Veteran director Bob Sams leads an award-winning cast and crew in bringing this production to the Alden stage. Based on a true story, Calendar Girls was adapted from the film of the same name and has become one of the most popular plays in British theater history. MCP’s production opens Friday, September 18, and runs weekends through October 3, with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and two Sunday matinees, September 20 and 27, at 2 p.m.
When amateur productions of Calendar Girls were first allowed in Britain, a percentage of the royalty payments were required to be donated to leukemia research.
This requirement has not been attached to U.S. productions and so McLean Community Players has made it a point to ask its patrons to donate to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in addition to purchasing a ticket for the production.
Set in a Yorkshire village, Calendar Girls is about Chris and Annie, two long-time friends who are members of the local chapter of the Women’s Institute (WI), a volunteer organization. After Annie’s husband dies of leukemia, Chris and Annie decide to raise money to buy a new sofa for the visitors’ waiting room in the local hospital. They hit on a plan of producing an “alternative” calendar with shots of nude members of the WI engaged in traditional activities—knitting, cooking, flower arranging, and so on. They enlist their friends in the local WI and the porter at the hospital, an amateur photographer, and produce the calendar for sale. As word of the calendar spreads, reporters descend on their small village, and the resulting stress threatens Chris and Annie’s friendship.
Director Bob Sams says “Many people think of Calendar Girls as a show about semi-clad women on a calendar. It is much more. It is a show about love, and what love makes you do for those you love. It is about how seemingly small actions can have the most unexpected and far reaching consequences. This is an important play and I am so proud to be doing it”
Tickets are available at the Alden Box Office, through OvationTix at 1-866-811-4111 or at www.McLeanPlayers.org. Calendar Girls is presented by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.