29th Season
Bold Adventurous Theatre
...Anything But Square

Carpenter Square Theatre is proud to announce the 2011-2012 season of shows!
CST brings you the shows you won't see at any other local theater.

Join us in our new venue - located at 800 West Main on the southwest corner of Main & Shartel in Downtown Oklahoma City.

Discover what everyone's talking about...as we celebrate 29 years of quality alternative theatre in Oklahoma City.
For more information, please call (405) 232-6500.

Ticket Information

(Due to the nature of performing arts events, all titles subject to change.)

Highlights:

• Eight Oklahoma City premieres including 4 comedies, 2 comedy-dramas and 2 dramas!

• The opening show, GOD OF CARNAGE, is a Tony Award winner among numerous other awards.

• LADY is scheduled during election time, and involves characters with very strong, and differing, political viewpoints.

• THE LAST ROMANCE has 3 wonderful roles for seniors and is a heartwarming romantic comedy for the holiday season.

• THE GOOD COUNSELOR has 3 wonderful roles for African-Americans and another good role for an ethnic actor.

• The student matinee show, MY NAME IS ASHER LEV, is adapted from a novel by the well-known Jewish writer Chaim Potok. His novels THE CHOSEN, …ASHER LEV, and others, are considered modern classics, and are often taught in high schools and universities.

• SOMETHING INTANGIBLE is based on the life of Walt Disney and his brother, and Disney’s obsession with creating “Fantasia.”
  
   

September 7-29, 2012
God Of Carnage
a comedy by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton

Winner! 2009 Tony Award for Best Play
Winner! 2009 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy
Winner! 2009 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play
Winner! 2009 Drama League Award for Best Play

A playground altercation between eleven-year-old boys brings together two sets of Brooklyn parents for a meeting to resolve the matter. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses, and the rum flows, tensions emerge and the gloves come off, leaving the couples with more than just their egos in tatters.

"[A] streamlined anatomy of the human animal…delivers the cathartic release of watching other people's marriages go boom. A study in the tension between civilized surface and savage instinct, this play is itself a satisfyingly primitive entertainment." —NY Times.

"Elegant, acerbic and entertainingly fueled on pure bile. It's Reza's sharpest work since 'Art'." —Variety.

"Brutally entertaining…in another of Christopher Hampton's exquisite translations, [Reza] cannily manipulates social observations that appeal to vast audiences and creates characters that bring out the best in actors." —NY Newsday.

[Wright] cleverly nests his political angst inside an examination of friendship, fuzzy memories and shifting values…LADY leads you deep into the dark thickets of male camaraderie turned bitter and deadly." —Time Out NY

. "…tremendously moving…—NY Times.

"Wright writes crackling dialogue.... And while his stories take on major issues, he has us view them through a darkly comic and very personal lens…" —CurtainUp.

"…provocative and nuanced dark comedy." —NY Sun. 
 

November 30 - December 23, 2012

"The boulevard comedy gets a shot in the arm with Joe DiPietro’s ‘The Last Romance.
Remarkably free of cliché…the golden-years love story casts a bewitching spell…" —Variety.

"The play adroitly explores relationships between men and women in their golden years, as well as how the invisible ties of family often tie our hearts harder and faster than any love affair. A tale that mixes heartbreak with its humor and opera with the laughter…For all the breezy throwaway jokes—and there is enough laughter to make even old age seem pleasurable—the central message about seizing life with a passion comes through loud and clear." —Naples News.

"A tender romantic comedy." —San Diego Union Tribune.

"You'll fall in love with ‘The Last Romance’…The audience howls with laughter." —FloridaWeekly.com.

January 11 - February 2, 2013

This powerful story is about a chosen son's quest for truth. Vincent, a bright young lawyer in the Public Defender department has been assigned to defend a young woman accused of killing her three-week-old son. Hounded by his community and haunted by his past, Vincent struggles to defend both neglectful mothers: his client, and his own. A thought-provoking and beautifully written play, The Good Counselor literally prompts the audience to serve as the jury in determining what it means to be a good parent.

