BROOKINGS – Prairie Repertory Theatre’s 50th season celebrates a half-century of outstanding entertainment and training for young theater artists. 

The 2020 season will only be performed in the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center proscenium theater on the campus of South Dakota State University. PRT patrons can expect special events and opportunities throughout the season as PRT celebrates 50 years.

The 2020 season will include a yet-to-be announced performance by PRT alumni.

“I am looking forward to PRT’s 50th season because of the lineup and the opportunities to gain experience on the stage and behind the scenes,” said Brady Wright, who is serving as student coordinator for the PRT alumni event. Wright is a sophomore mathematics education major from Rock Rapids, Iowa.

Information about ticket prices will be released when available.

The PRT 2020 season is:

•“Some Enchanted Evening – The Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein”

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. June 11-13 and at 2 p.m. June 13-14.

“Some Enchanted Evening” is a celebration of songs that have become a part of our lives. This show places five performers—each of whom could easily be cast in any Rodgers and Hammerstein show—in a theatrical setting. First “backstage” where the songs are sung as personal interplay and then “onstage” where the songs are “performed” for the audience. Of course, the songs themselves and the five performers are the most important elements. The performers play themselves, which provides an opportunity for them to explore the songs within their own styles rather than within the boundaries of the original characters.

•“And Then There Were None,” by Agatha Christie

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. June 18-20 and at 2 p.m. June 21.

One of Christie’s darkest tales and a masterpiece of dramatic construction, its growing sense of dread and unfaltering tension will keep the audience guessing to the very end. Ten strangers are summoned to a remote island. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they’re unwilling to reveal and a secret that will seal their fates as each has been marked for murder. As the weather turns and the group is cut off from the mainland, the bloodbath begins and they are brutally murdered in accordance with the lines of a sinister nursery rhyme.

• “The Gin Game,” by D.L. Coburn

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. June 24-25 and at 2 p.m. June 27-28.

Winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, “The Gin Game” uses a card game as a metaphor for life. Weller Martin is playing solitaire on the porch of a seedy nursing home when Fonsia Dorsey, a prim, self-righteous lady, enters. They discover they both dislike the home and enjoy gin rummy, so they begin to play and reveal intimate details of their lives. Fonsia wins every time, and their secrets become weapons used against one another. This production contains adult language and is not suitable for children.

• “Into the Woods,” by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. July 9-11 and at 2 p.m. July 11-12.

The Tony Award-winning book and score are both enchanting and touching. The story follows a baker and his wife, who wish to have a child; Cinderella, who wishes to attend the king’s festival; and Jack, who wishes his cow would give milk. When the baker and his wife learn that they cannot have a child because of a witch’s curse, they set off on a journey to break the curse. Everyone’s wish is granted, but the consequences of their actions return to haunt them later with disastrous results.