Verge segues into spring with story-heavy productions for everyone
Verge Theater is celebrating the idea of story this month. What are we without the stories we tell ourselves, and each other? If it seems a ponderous question, then perhaps you need a reminder. Head out to the Verge in March to get some help with the answer.
The month will open with a biannual favorite, Tales From The Verge. Twice per season, the production features a collection of Bozemanites recounting true stories from their lives — in front of an audience. Verge chooses the theme and the storytellers fill in the details from their lived experiences; touching, funny, embarrassing, exciting, thought-provoking and entirely true. This time around, “Spring Break” has been selected as the subject. Host Ryan Cassavaugh and guests will explore the evening’s theme in a series of short stories they never intended to tell in public! Tales From The Verge: I Know What You Did Last Spring runs for three nights only, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, March 1st–3rd at 8pm each evening. Tickets are $7 in advance or $9 at the door. Recommended for ages 17+.
March also features the Verge production of A Thousand Winds: Survival Stories, a new play written by the ever-engaging Greg Owens, in conjunction with Cancer Support Community Montana. With additional material by Maureen Kozicki, Donna Garber, Ray Curtis, Jeannie Gracey, Steve Johnson and Bill McLaughlin, A Thousand Winds explores the stories of cancer survivors and loved ones lost to cancer.
With a mission “to ensure that all people impacted by cancer are empowered by knowledge, strengthened by action, and sustained by community,” Cancer Support Community is a national nonprofit organization with 41 chapters, represented in Bozeman in a thoughtful and welcoming environment at 102 S. 11th Ave.
Cancer Support Community’s collaboration with accomplished playwright, teacher, and mentor Greg Owens is a gift Verge is so excited to support. Owens has written and produced original plays with cutting-edge theatre companies around the United States and in London. He’s currently settled in Bozeman and penning an original play for the Verge stage!
With grace and poignancy, Bozeman’s own Stephanie Campbell directs Owens’ script, which incorporates true stories from participants in a writing workshop, like the one depicted in the play, as they gather to share stories of loss and hope with humor and spirit, in this world premiere play commissioned by Cancer Support Community.
A Thousand Winds: Survival Stories runs March 23rd–April 1st with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, as well as Sundays at 3pm. Tickets are $14 in advance or $16 at the door.
The Bozeman Improverts are at it again with Improv on the Verge Monday nights, i.e. the biggest laughs for the fewest bucks! Guaranteed to be a hilarious start to your week, popular improv games are played in the style of Whose Line is it Anyway?, as well as long-form improv. Everything is created on the spot and based on audience suggestions. Come enjoy cheap thrills for your laugh hole! Upcoming shows are March 5th and 26th at 7pm each evening. Tickets for Improv are $7 in advance, or $9 at the door. Keep an eye out for more Monday Night Improv throughout the regular season! These shows are recommended for ages 17+.
Later this month, Judith Viorst’s stage musical adaptation of her own book: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day comes to the family stage. With fun and funny music by Shelly Markham, and directed by Verge’s incomparable Gabe Gilbertson, this will be a ride you don’t want to miss!
Alexander is having a bad day. A terrible day. A horrible day! To be quite honest, it’s a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. But then, everybody has bad days sometimes. In this delightful adaptation, Viorst sets Alexander’s rather trying life to music and brings to the stage one of America’s feistiest characters. Not only does Alexander wake up with gum in his hair, but his mother forgets to pack him dessert, and his best friend decides he’s not his best friend anymore. And if that’s not bad enough, Alexander’s brothers don’t have any cavities but — he does. And just when it can’t get any worse, there are lima beans for supper and — yuck! — kissing on TV. It is enough to make anyone want to go to Australia.
Alexander’s struggles with life’s daily dramas will not only entertain but educate young audiences as they identify with Alexander and the obstacles he encounters, encouraging them to share their feelings and to realize that bad days happen — even in Australia.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day runs Saturdays at 3pm, March 24th–April 28th. Tickets are $7 in advance or $9 at the door. Children 2 and under are admitted FREE!
Visit www.vergetheater.com for reservations and further information about these and other upcoming productions. Advance tickets are also available in store at Cactus Records. See you at “The Little Black Box on the Edge (of Bozeman)!” •