“Unsettling drama…Ms. Grant doesn’t fall into the trap of oversimplifying her characters or seeing only one side of a relationship…this is a sign of Ms. Grant’s ingenuity as a playwright.” –The New York Times

“Playwright Kathryn Grant is a promising talent with a sharp ear for dialogue…The Good Counselor is engrossing, thoughtful and thought-provoking, and worthy of our attention.” –Talkin’ Broadway

“A searing new play…–NJ.com

February 22 - March 16, 2013

"’Mrs. Mannerly’ is a hilarious comedy narrated by Hatcher recounting his experiences studying manners and etiquette as a ten-year-old as taught by a very demanding and controlling teacher. Hatcher's brilliance as a master storyteller richly entertains us all along the way…a thousand laughs…It will have you rolling in the aisles laughing uncontrollably and hysterically. "’Mrs. Mannerly’ is the title character in Jeffrey Hatcher's delicious little play about a stand-up student named Jeffrey and the time he spends in a 1967 etiquette class under the tutelage of a mysterious and wonderfully well-mannered teacher. An absolutely charming night of theater. This is a ticket that everyone who loves good manners and live theater should have." —Houston Press.

 "Hatcher's dialogue is typically smart, funny, and subversive (talking about manners class, young Jeffrey remarks, 'It was like we were going to church only we cared.'). Nowhere here are we asked to do much more than luxuriate in witty dialogue delivered with a deft touch." —Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages.

April 5 - 27, 2013
My Name is Asher Lev
a comedy-drama by Aaron Posner, adapted from the novel by Chaim Potok
STUDENT MATINEE SHOWS AT 10:30 A.M. APRIL 12 & 26.

MY NAME IS ASHER LEV follows the journey of a young Jewish painter struggling with his relationship with his parents, religion, and his love of art. When his artistic genius threatens to destroy his relationship with his parents and community, young Asher realizes he must make a difficult choice between art and faith. This stirring adaptation of a modern classic presents a heartbreaking and triumphant vision of what it means to be an artist. By the same author as THE CHOSEN, an award-winning modern classic which was adapted into a film in 1981 and a stage play in 1999.

"Thought-provoking, humorous and deeply insightful." —Talkin' Broadway.

"A profound declaration of the power of storytelling on a stage." —Philadelphia Inquirer

"This adaptation has a knack for lifting nearly wholesale the terse, telling dramatic exchanges in the book that efficiently drive the conflict forward." —Washington Post.

May 17 - June 8, 2013
Something Intangible
a comedy-drama by Bruce Graham

Bruce Graham tackles '40s Hollywood through a thinly disguised look at Walt Disney. It's Hollywood, 1941. Two very different brothers—one an extravagant visionary, the other a plain-speaking numbers man—run a movie studio famous for its cartoon dog, Petey Pup. Gifted Tony longs to move beyond Petey and create a feature-length animated film set to classical music. His loyal brother Dale manages everything: unrealistic budgets, unpredictable Tony and unrelenting deadlines while trying not to lose himself or his family in the wake of Tony's feverish genius. Humming with humor and brimming with humanity, Dale and Tony show the remarkable ways brothers support each other—in spite of it all.

“INTANGIBLE's real conflict between brothers, and between art and commerce, stands out not for Graham's wit (we expected that), but the insightful exploration of artists and the people who love—and suffer—them." —Philadelphia City Paper.

"There is no doubt that Philly's Bruce Graham, playwright of SOMETHING INTANGIBLE, is a master craftsman and much loved…[His] thoughtful dialogue and stories suck you in and make you want to stay." —Philadelphia Inquirer.

"An ambitious play about the fundamental bonds and challenges of polar opposite partners." —EDGE Philadelphia.

June 28 - July 20, 2013
Out of Sterno
a comedy by Deborah Zoë Laufer, author of Season 28’s popular END DAYS

OUT OF STERNO is a coming-of-age play in an Alice in Wonderland world. It explores the triumph and heartbreak of growing up, and the contradictory societal pressures women face just trying to make it across town! Dotty's life in Sterno with her husband Hamel is absolutely perfect! It's a fairy tale, it really is. True, in their seven years of marriage Hamel has forbidden her to leave their tiny apartment or speak to anyone, but Dotty is so very happy to spend her days watching video re-enactments of the day they first met. When a phone call from a mysterious woman threatens to tear her world asunder, Dotty must venture out into the vast city of Sterno, and try to discover what it is to be a "real" woman.

 

Season tickets now on sale. Phone (405) 232-6500 for more information.

Updated: March 07, 2013