Past Seasons
Our first play of the 2006-2007 Season, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, was presented for thousands of students from Miami-Dade County Public High and Middle Schools. Our School Study Guide and our post performance discussions with students focused on the many important issues in Fahrenheit 451, including First Amendment rights and censorship.
Later this Season, our Annual Shakespeare 'Page-to-Stage' School Tour will present student audiences with the opportunity to see an on-campus production of
Shakespeare's Timon of Athens - in a one-hour version adapted and directed by Paul Tei, Artistic Director of MadCat Theatre. It will
be performed over 40 times in public schools all over Miami-Dade County. Our goal is to encourage students to do further reading and open
their eyes to the world of Shakespeare.
For the 2005-2006 season, our mainstage production was Address Unknown
by Frank Dunlop, from Katherine Kressman Taylor's novella.
A play told through letter correspondence about the demise of a friendship between a Jewish art dealer and his former business partner
who returns to Germany when the Nazi Party comes to power. When it was first produced on Broadway last season, the New York Times said,
"The abiding effectiveness of Address Unknown comes from its insistence that given the right political and economic climate, even
seemingly good people can go bad quickly. That message is obviously not without contemporary relevance." Our School Study Guide and our
post-performance discussions with the students, focused on the environment in which bigotry is allowed to flourish and the destructiveness
this atmosphere creates. The play was presented at GableStage in January and February 2006 for our regular audience, as well as for thousands of students from
Miami-Dade County Public High and Middle Schools.
Our Annual Shakespeare 'Page-to-Stage' School Tour presented student audiences with the opportunity to see an on-campus production of
Shakespeare's Hamlet. This one-hour version focused on the action of the main characters. Our goal was to prompt students to do further
reading and open their eyes to the world of Shakespeare.
Our mainstage production for the 2004-2005 season was
The Syringa Tree by Pamela Gien. One actress plays
28 characters in a deeply evocative play about two families, one black - one white, across four generations from
the early apartheid era to the present. This production was performed in the mornings for 6 weeks, during which time Miami-Dade
County Public High School and Middle Schools visited our MainStage for a taste of live theatre. There were talk-backs with
the students following each performance.
Our in-school production was Shakespeare's Sonnets, a presentation of the works of the world's most outstanding
playwright and poet directed by Deborah Mello.
Our School Tour performed in 42 public schools throughout Miami-Dade County, giving 84 performances. Additionally,
there were two free performances for the general public at Performance Arts Network in North Miami and at Sanctuary at ArtSouth
in Homestead. We performed for approximately 40,000 students.
During our 2003-2004 season, we presented
'Master Harold'... and the Boys, the award-winning play by Athol Fugard. Christine Dolen (in the
Miami Herald) wrote: GableStage "is offering the play to both the company's regular audiences and to groups of
high school students, who arrive by bus weekday mornings for eloquent lessons in respect and ingrained prejudice."
A quote by Tony Guzman (in the SunPost) reads "...in terms of both message and as an introduction to the power of
theater, it's a marvelous choice as this year's GableStage production for special presentation to Miami-Dade School
students. They can't help but fall under the spell of this Master Harold, and we hope - in this time of war and
carnage of innocents - that they absorb its message as well: that oppression and inhumanity are always a lose-lose
proposition."
Simultaneously, we presented Shakespeare's "Best of the Bard", which toured 42 schools in Miami-Dade
County, giving 84 performances. We also gave free performances at the Miami Children's Museum and at the Alper
JCC.
These two projects were performed for approximately 40,000 Miami-Dade Public High School and Middle School
Students.
In the 2002-2003 season, we presented
The Diary of Anne Frank to
 thousands of Miami-Dade Public School students at morning performances in our theatre.
Our Educational Tour
was Shakespeare's As You Like It. Over 80 performances were given at public
schools all over Miami-Dade County. In addition, there were free performances at the African Cultural Heritage
Theatre in Liberty City and the Goodlet Theatre in Hialeah.
The 2001-2002 Season presented
A Lesson Before Dying, a play by Romulus Linney, based on the
novel by Ernest J. Gaines, one of our most important African-American writers. With this award-winning production,
we continued our longstanding commitment to the students of South Florida. In addition to our regular performances,
we presented the play to thousands of Miami-Dade Public School students who attended morning performances in our
theatre.
GableStage's in-school educational tour commenced in January. Lend Us Your Ears: Great Scenes
from Shakespeare's Plays, was performed for approximately 40,000 middle and high school students. We also
gave free performances at the Caleb Center and the Shores Performing Arts Theatre.
In the 2000-2001 season, GableStage continued it's longstanding commitment to the students of South
Florida this
season with the presentation of
Citizen Tom Paine by Howard Fast, which played to
approximately 6,000 Miami-Dade County high school and middle school students who attended
morning performances in our theatre.
The play's large cast brought to life the exciting times of the brilliant firebrand and pamphleteer whose words
and passion inspired the American Revolution. Other historical figures portrayed include: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas
Jefferson, George Washington, James Monroe, Napoleon Bonaparte and Robespierre.
In addition, GableStage toured Miami-Dade Public Schools with The Origins of Happiness
in Latin, reaching an estimated 26,000 students. There were also four performances given
at the Manuel Artime Theater in Little Havana and two performances at GableStage, all of which
were free to the public.
This one-man show follows the path of a young man growing up in a
Cuban-American family in Miami. Directed by Ellen Davis, it was written and performed by Felix
Pire who attended Public Schools here and was a student of
Mrs. Davis at New World School of the Arts. Pire is currently pursuing his career as an
actor/director in Los Angeles.
During the 1999-2000 season, GableStage's Educational and Outreach Program presented George Bernard Shaw's
enduring classic,
Arms and the Man.
In addition to the regular schedule of performances, the play was presented to approximately
6,000 middle and high school students who attended morning performances in our theatre.
GableStage also toured Miami-Dade County Public Schools with a production of Jeff
Stetson's The Meeting. This powerful and thought provoking
play presents a fictional
meeting between Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Two of South Florida's most renowned actors,
John Archie and Paul Bodie portraying these historic figures, with direction by
Award winning Director/Actor Robert Macbeth. An estimated 26,000 students
were reached through this tour.
In addition to the tour performances of The Meeting,
GableStage increased
its outreach efforts by producing this play at the newly renovated Lyric
Theatre in Overtown, thereby meeting the need for top-quality live theatre geared to the culturally
underserved neighborhoods of our community.
GableStage is proud of its continued involvement in educational and outreach programs,
reaching new audiences that may not have had the opportunity to experience the power and richness
that is live theatre.
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