I am thrilled and delighted to have been asked to be Stage Centre Productions' Guest Artistic Director for the 2011-2012 season. L. Garth Allen, the Founding Artistic Director, established a tradition of excellence unmatched by any other community theatre group in the city, and it is a daunting task to follow in his footsteps.

In choosing five plays to offer our loyal audience—and, at the same time, attempting to reach out to attract new patrons—I have tried to combine the familiar with the less well-known. Above all, I want to present plays that audiences will enjoy seeing and that actors will enjoy playing.

We open with The Winslow Boy, which has long been one of my favourites. It's a beautifully-written drama with many lighter moments, and I hope it will engage you from start to finish.

If you enjoyed The King’s Speech (and who didn’t?), the chances are that Crown Matrimonial will also give you pleasure. In its review of the critically acclaimed 2008 revival in the UK, Country Life stated "Royce Ryton’s play about the Abdication crisis of 1936 has some surprising modern resonances and is anything but a period piece."

Our third offering, The Play’s the Thing, is a delightful confection, one of the funniest plays I have ever seen. Skilfully adapted from a play by Hungarian author Ferenc Molnar, it has a sparkling script by P.G.Wodehouse, the creator of Jeeves and Wooster. In fact, there's a Jeeves-like butler right here! If this play doesn't make you laugh, you probably need to see a doctor...

Next comes Bus Stop by William Inge, the only American playwright represented this season. I feel sure that you will find yourselves drawn into the action and anxious to know what happens to the characters we meet. Like Terence Rattigan, the author of our first play, William Inge understood the human heart.

Season 35 will conclude with a musical, Tarantara! Taran-tara! by Ian Taylor, using familiar and much-loved music from the Savoy operas. It tells the story of the partnership between the irascible W.S. Gilbert and the easy-going Arthur Sullivan, kept together, despite their clashes, by the brilliant impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte. Tarantara! Tarantara! is a must for all fans of musical theatre and especially for lovers of Gilbert and Sullivan.

I hope you will be as excited as I am, and that you will support us for our 35th season and beyond.

Yours sincerely,

Michael James Burgess