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At Play Theatre Roundup: 10/01- 10/14

See the full list of Mary Jane Teall Award winners.

It’s been said that politics and religion don’t mix but both are present on area stages in the coming weeks.

Theatre On Consignment will conclude its 2012 season with David Mamet’s political satire November. The show runs October 4-6 and 11-13 at 8pm.

This Oval Office satire depicts one day in the life of a beleaguered American commander-in-chief. It’s November in a Presidential election year, and incumbent Charles Smith’s chances for re-election are looking grim. Approval ratings are down, his money’s running out, and nuclear war might be imminent. Though his staff has thrown in the towel and his wife has begun to prepare for her post-White House life, Chuck isn’t ready to give up just yet. Amidst the biggest fight of his political career, the President has to find time to pardon a couple of turkeys — saving them from the slaughter before Thanksgiving — and this simple PR event inspires Smith to risk it all in attempt to win back public support. With Mamet’s characteristic no-holds-barred style, November is a scathingly hilarious take on the state of America today and the lengths to which people will go to win. The production is directed by David Bailey and produced by Cherice Henderson Performances are at First Metropolitan Community Church.

The Guild Hall Players present Little Flowers of Assisi: Stories of St. Francis, performances are Thursday, October 11 to Sunday, October 14 at St. James Episcopal Church. The play is performed Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.

The Capitol Steps will perform at the historic Fox Theatre in Newton on Thursday, October 12. The Capitol Steps began as a group of Senate Staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. In December, 1981 some staffers for Senator Charles Percy were planning entertainment for a Christmas party. Their first idea was to stage a nativity play, but in the whole Congress they couldn’t find three wise men or a virgin. So, they decided to dig into the headlines of the day and they created song parodies & skits which conveyed a special brand of satirical humor.

In the years that followed, many of the Steps ignored the conventional wisdom (“Don’t quit your day job!”), and although not all of the current members are former Capitol Hill staffers, taken together the performers have worked in a total of eighteen Congressional offices and represent 62 years of collective House and Senate staff experience.

Jedd Beaudoin is host/producer of the nationally syndicated program Strange Currency. He has also served as an arts reporter, a producer of A Musical Life and a founding member of the KMUW Movie Club. As a music journalist, his work has appeared in Pop Matters, Vox, No Depression and Keyboard Magazine.