NORTH RUSTICO, P.E.I. — P.E.I.’s Gracie Finley will be on stage in key roles for the 2020 season of Watermark Theatre.
Watermark Theatre’s artistic director Robert Tsonos and general manager Andrea Surich announces the lineup for the 13th season on Tuesday, which will include the classic murder mystery, “The Mousetrap”, by Agatha Christie and "The Trip to Bountiful" by Horton Foote.
The popular music series, now renamed the Watermark Music Series, returns for another year, and the Watermark Play Reading Series will once again focus on new plays in development by P.E.I. playwrights.
Christie’s legendary whodunit, “The Mousetrap”, is the world’s longest running play, keeping audiences in suspense from the first moment to the last since 1952. Mysterious twists and thrilling turns abound when a group of strangers stranded in a guesthouse during a snowstorm discover that a murderer is in their midst. Is it one of the suspicious newlyweds or the spinster with the curious background? Perhaps it’s the architect, the retired army major or the strange man running from his past? Everyone is suspect, and everybody is a potential victim. Enjoy an evening of exhilarating intrigue as Christie’s greatest mystery unfolds to its surprising conclusion.
Written in 1953, Foote’s moving play, “The Trip to Bountiful”, tells the story of Carrie Watts, an elderly woman who longs to escape the cramped Houston apartment where she lives with her protective son and his authoritarian wife. Wwatts dreams of making one final journey to Bountiful, Texas, her childhood home. With great determination and daring, she makes her arduous journey back home. This American treasure is a masterpiece of the power of childhood, memory and the undeniable, universal yearning for the warmth of home and family.
Playing the role of Watts, the part that won Geraldine Page the 1986 Academy Award for best actress, is Finley.
This will be her sixth season acting at The Watermark Theatre, having performed in “The Shore Field”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Lion in Winter”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “An Ideal Husband”, “Blithe Spirit”, “The Glass Menagerie”, “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” and “Barefoot in the Park”. Raised in Charlottetown with summers spent in Alberton, Finley is well known to P.E.I. audiences, having played Anne Shirley in “Anne of Green Gables-The Musical” from 1968 to 1974 and again in 1984 to 1985. She will also be playing the part of the querulous Mrs. Boyle in "The Mousetrap".
For the third year in a row, the play reading series will showcase new work in development by P.E.I. playwrights. A selection process will begin in the next few months to choose three new, unpublished and unproduced plays to be read by the company of actors during August. A list of plays and playwrights will be released in the spring.
The Watermark Music Series returns, curated once again by Rob Oakie. As always, Island musical artists interpret iconic songwriters in a unique way. Stay tuned for the list of songwriters and Island musicians to be announced soon.
Season ticket passes are now on sale at early bird rates until Dec. 31. For information, call 902-963-3963 or visit watermarktheatre.com.
