Copious Notes

The Lexington Children’s Theatre has announced a season of classics and shows with some interesting tweaks for its 2009-10 season.

Pinocchio, Sept. 27, Oct. 3 and 4: Vivian Snipes directs the season opener about a puppet that wanted to be a boy.

The Legend of John Henry, Oct. 10 and 11: LCT revives its classic production about the big-muscled, big-hearted working man.

If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Nov. 1, 7 and 8: Following up on the hit, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, here’s another Laura Numeroff crowd pleaser.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Nov. 28, Dec. 5 and 6, Lexington Opera House: The classic story of what happens to a church Christmas production when the worst kids in the congregation join the cast.

The Little Mermaid, Dec. 13, 19 and 20: How about Christmas under the sea? The holiday production is an adaptation of the classic narrated by two characters named Flotsam and Jetsam.

The Fisherman and His Wife, Jan 24, 30 and 31: Another LCT classic about a fish who teaches us greed really isn’t good.

Holes, Feb. 14, 20 and 21: Louis Sachar’s novel isn’t just a Shia LaBeouf movie. Here’s the stage version.

The Red Badge of Courage, March 13 and 14: Stephen Crane’s classic about heroism comes to the stage.

Go Dog Go, May 2, 8 and 9: Dogs and roller skates. What more could you want from a season closer?

Performances are at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Season tickets vary depending on the number of shows you choose. Visit the Lexington Children’s Theatre ticket office at 418 W. Short St., call 859.254.4546 ext 247 or visit www.lctonstage.org.

Studio Players announced the lineup for its 2009-10 season at Tuesday night’s members meeting in the lobby of the Carriage House Theatre on West Bell Court.

Sam Shepard

The highlight of the schedule is True West by celebrated playwright Sam Shepard, who lives in Midway. True West is a story of role reversal between two brothers, one a petty thief and the other an aspiring screenwriter. It is the first production of a Shepard play by one of Lexington’s leading theaters in several years. The play will be Studio’s March 2010 production, and a director has not been announced for the show.

All the other plays on the season have directors attached, though specific dates have not been nailed down yet. Here’s the rest of the lineup, as announced by Studio Players president-elect, David Bratcher:

• The Unexpected Guest by Agatha Christie — Gary McCormick will direct the play, which Bratcher says opens with a dead body in a wheel chair. Begins in September.
• Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol by Tom Mula — Dickens’ classic tale, told from the perspective of the guy in the heavy chains. Carly Preston directs. November.
• Wait Until Dark by Frederick Knott — This is the original stage version of the hit 1967 movie starring Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman who has to contend with three thugs searching her house for a missing drug shipment. The Broadway cast was pretty good too: Lee Remick and Robert Duvall. Bob Singleton directs. January.
• Run for Your Wife by Ray Cooney — Director Ross Carter described this as a “quintessential British farce,” about a Taxi driving bigamist whose cover is blown. May.

Studio still has two productions left in its current season — Six Degrees of Separation, which runs March 19-April 5, and Dearly Beloved, May 21-June 7 — plus a summer musical, Always, Patsy Cline, July 9-Aug. 2.