Sacramento Theatre Company’s 2016-2017 season: Dramas, comedies and history

Previews begin September 28 for To Kill a Mockingbird, the opening production in the Sacramento Theatre Company’s 2016-17 season, “Trials, Travels and Triumphs.” That may seem like a long time to wait, but really it’s not. STC, in partnership with the Sacramento Public Library will present a free sneak peek this Sunday, September 18, at the Central Library (828 I Street). There will be live music, several scenes from the play, plus a discussion of Harper Lee’s 1960 novel about a black man falsely accused of murder, the white lawyer who defends him and his spunky, heroic daughter Scout.

The classic play officially opens October 1 and runs through October 30. Sam Misner stars as Atticus Finch and Megan Smith plays the grown-up Scout, who narrates the drama.

Other plays in the six-show season include I Ought to Be in Pictures, a Neil Simon comedy; it runs November 2 through December 11. The new year will kick off January 4 with I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, the second-longest running off-Broadway musical. It runs through February 12. Then, in February it’s The Tempest, considered by many to be Shakespeare’s greatest romance, with Matt K. Miller as Prospero. It opens February 22 and runs through March 19.

Next up is The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’ iconic drama with Janis Steven as Amanda Wingfield. It runs March 22 through April 30. Finally, on April 9, there’s The Donner Party, a musical commissioned and developed by STC about that ill-fated pioneering party. It runs through May 14.