, Bricusse's collaborator on the hit, "Jekyll & Hyde"!

(All shows and dates subject to change based on performance rights availability.)

RSP is pleased to announce that we will be holding auditions for the Broadway musical Seussical on Sunday and Monday, December 12 & 13th in the RSP Studio located at 2424 Castro Street (right around the corner from the 24th Street Theatre).

Culled from the many literary works of Theodor Seuss Geisel, known to most as Dr. Seuss, "Seussical" tells the wacky tale of an elephant who discovers a planet on a speck of dust, of a bird who grows a tail so long she can't fly and of a kid who dares to dream. And it is a joy both for children and the adults who dare to envy their childhoods. Created by composer Stephen Flaherty and writer Lynn Ahrens - who also wrote "Once on This Island" and the score for "Ragtime" - the show boasts an exciting soundtrack with a story that cleverly combines many of the good Dr.’s finest themes.

All roles are open and everyone is welcome to audition. For specific audition criteria, please visit our website at www.runawaystage.com.Seussical the Musical Auditions are right around the corner!

The next Youth Musical Theatre Workshop orientation is set for this Saturday, December 4th at 10 a.m. in the RSP Studio located at 2424 Castro Street (just around the corner from the 24th Street Theatre). Come join us for this free orientation and learn all about the YMTW and how your child can be involved and learn the exciting word of performing on stage! This workshop will be directed by RSP’s producing director Bob Baxter (Elly award winning director), Vocal Director will be Bradley Bong (the Wizard of Oz) and Choreography will be taught by RSP favorite Kelly Daniells. We are looking forward to a great workshop and hope that you will all be able to join us. So join us for this free orientation and see what we are all about!

STEEL MAGNOLIAS SET TO OPEN THE 2005 SEASON OF BROADWAY SHOWS AT RSP

Opening January 7th for a four week run at the 24th Street theatre is one of the modern stage’s best-loved plays – Steel Magnolias. Runaway Stage Productions is proud to present this heart-warming show as the opening production of our 2005 season of Broadway productions. Steel Magnolias ran for 1,126 performances, reached Broadway, and was made into a 1989 hit movie with Dolly Parton, Julia Roberts, Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Darryl Hannah and Olympia Dukakis.

The play centers on six “steel magnolias” (southern women with flowery outsides but inner strength) who have made Truvy’s Beauty Salon an unofficial social center in little Chinquapin, Louisiana. The close-knit women at Truvy's Beauty Salon have lots of time to gossip. Their husbands - - absent, depressed, or dead - - have made sure of that. Consequently, visitors to the salon get more than a wash and cut.

The wise-cracking Truvy, with the help of her new glamour technician Annelle, dispenses shampoo with liberal doses of free advice and gossip to the town's curmedgeon, Ouiser; an eccentric millionaire, Miss Clairee, and the local town social worker, M'Lynn, whose daughter, Shelby, is on the verge of marriage.
Alternately hilarious and touching, the play focuses on the comaderie of these six Southern women who talk, gab, gossip, chitchat, needle and harangue each other through the best of times - - and cry, caress, comfort and repair one another through the worst. They're soul mates in a rarefied way that assumes a cult of femininity - - sisters come hell and high water. Pushing laughter and pain together, Steel Magnolias pulls tears from even the most cynical eyes.
The women at Truvy's beauty parlour are the steel magnolias of the title: Southern belles, flowery on the outside, but strong enough inside to survive any challenge, many of which are presented through the course of the narrative.

Steel Magnolias performs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. January 7th – 30th, 2005. For tickets to this very special show please contact the box office at (916) 207-1226 or visit us on-line at www.runawaystage.com

“Suffused with humor and tinged with tragedy”
New York Post

“Sharp, funny dialog… the play builds to a conclusion that is deeply moving”
New York Daily News

“A skillfully crafted, lovingly evoked picture of eccentricity in the small-town South”
Drama-Logue

Finally, all of us at Runaway Stage Productions would like to extend our sincere thoughts of health and happiness throughout this holiday season. We hope you and your friends and family all have a safe, happy and wonderful holiday season.