Canyon Moon Theater Company

By Beverly Lehnhardt | Sedona.biz

As Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Sedona’s only year-round professional theater, Canyon Moon Theatre Company (CMTC), Mary sometimes gets tired and thinks about quitting, but then, out of the blue, she receives a telephone call from someone who tells her how deeply the theatre has touched her life; or a past student writes to say how working at the theatre inspired him to study acting in college; or she receives a beautiful “Thank You” card from someone that enjoyed the latest play. The list goes on, and so does Mary.

Mary G. Guaraldi, Founder & Producing Artistic Director

Times changed and for a myriad of reasons the theatre relocated to a small, intimate space in the Old Marketplace on 89-A. Here, theatre-lovers enjoyed more great hits including Talley’s Folly and the hilarious and irreverent Nunsense. After four years in this location, the space was converted into offices and their lease was not renewed—leaving Mary and Canyon Moon Theatre once more in search of a permanent home.

Sondra Jepperson as Sister Amnesia in Nunsense

During this stressful and exhausting period, Mary investigated numerous possible sites, spoke with an endless list of people regarding the theatre’s needs, and hoped and prayed that something suitable would appear.

Unsure if the theatre could survive another ‘mobile’ season, she finally…finally...found a space that would work: the old Dansk building in the Oak Creek Factory Outlets in the Village of Oak Creek (VOC).  In the late summer of 2006, CMTC signed a two-year lease with two one-year options to renew, meaning that CMTC has a home for the next four years.

Newly energized, Mary has planned Season IX with care.

CMTC offers two different theater programs.  The first, The Main Stage series, includes four productions that take audiences from introspection to riotous laughter.  This series is a good introduction to Canyon Moon or for people who are only in residence for a portion of the year. The Splinter Series is a more adventuresome experience for theatre goers that includes comedies, dramas and musicals.  The Splinter Series began at the urging of some of our audience members who enjoy several different types of theatre.

On the Main Stage, playing October 19 to November 5, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, will delight theatre-goers with romance, comedy, and unforgettable characters.

The next play, running from March 8, through April 1, 2007, is still to-be-announced, but the plays under consideration include On Golden Pond and The Immigrant.

In addition to those plays on the Main Stage, CMTC will also offer two plays in the Splinter Series. The first is 37 Postcards by Michael McKeever, January 18 to February 11, 2007. After traveling abroad for eight years, Avery Sutton is coming home again—to find that things aren’t quite the same as he remembers them… Can you really go home again?

Although each play is affordable at $16 for Preview tickets (the first Thursday and Friday of each show) and $19 for the run of the show, a Season Subscription offers savings and many more benefits. The six-play subscription to both series accounts for 90% of CMTC's subscription sales.

Season Tickets offer:

• Reserved seating in the first rows
• Guaranteed seats even if your tickets are lost or stolen
• The ability to exchange tickets easily up to 24 hours before a performance
• The opportunity to purchase $16 tickets for your guests (available only for your subscriber series)
• Subscriber discounts on special events

A Main Stage Series season subscription is $64 for adults and $38 for full-time students; the Splinter Series is $48 for adults and $26 for students. Your best choice with the most savings is a season subscription to both series for only $96 for adults and $58 for students. To make things even more attractive, you can select your play dates at the time you subscribe or you can choose to call in your dates on a show-by-show basis.

Since the building is currently undergoing some renovations to ‘become a theatre space,’ you should call in advance for tickets rather than buy them the night of the show. If construction takes longer than anticipated, show dates could change slightly.

With enough local support, Canyon Moon Theater, Sedona’s only year-round professional theater, will continue to provide northern Arizona with the high quality live entertainment we have come to expect.

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