Sacramento Theatre Company is launching its new season

The Sacramento Theatre Company—the region’s oldest continuously operating theater, founded in the 1940s—is revving up for a new season, getting underway later this month. The roster of shows includes three venerable classics, a musical whodunnit, a Sacramento author’s original play with local connections and several shows with ties to Hollywood. Here’s an overview:

Sept. 26-Oct. 21, Main Stage. The Crucible. Arthur Miller’s timeless 1953 drama about mass hysteria during the Salem Witch Trials in colonial Massachusetts during the 1690s is one of those great American plays that continues to draw large audiences with each succeeding generation.

Oct. 31-Dec. 9, Pollock Stage. Steel Magnolias. This popular comedy (with a—spoiler alert—tearjerker ending) about six female characters in a beauty parlor in the South may not be regarded as “highbrow” material, but it enjoyed an extended run in New York in the late ’80s, later became a high-grossing Hollywood film and is still widely staged around the country. The Sacramento cast will include veterans Jamie Jones and Janis Stevens.

Nov. 28-Dec. 23, Main Stage. A Christmas Carol. In 1987, STC premiered this musical version of the Dickens classic, commissioned from playwright Richard Hellesen (American River College) with music by the late David de Berry of STC, in 1987. They did a good job, and their adaptation continues to be staged in multiple cities each year in December. The venerable Matt K. Miller returns as Scrooge. Tickets are sold separately from the subscription season.

Jan. 2-Feb. 10, Pollock Stage. Murder for Two. A light-hearted whodunnit/musical comedy/spoof with two actors—one playing an investigator, the other playing all of the multiple suspects. Both actors take a spin playing the piano on stage. This show was popular when it premiered in Chicago in 2011, and later enjoyed a popular New York run.

Feb. 20-Mar. 17, Main Stage. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. STC is reviving this most durable and adaptable of Shakespeare’s comedies in early spring (the play’s title notwithstanding, but who cares?). The cast will include the always compelling Ian Hopps (prominent in many Davis Shakespeare Festival productions) as the mischievous sprite Puck, famous in certain circles for his quip “What fools these mortals be.”

Mar. 20-Apr. 28, Pollock Stage. When We Were Colored. The premiere of an original play by Ginger Rutland (for many years a writer for The Sacramento Bee), based on her late mother Eva Rutland’s memoir about a black family moving to Sacramento during the years following World War II.

Apr. 17-May 12, Main Stage. Disaster! This pop culture musical comedy, set in 1979, is a spoof of the numerous Hollywood disaster films of that decade. The story involves a floating casino that is struck by multiple disasters, including an earthquake, a tidal wave and an inferno … as well as “killer rats,” and (if the poster art is to be believed) a shark. The music features disco-era dance hits like “Knock on Wood” and “Hot Stuff.”